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Linux 2.4.19 Released

Posted by michael on from the upgrade-and-sin-no-more dept.

Adrian Voinea writes "The latest stable Linux kernel (2.4.19) is out. The somewhat massive changelog has the details. The patch file is here and the full source is here. If possible use a mirror."

7 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. If possible? by SpamJunkie · · Score: 5, Informative

    What do you mean, "if possible use a mirror.". Use a mirror. The only time it isn't possible is when, say, the main server gets slashdotted and there ARE no mirrors.

    When will you ever learn?

  2. Directory name... by Atzanteol · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anybody notice? Whenever you *used* to untar a new kernel tarball, it created a directory 'linux'. Now it creates 'linux-2.4.19'.

    'Bout time! I always hated creating a temporary directory to uncompress to...

    --
    "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

    - Charles Darwin
  3. Re:Does dump work yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linus is unlikely to change his mind about dump being a stupid program, because the concept of dump is just plain broken.

    If you want to back up raw devices, use dd.

    If you want to back up filesystems, use tar, cpio, or similar programs. These tools will back up everything that the standard Unix APIs expose about files.

    Dump, however, tries to do more. Since there isn't an API to get what it wants to know, it has to read the raw device and duplicate the kernel's interpretation of the raw data. Since the kernel is being bypassed, there's no way to ensure that the data is coherent; sooner or later, something will get out of sync and bite you.

    You can make dump work right, if you add new hooks into the kernel, extending the API. So it may work fine on Solaris, for example. But I don't think that those hooks are part of the POSIX standard. Dump is always bound to a particular implementation, with zero portability.

    Figure out what you really need. Most can get by with file backups. If you truly need to restore to the same block numbers, then use dd.

  4. Re:neat by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't use LILO, use Grub! There is absolutely no reason for anyone to subject themselves to LILO any more now that we have Grub. Imagine: filename tab-completion, in a bootloader! Since grub can read your filesystems, you'll never be stuck needing to use a rescue disk if there is still a valid kernel somewhere on your HD. If you mess up the upgrade, you won't hose your system as long as you didn't delete your old kernel.

    --
    main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
  5. fix for broken PowerVR driver by Nomad128 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Hey all,

    Assuming someone else on this list was, like me, silly enough to buy a PowerVR Kyro-based graphics accelerator, here's a fix for a compile bug that I got w/ kernel 2.4.19 and gcc 3.1:

    drm/pvr_drm_vm.h, line 138, change to:

    physical = (unsigned long)page_address(pte_page( pte ));

  6. For those wanting to build under debian by Rufus211 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, I've seen a few instructions for debian, but they're either wrong or not comented, so I'll try my own also.

    First, get the sources. I don't see them in the debian tree yet, so get them from kernel.org yourself. Put it in /usr/src/linux or whever your favorite place is.

    To compile (all in /usr/src/linux):
    # optional: tells debian to apply any debianized patches (eg. preempt, ReiserFS, XFS, whatever)
    # very important to do *before* config, or else you'll be configuring and building different things
    export PATCH_THE_KERNEL=yes
    make-kpkg --append-to-version "-me" -rev test.1 --initrd debian
    # configure the kernel as you chose
    cp /boot/config-2.4.18 .config
    make oldconfig # or x/menuconfig
    # build the kernel image
    make-kpkg --append-to-version "-me" -rev test.1 --initrd kernel_image
    # optional: build debianized modules (eg. nvidia, lirc, alsa)
    make-kpkg --append-to-version "-me" -rev test.1 --initrd modules_image
    # install the resulting .deb's
    cd ..
    dpkg -i *2.4.19-me*.deb

    Explination of make-kpkg options:
    --apend-to-version: optional, but a good idea. Makes the kernel version into 2.4.19-me and avoids any conflicts by installing to /lib/modules/2.4.19-me, /boot/vmlinux-2.4.19-me, etc
    -rev: needed for the debs. good as long as it has some number in it
    --initrd: tell it to build the initial ram disk (/boot/initrd.img-2.4.19-me). Not sure if it's really needed, but all debian kernels have one so I figure might as well use it.

    I'm aware that not all of the options are needed on all of the commands, but I figure for safty and consistency's sake, to just leave it as is.

    Hope this helps someone.

  7. Don't forget to check the signatures by David+McBride · · Score: 5, Informative

    Having a trojaned SSH build script was bad enough.

    You *really* don't want a compromised kernel. Use the signatures.