Slashdot Mirror
Configuring the 2.6 Linux Kernel
An anonymous reader writes "This article is the first in a series by William von Hagen on using the new Linux 2.6 kernel, with a special emphasis on the primary issues in migrating existing drivers, applications, and embedded Linux deployments to a Linux distribution based on the 2.6 kernel. Bill is the author of Linux Filesystems, Hacking the TiVo, SGML for Dummies, Installing Red Hat Linux 7, and is the coauthor of The Definitive Guide to GCC (with Kurt Wall) and The Mac OS X Power Users Guide (with Brian Profitt)." This looks to be a good series for anyone planning to migrate to Linux 2.6, and having done just that myself, I'll attest to wanting more documentation along the way.
First Post
http://intense.homelinux.com
It's like 2.4, only with more options, and some funky X configuration interfaces.
Mandrake 10 will be the first major distro use Kernel 2.6. Download the beta here.
Easy to install, just download the ISOs, burn to disk, reboot and the installer will appear.
Make sure to REPORT ALL BUGS, unless you want to see the LG incident again.
Kernel configures you!
-- My neighbors dog has a four inch clit.
Kernel configures YOU!
I had not trouble installing it in Mandrake 9.1, all I had to do is two changes in ATI's wrapper.
As for other drivers I need, they're all already included in the kernel.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world: Those who write in decimal and those who don't
Firstly, s/summerize/summarize/, and secondly, the 'funky X configuration interfaces' you talk about are nothing more than GUI applications which have nothing to do with the kernel.
This recent trend in GUIfication of Linux is troubling, and your post illustrates exactly why. It's the same 'logic' that allowed MS to call Windows an 'Operating System' before it really was. It's the same logic that lusers use when they say that they 'can't get into the Microsoft' when they really mean there's an application problem.
Computers are NOT monolithic, they are NOT black boxes. They are boxes of legos, where you can build what you want, when you want it, and leave out the crap. You have control.
Unless you cede responsibility and control to someone else.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Linux Kernel 2.6 uses YOU!
> make menuconfig
;)
I have never compiled my kernel before, and today I jsut compiled the 2.4 version, installed and later compiled 2.6.1 and installed... all without any problems.
Enough rant
I just like the config file method. Does this mean that I can keep my config file (for compiling the kernel) when I upgrade to the next stable? (keeping in mind that I have it customized)
I found this sticky at linuxquestions.org's forums to be most helpful in doing an easy and straightforward 2.6 compile on a slackware system. LinuxQuestions.org
Whats with the default config for the kernel, it's not blank, it's a specific setup that looks like it's for a P4 with a specific network card and chipset, shouldnt the kernel config be bare? this is referring to source downloaded directly from kernel.org,
the 'funky X configuration interfaces' you talk about are nothing more than GUI applications
Did you RTFA? The article basically stated some obvious changes, and talked up the new GUI configuration interface as if it was the best thing ever since sliced bread.
Nothing interesting in this article, IMHO. I hope the subsequent articles will be more informative.
Is the 2.6 kernel "Usable" yet? By this I mean getting obscure hardware to work such as my USB Midi Interface, and what about proprietary drivers such as Nvidia's, will existing code compiled for 2.4 kernel work? or will you have to recompile stuff (IPTables for example). Im running a gentoo box. I've been toying with updating the kernel to 2.6 and I've been hearing that there are a lot of radical changes to the kernel, the performance enhancements are very exciting to say the least. But what kinds of headaches am I going to have with a real world (used as a desktop as well as a server) system?
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
1: 2.6 kernel
2: ????
3: Profitt!
be using fresh cheddarz, yo.
I've considered setting up a wiki for the Kernel to give people a place to file what they've learned about it and share with the general public. Anyone think this would help anyone?
I've only recently started using Linux on a day-by-day basis, and after installing Debian unstable I switched directly to 2.6, without ever compiling a 2.4 kernel. That worked without a hitch, so now I'm wondering if the difference is so big. I still have an old Pentium I around the house, and I'm thinking of making this one a firewall/IDS... and so far I'm not sure if 2.6 was a little overkill for that one...
-- Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
As far as I can tell, there is no way to use a KVM with kernel 2.6 and still have mouse wheel support. It works until you switch away and back to Linux, at which point the mouse goes completely nuts and cannot be revived. Back in 2.4, there were two hacks to revive the mouse in this situation (switch VCs, or set the mouse protocol in X to "AUTO") but neither of these work in 2.6. Windows, needless to say, has no problems. You can supposedly pass a psmouse.noext parameter to the kernel at boot time to fix the craziness, but a) this would remove mouse wheel support, and b) I never got it work anyway. If you know a workaround, please post!
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
Anyone count how many times 'TimeSys' just happens to crop up in his article ? Clearly a goat fan.
The Commercial Software model makes it possible for people to build businesses around their ideas and innovations. For 30 years, the vitality of this model has proven itself throughout the world as an engine of innovation and economic opportunity. This outcome depends upon a system crafted by the IT industry itself and by governments around the world. Industry and government leaders have set in motion one of the world's most productive periods of technological advancement by effectively crafting a system that promotes technical transparency and collaboration while rewarding firms for creating innovative products.
Innovative Leadership
The Commercial Software industry has transformed the business world by bringing products to market that can make almost every part of business operate faster, smarter, and with better results. It is notable that many commercial software offerings refined ideas first created by academics and those in the public sector. In some cases, these ideas were first designed using open source development methods. Because these ideas were licensed using permissive open source licenses, commercial companies were able to learn from and improve these ideas, eventually bringing refined products to market. In addition, many ideas emerged solely within commercial companies, the result of significant R&D investments made by these organizations. In fact, while public-sector R&D funding declined rapidly over the last 20 years, the rapid acceleration of private-sector IT R&D suggests private-sector funding will play an even more important role in creating tomorrow's IT innovations. As one example, Microsoft spends over $5 billion a year in basic software research, an amount that exceeds the public funding provided by the US government for basic software research.
Economic Opportunity
In the 1970s, computing was the purview of a small number of firms built upon closed systems. The expense of this model prohibited all but the wealthiest companies from making productive use of information technology. The PC revolution of the 1980s replaced that model, opening up new opportunities for IT industry growth and making computing affordable to most people for the first time. While the PC-revolution shook up the industry in the 1980s, the emergence of the Internet only accelerated this shakeup throughout the latter part of the 1990s. Both changes were brought about by open-architecture systems that were built and maintained by commercial software companies. By investing in this model, Microsoft has played a big role in building a community network of more than 22,000 technology companies worldwide that partner together in one way or another. When we work together, our partners earn an average of eight dollars for every one dollar earned by Microsoft. The success of this type of model can be seen in rapid IT industry growth and major improvements in the productivity of companies and governments that use IT.
Engine for Economic Productivity: Productivity growth is one of the most predictive elements of business and economic success. By making computing broadly available using low-cost, high-volume software solutions, the commercial software industry played a major role in the strong productivity growth enjoyed around the world throughout the 1990s. The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) both point to this growth as a key success factor for the global economic expansion throughout that decade.
Broad IT Sector Growth: By toppling the vertical integration of the 1970s, the commercial software industry helped open up a world of economic opportunity for IT firms. Today the economic potential of the IT sector continues largely unabated despite recent economic sluggishness. From 1995-2002 the number of IT firms in 57 leading economies grew 37 percent and total employment in these firms increased 39 percent to roughly 6.2 million people. Growth in developing economies was much faster. The number of IT sector jobs doubled duri
If more people put up articles like this to make it easier to use the popular open source software products it'd speed up rate of adoption a lot. If there was one on writing kernel modules ... ;-)
The problem with building your own kernel is that you will always make it as slim as possible. Then each time you buy a new piece of hardware (USB-mouse, SATA hd, etc) you'll need to build it again (and you've thrown away the original .config of course :). Is there a configure everything (besides what's been specified as built-in) as modules?
View products that this article applies to.
/dev/sda1 * 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (SCSI hard drive 1, partition 1) /dev/s
This article was previously published under Q314458
For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 247804.
SUMMARY
This article explains how to remove the Linux operating system from your computer and install Windows XP. This article assumes that Linux is already installed on your computer's hard disk, that Linux native and Linux swap partitions are in use (which are incompatible with Windows XP), and that there is no free space left on the hard disk.
NOTE: Windows XP and Linux can coexist on the same computer. For additional information, refer to your Linux documentation.
MORE INFORMATION
To install Windows XP on a computer on which Linux is currently installed (and assuming that you want to remove Linux), you must manually delete the partitions used by the Linux operating system. The Windows-compatible partition can be created automatically during the installation of Windows XP.
IMPORTANT: Before you follow the steps in this article, verify that you have a bootable disk or bootable CD-ROM for the Linux operating system, because these steps completely remove the Linux operating system from your computer. If you intend to restore the Linux operating system at a later date, verify that you also have a functional backup of all the information stored on your computer. Additionally, you must have a full release version of Windows XP to use during this installation. If you intend to use a Windows XP upgrade CD-ROM, a CD-ROM of a qualifying Windows product must be available. Setup from the Windows XP upgrade CD-ROM will prompt you for this CD-ROM.
Linux file systems use a superblock at the beginning of a disk partition to identify the basic size, shape, and condition of the file system.
The Linux operating system is generally installed on partition type 83 (Linux native) or 82 (Linux swap). The Linux boot manager (LILO) can be configured to start from either of the following locations:
The hard disk Master Boot Record (MBR)
-or-
The root folder of the Linux partition
The Fdisk tool included with Linux can be used to delete the partitions. (There are other utilities that work just as well, such as Fdisk from MS-DOS 5.0 and later, or you can delete the partitions during the installation process.)
To remove Linux from your computer and install Windows XP, follow these steps:
Remove the native, swap, and boot partitions used by Linux:
Start your computer with the Linux Setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
NOTE: For help with using the Fdisk tool, type m at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information, and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information.
Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number that you want to delete. Type 1, and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.
Type w, and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated (because information is written to the partition table), but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.
Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the Fdisk tool.
Insert either a bootable floppy disk or the bootable Windows XP CD-ROM, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.
Follow the instructions on the screen to install Windows XP.
The installation process assists you in creating the appropriate partitions on your computer.
Sample Linux Partition Tables
Single SCSI Drive
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
This is just a very loosly disguised advert for TimeSys Linux
Nothing any monkey cant work out in about five minutes (and if they cant they should not be cross compiling for embedded devices)
Since most people dont RTFA this isnt a problem, if you are one of the many... dont bother - its S**T
I am looking for help on SCTP . Is there any one using it right now in linux as it is merged into 2.6 kernel.
The immorality of Open Source
Having read the article thoroughly, this startling news shows the flaws in the brewing Open Source Zeitgeist that is gripping the software community. Have you considered that providing software for free to countries such as China is essentially tacit support for oppressive regimes?
Far-fetched? Think about it: With MySQL, the People's Army will now be able to do multiple queries on their tables of democratic activists in Olog(n) time instead of lengthy searches in card catalogs. The bureaucratic overhead previously allowed activists enough time to flee the country. How about building cheap firewalls so the people can't get the unbiased reporting that CNN provides? Or using Apache to publish lists of Falun Gong people to their police forces instantly? I doubt that never crossed your minds when you were coding away in your parents' basements. Consider putting that little thought in your mental resolv.conf file.
If that does not concern you ( which it probably doesn't, since the lashout.org paradigm is publishing articles about how not to pay for things ), consider something else. When China eventually goes to war with Taiwan, we want to be able turn their command and control facilities into the computing equivalent of a train-wreck. One of the advantages of Windows never mentioned in the article is the ability of Microsoft to remotely deactivate Windows XP in the case of a national emergency. Thanks to GNU/Lunix, Taiwan will be on a collision course with the mainland in the near future.
Which throws into question Mr. Stallman's motives. A known proponent of socialism, the Chinese government and RMS are natural allies. Could it be a back door to Stallman's dream of an uber-Socialist United States? We may never know for sure. Next time you consider contributing to an open source project, ask yourself this question: don't you want to make sure your work isn't used for nefarious purposes? Will you risk having blood on your hands?
My only problem right now is the lack of documentation... or my lack of finding it. I'm still having issues with my vid card and usb mouse. Oh well... back to hacking.
Last time I checked Debian wan't "major". I don't see Debian boxes at PC WORLD, I dont see Debian Certified Engineers, I dont see Debian with a flashy glizty easy to install installer (AND DO NOT GIVE ME THAT BULLSHIT ABOUT ARCHITECTURES, if contiki can provide a graphical operating system on machines with just 32Kibs of RAM, so should debian). Anyway, by the time it makes it to "stable" Linux 3.0 will be out.
Debian Zealots should be shot. If they dont want to be shot, then make something worth using. BTW, urpmi kicks apt-gets ass so hard that it becomes wider than goatse!
I think this will turn out to be a great series of white papers helping people get to grips with the process of configuring and compiling their own kernels, but I have to say that I think there would be faster progress on new kernels if the was some central repository of precompiled binary packages for the major distros throughout the development cycle.
The truth of the matter is that now linux is gaining wider acceptance, the community is filling up with more and more noobs and we should be doing more to help them understand the "new" (to them) technology. We also need to remember that not everyone who wants to use the software needs to be some sort of guru.This article is a great start to moving more people to the new code quicker, but regular up to date debs/rpms for all the current distributions will push that long even faster. I know someone will probably post saying "but there are packed versions for xxxx at somewhere.org", but they are often difficult to find for the noobs who just don't know where to look.
The 2.6 kernel is noticeably faster on my dual Athlon 2100+mp, at the user interface; X is faster than I've ever seen it before; the realtime scheduling is awesome.
In short, as soon as you can reasonably do so, I recommend you migrate to the 2.6.x kernel.
Thinking outside my Head
Seems like just in time, hopfuly some future articles will give some insight into how to get ISAPNP sounds cards to work. For some reason my ISAPNP OPL3SA2 cards can not be found when i either compile support into the kernel or into loadable modules...
seems like a few other people have this problem. Does anyone know the solution? Will i have to write the addresses of all the ports manualy and switch off ISAPNP for OPL3SA2?
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
After hearing how much the improvements in Linux performance was, I decided to do some benchmarks.
Here are the Machines I used.
Intel Xeon 3.2Ghz HT Server with UltraSCSI320 Hard disks
XServe G5
386SX with MFM hard disks
Copying a 17 Mebibyte file from one hard drive to another.
SCO UnixWare : 7.3 Seconds
Windows Longhorn Server beta : 7.5 Seconds.
Windows Server 2003 : 9 Seconds
Mac OS X Server 2004 : 9.5 Seconds
Windows 2000 Server : 11 Seconds
Linux 2.7 Server : 16 Seconds.
Linux 2.6 Server : 18 Seconds
MSDOS on a 386DX : 20 Seconds.
Linux 2.4 Server : 30 Seconds
Linux 2.2 Server : 48 Seconds
Linux 2.0 Server : 75 Seconds.
As you can See, Linux dosent come CLOSE to beating enterprise systems at high performance servers. EVEN Msdos from a 386SX smokes Linux!
Don't mod me down unless you can justify these speeds. It is pretty obvious by now why SCO is suing Linux, because they are stealing their code to gain speed. And yes, DMA WAS ENABLED.
I found this sticky at linuxquestions.org's forums to be most helpful in doing an easy and straightforward 2.6 compile on a slackware system.
Compiling kernels on Slackware has always been easy and straightforward. Kernel 2.6 works out of the box (well, as out of the box as you can be for a source tarball) on Slack 9.1, without the need for patches, tweaking daemons etc. It just works. That's one of the reasons I switched to Slack early on when I was learning Linux. It's so simple, it's newbie-friendly. I know, because back in the 2.2->2.4 days, I tried using Redhat for the transition. It was painful for a clueless newbies like me.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
The foremost problem I had in migration was that SCSI emulation with ide-scsi is no longer used for CD burning. I expect many people making the upgrade will run into a problem with that.
You can use the standard ATAPI ide-cdrom driver now to burn your CDs, but the userspace programs haven't caught up to this in all distros, especially the GUI ones. cdrdao just doesn't work last I checked, and while cdrecord works alright in the newer versions, many GUI frontend burners simply use cdrdao too much to be useful.
Other problems I had were that lm_sensors changed a bit and I didn't find it important enough to upgrade to newer userspace stuff, but anyone who's relying on them for anything will likely want to know that it's changed and upgrades to userspace are necessary. The only other issue, which was fixed by a quick Googling was that the module system is changed and module-init-tools is now necessary for loading and unloading kernel modules.
-N
I've nothing to say here...
I didn't know about xconfig before! I really have to spruce up my install. I'm still using kernel 2.6.0 and I should probably up it to 2.6.2. My problem is I use gentoo and I have to configure the kernel manually. I know HOW to do it as in what make commands to issue in order to get a binary kernel out of the thing. And how to put the kernel in /boot and point my lilo at it. What I'm not always sure on is exactly which configure options I want on and off. The important ones are obvious. Yes I have an athlon. Yes I need my nfornce network card, emu10k1, silicon image sata, pre-emptible kernel etc. etc. But a lot of them I just have no clue. Some options have useful help messages like "if you don't know, just say Y (or N) it wont slow you down". But there are still a zillion modules and options in there that I have no clue if I should use Y M or N.
We should make a repository of hardware configurations and which options should be turned on depending how you will use it. People should just say hey, I got this machine here with this hardware. I'm using it as a web server, and this is my kernel config. If enough people put there configs in, then people like me could find others with similar or identically matching hardware and use those configs. I'm sure it would also bring to light better configs for most people. I'm sure there's some guy out there not selecting a certain option who should be. And if he posts his config online some geek will be sure to point it out to him.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
It'll save a lot of time.
No, the BBC is run by cowards.
Wikileaks, no DNS
A spectre is haunting the world, the spectre of the Linux zealot.
What the Linux zealot is will appear evident to whoever has experienced or came in contact with the discussions which daily rage the Web disguised as news, e-mails, reference material, etc. The Linux zealot, is nothing but an animal wandering unceasingly in virtual and true reality (which moreover he treats in the same way) claiming to be an authority on the Linux operating system, an out-and-out guarantor for everyone's freedom, opposed to any safeguard of intellectual works (for a Linux zealot, the expression "copyright" is tantamount to sin against the Holy Spirit: there is no kind of expiation); in fact, he champions software freedom as a fundamental point for world evolution.
But first and foremost, the Linux zealot is a deeply dangerous being as he claims to be the guardian of truth, and sees with suspicion (when it goes off well) or scorn (for the rest of cases, i.e. most of them) those people who simply think differently from him.
But what's Linux? A Linux zealot will never give an authentic answer to this kind of question. He won't, not because he doesn't want to (even if this is the case), but because this question has been answered already, somewhere else by someone else. Linux is nothing but an operating system. The Linux zealot will claim that it is a different operating system from all others. But this is not the case. Because an OS is an OS, its main function is to manage the resources of a machine we will call "computer" from now on, for comfort of description. By the term "computer" we mean what is commonly meant by this expression, i. e. the system of hardware resources which are fixed to a certain purpose, be it home use, business use, or server management. Linux is an operating system. Like Windows, MS-DOS, OS/2, etc. There is no difference, in this sense, between Linux and other operating systems. Linux manages a computer, no more, no less. So do MS-DOS, Windows and OS/2. What the Linux zealot self-importantly and arrogantly highlights, is the fact that Linux is a free operating system, i.e., it is made available free of charge to the end user. This of course isn't true at all, but the Linux Zealot believes it. Linux is freely distributable, not free of charge. This means that the kernel and everything included in the operating system's minimal requirements can be freely distributed, not that they must be distributed free of charge. This is the first great misapprehension of the Linux zealots, who find their claim challenged by facts: if the essential parts which make the operating system, and some additional software, are freely distributable, they should explain the reason of the costs -- not prohibitive but certainly notable -- of the most popular Linux distributions, Red Hat and SuSE foremost. And most of all, they should explain the fact that companies like Red Hat are regularly listed on the stock exchange, and Mr. Linux Torvalds enjoys a rather high standard of living. These benefactors of mankind, these software alternatives, these computer non-conformists (so much non-conformist as to be terribly conformist in their non-conformism) naturally justify the distributing companies' profits with excuses like "but there's a printed manual", "but the bundled software is qualitatively and numerically superior compared to the most popular distribution". "but it is easier to install" and other unspeakable nonsense. "On the other hand" they say "if someone wants Linux, they can just as easily download it from the Internet". Sure. Download it from the Internet. But how long must you stay connected, if you regularly pay an Internet bill, to complete the download of an updated version of a decent distribution of an operating system? So what? Is Linux free? No. Linux is not free, same as nothing downloaded from the Internet is free, unless you have access to an University server or can in whatever way scrounge a connection. If you ask a Linux zealot to burn the material you are interested in, he will do so with great d
Is it too much to wish that in 2.6 more WLAN drivers can just be in the kernel, instead of having to screw around with a whole separate build? (Maybe there's a technical reason, though. Regardless, it's still a pain.)
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
Linux hda=remap63.
Neither exists, nor is needed on 2.4.24. On 2.6.0 it's supposed to do what has been done automagically up until now (well, until 2.5.30.) Not to mention, it fails at it.
Don't these guys know the 'Ain't broke? Don't fix' maxim? Props to Alan for his opposition to changes that made 2.6 impossible to use (boot!) for me (yes, I have to use OnTrack DM so I can get 100% out of my 40GB Seagate.)
Yeah. Mod me down as troll, redundant and flamebait at the same time. Go on. But please answer this question first: how to make it work?
Well, you can still use the ide-scsi emulation in 2.6, although it's not optimal. Recently there have been some fixes to ide-scsi in 2.6, that have made it usable again.
I'm using kernel 2.6.x and gentoo 1.4, and I'm fairly new to linux. All my h/w (nvidia, sblive, adaptec-compat scsi, usb mouse + mp3 player) works very well.
/proc/meminfo has changed (the first few summary lines have been removed) -- fixes for this don't seem to exist yet.
It wasn't as smooth an upgrade as I'd've liked, but, like I said, I'm fairly new to all this.
When I first upgraded, I did get a lot of errors/warnings on boot, but I have since fixed them all.
Ensuring you have the latest versions of hotplug and module-init-tools will help your migration to 2.6, as there are changes to h/w detection and module loading.
Take care when doing make oldconfig from an earlier gentoo kernel - gentoo kernels have had various performance patched in them for some time, but -- if I recall -- these settings didn't all magically migrate across, as the gentoo kernel build flags and the official kernel build flags have differing names for these features between 2.4 and 2.6. Just remember to check all your options with make menuconfig or similar. Some other build flags have changed names too, including stuff for usb devices and (IIRC) framebuffers -- this will probably only catch you out if you're migrating settings from an older kernel.
After building and installing my 2.6 kernel, I also installed the latest nvidia package from nvidia's website, and alsa-lib and alsa-utils (both 1.0.2, from portage)
Also, there are changes to how some system stats/info is handled/reported - ensure you have an up-to-date version of procps, or top might give some cranky info... some tools that monitor memory levels (gkrellm, various gdesklets) will stop working because the output of
Other than the meminfo issue, kernel 2.6 hasn't broken anything (that I've noticed) on my gentoo system, and it appears to work very well.
(Oh, kernel 2.6 did cause one of my drives to give warnings about unexpected DMAs every few mins, but that totally fixed itself once I stopped overclocking the CPU. The drive was running slower with a mis-firing DMA, but other than the warnings, no problems occured (YMMV). Something in 2.6 must be more timing sensitive or less tolerant of overcranked h/w speeds. NBD: my system is a few years old, the extra ~20% speed increase cannot is insignificant when compared to speeds of a modern CPU - it seemed a lot at the time!)
I'm about to get a new machine on which I want to install Linux. Which distro should I install that would already have the 2.6 included? Does Fedora? I'd like to save the time of not having to upgrade and configure a new kernel after just installing 2.4. Suggestions are welcome. Also, I'm a linux newbie so a distro with a good graphical installer is welcome.
Am I the only one who finds these things clunky? Both the QT and GTK ones. Maybe I just haven't given them a fair shake, but make menuconfig seems WAY more useable.
I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to tell such LIES!
yes. i really don't want to change from slackware - it is profoundly satisfying (when its configured proper for your system). It just works. I tried the 2.6 (easy as fuck to compile on slack) but had to revert because of my bastard winmodem. I know I could go out and buy a real modem (i will, i will) but just dumping working kit seems a stupid waste to me.
sig under development
Update your bios?
Not everybody has an eject button.
My Mac Cube doesn't even have a hole
for a paperclip.
So yes, the GUI does need to include
a method to cause eject. The installer
needs to eject a disk as well.
Why the sudden explosion is wiki use? Does anyone really like them? Seriously, a wiki seem to be the most effective means of hiding information from casual readers since Microsoft's first attempt at the knowledge base. The people demand indices and tables of contents, not stream-of-conciousness inline links.
Put up a slashcode site, or a phpbb forum, or even (gag) phpNuke, but please, let the wiki die.
Of course installing from scratch will also take time but be a little bit more general in your time estimates please. Just because it is 20 minutes for you does not make that a hard fact for the time of compiling a kernel.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I went through this when moving from Redhat 6.2 -> Redhat 7.3 (LFS now). I got tired of not having the drivers for a 2.4 kernel for my winmodem, and I don't think the company that bought Lucent cared enough about my ISA modem to write a new driver.
I bought a US Robotics external modem. It is very easy to set up under Linux.
The kernel of the OS is not X. It is not a widget kit. It is not your web browser. It's analogous to command.com, or vmunix, or ntoskrnl.exe. Kernel improvements are completely and utterly separate from the tool which allows a user to select kernel options.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Im waiting for the article that shows how to protect yourself from all the r00t vulnerabilities.
You can use network install boot floppies from the cooker folder:
n dr ake-devel/cooker/i586
ftp://sunsite/uio.no/pub/unix/Linux/Mandrake/Ma
you will neet network.img and network_drivers.img
use the command:
dd if=./network.img of=/dev/fd0
to put the images onto floppies (replace if=... with the image name)
or your other favorite cooker mirror to do a network install of only what you need. I did that and got it running in about 30 minues. Kernel 2.6.2-1 and KDE 3.2, etc.
LVM seems hopelessly hosed awaiting fixes. If you use LVM I'd stay with 2.4 for a while
If you are upgrading an NForce-based machine to 2.6.x, save yourself some headaches and add "noapic nolapic" to the Kernel append string. I experienced repeatable hard lockups when doing disk intensive I/O until adding those parameters.
Also, NVIDIA's nforce package is no longer necessary. The experimental forcedeth driver in 2.6.2 works quite well in my experience, and apparently an Intel sound driver works for the NForce onboard sound.
See my latest journal entry for my account of migrating MDK 9.1 to a vanilla 2.6.1 kernel.
It's a publicity piece for TimeSys Linux. The author gives absolutely NO new information. It looks like he simply paraphrased from the kernel HOWTO. I was hoping for some pointers on what to watch out for. What common applications, if any, break? That would be nice to know.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Has anyone here ported a 2.4 driver to 2.6? I have a Agere softmodem driver, that I'd like to use under 2.6, but I have problems with the PCI methods...
...in our next episode, we show you how to remove your head with a teaspoon.
Add this path to yum:
http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/2.6/
Kernel 2.6! Works!
for compiling a new minor version of a kernel (eg, 2.6.2 when you have 2.6.0 installed), try copying your old previously working .config file from the old source directory to the new one, and using
"make oldconfig". This will ask you only about new options. Means if you have a working config file, you are less likely to miss something and screw up.
Looks like the author forgot to mention that little step.
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for.
Couldn't get SMP going under SuSe 9.0 on dual Opterons. I'm not much of a kernel-guru though and probably missed something. Incidentally I also didn't have a clue how to compile in my gigabit ethernet driver (not in the base kernel of course). Guess I'm just a geek-lite. Other than that, very pleased with it's IO (which is the bottleneck I have with 2.4). For some reason 2.4.whatever is only using an eighth of the availiable IO to the raid array.
BTW, doing Blasting of DNA on a cluster with turbogenomics. Guess I'll have to wait until a usable 2.6 distro comes out.
Actually, the problem is you have to upgrade to LVM2. Once you do that, LVM works just fine. Be sure to include device mapper in your kernel config and you should be ok. LVM 2 is back compatible with LVM 1, so that's not an issue.
I've wrestled with reality for 35 years and I'm happy to say, I finally won out - Elwood P. Dowd
... this card comes in a bunch of old laptops. It can't be swapped out. Upgrading an entire laptop is rather more costly than replacing an obsolete soundcard.
L
2.6.2 Fails to compile on any of my machines. It dies with an odd error during a modules compile. I'm not the only one that receives this error. Anyone else getting that EOF error?
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
Paste the flowing into a registry file (*.reg) Then double click on it. (Or make the equivalent hacks to the registry by hand)
It works in Win2K, and NT4, I don't know about other windows versions.
i've apt-get'ed the most recent kernel-image-2.6 and ran lilo, but it never seemed to go past the:
"Uncompressing kernel.... OK, booting image" line.
google and newgroups didnt help. tried both 2.6.0 also with same problems.
guess it's not as simple as just plain apt-get...
my blog