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Upgrading Your Current System To Kernel 2.6
An anonymous reader writes "This white paper provides an overview of the process of moving an existing desktop system to the 2.6 kernel. It will highlight other software requirements imposed by the new kernel and administrative changes that you must make when migrating an existing system to the 2.6 kernel. It supplements previous whitepapers in the same series about Customizing the 2.6 kernel [Slashdot discussion here(1)] and porting drivers to the 2.6 kernel [Slashdot discussion here(2)] to the 2.6 kernel."
I had all kinds of trouble upgrading to 2.6. Sound and networking didn't work, as well as some of my filesystems. Luckily, I'm smart enough to setup lilo to run multiple kernels, so going back to 2.4 was no trouble to tweak my config file and recompile and try again. I never got everything totally working right. I was going to just wait until the next series of distro releases solved these problems for me, but maybe I should give it another shot.
The painful process of upgrading LVM1 to LVM2. Little documentation on the process, and installing Fedora Core 2 test 1 over an existing Fedora Core 1 gives all sorts of fun. Much hand-holding of your system and other hand-waving is required.
With the preemptive kernel option enabled and the kernel module autoloader in 2.6 it does all you would ever need:
Loads any modules you need
Lets you do tasks preemtpively
Boots in a much shorter time (from 2.4.23's 35 sec to ~14 sec in my case)
It's also rock solid in my experience now, a good sound kernel choice that will fit virtually all workstations =)
Matroxfb ain't working. I'm not going to switch until they fix it.
...laptop touchpad don't bother going near 2.6 if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I still haven't got the mouse working. I can't even find anyone who can tell me how to confirm if the touchpad is a synaptic.
I'm not the only one suffering this.
Works great on my slackware desktop.
One thing that was a blocker for me to move to 2.6 was my mouse would go a lot faster while in X. I finally found that it was the new input system. Under 2.4 the default XF86Config file would have two mouse input settings, one for ps/2 and one for USB. Under 2.6 both of these were picked up regardless of the mouse being ps/2 or usb so all mouse events, clicks, etc were picked up twice. Removing one of the mouse entries made everything work as normal.
Probably everyone but me knew this, but thought I'd throw it out in case anyone else is in the same boat.
Here's my experience with 2.6 kernel (been running it since 2.6.0 was released).
DVDs look awesome. I had to tweak the hdparms for DMA, but they work great.
Ever since NVidia came out with the latest drivers, things like the UT2k4 Demo fun fantastic.
I was a little hung up on modules... seeing as I rarely use them, it wasn't a show-stopper. The conversion from modutils to module-init-tools was mostly painless.
Recently, I've been playing with MTD, and trying to get a test machine to use 12 out of the 16 megs of an AGP Voodoo3 3000 card's memory as a device I can format or use as swap. I have been unsuccessful. (2.6.3). This is also on a testing machine, not my "main" machine.
On a slightly OT note, planning on building a Mini ITX system with a Via Epia board (one of the 800 mhz ones). Should have the case this week, jury's still out on the mb.
Other than that, no complaints, it's been fantastic. I'm running 2.6.3 on 3 different machines (with different responsibilies) and it feels like there's no going back now!
FLR
I run gentoo on a dual pIII-600 with an ATI radeon7000 / SBlive / intelpro100. Kernels 2.4.18 through 2.4.22 took several hours of tweaking before I could even get the thing to boot correctly. ( 2.2 never had this problem )
Last week I took about 30 minutes and grabbed 2.6.3 did a clean/config/make, which took about the majority of that time, and booted into the fastest Linux box I have ever had.
2.6 booted with OpenGL without any tweaks pushing glgears to 1600fps and ALSA kicked in without errors on the emu10k1. Device drivers posed no issues for either the USB keyboard/mouse or hardrive or nework card.
No 'migration' was necessary for either windowmaker / enlightenment / blender / JACK or any of my other 100 some odd apps.
Fedora Core 1 forum posting with people who have already done it. It seems pretty easy from the looks of it. I'm going to do it just as soon as I get some free time...
And for the love of god, please read the whole thread. Don't ever install a kernel with rpm -Uvh. Leave yourself a backup (rpm -ivh).
Get Firefox!
Did you install modules-init-tool? My /etc/modules get read at bootup (running 2.6.3).
Je ne parle pas francais.
Another possible reason for your mouse speeding up is the 2.6 kernel actually initializing the mouse and setting the precision, etc. You can disable this, and return to "almost 2.4"-like behaviour by adding the following kernel parameter to your boot config:
psmouse_noext=1
Depends on the card. My sister's computer (used to be mine) had an odd ESS1869 card, and the 1868 (or whatever) drivers didn't seem to work with it. Anything Creative, no problem. Same with my VIA. ALSA makes it fairly easy, so the 2.6 series, even in testing, has been, for me, a pretty easy experience. The emu10k1 driver (I also have a 'Live!') has been beautiful since I first ftp'd from the console to get it. depmod -a (I think make install did this automatically) and modprobe emu10k1 has always worked smoothly and with few errors. If I then put the driver name in my modules.autoload, I would have no trouble.
Like I said, though, it depends on the card, but then Mandrake 8.0 found that same ESS card just fine, so it depends on how well the OS is configured, too.
Emacs: for people who just never know when to
apt-get update
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.3-1-686
update-grub
Reboot. Works.
The thing that amazes me is I've had this laptop running over two weeks since the last reboot! OK, so I close the silly thing and let it hibernate, but then I pop it open and I have a three-second startup time! The system uptime on "top" showed 15 days, 20 hours. I've never had this luxury with my laptop when using the 2.4 kernel, ever!
H0ek
Think you're smart? Prove you've got brains!
Yeah, I know what they're talking about, yeah, there's the penguin and the topic, but still.
Speaking of, can anyone help me upgrade from "Operating System 2000" to "Operating System XP?"
Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
emerge development-sources /usr/src/linux /usr/src/linux-2.6.3 /usr/src/linux /boot /boot/grub/grub.conf
rm
ln -s
mount
genkernel all
vi
reboot
That is ALL there is to it. It is pretty much the same as upgrading to any other kernel. The only trick I saw was that the kernel needs more parameters than 2.4. It needs "root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/hda?" appended, which kernel 2.4 did not need. All the other tools (module autoloaders, etc.) are already 2.6 ready on a Gentoo system
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
The process appears to be something like the following:
2 /0 111.html
Install device-mapper patch into 2.4 kernel. Devmapper isn't part of the 2.4, but is part of 2.6. Not sure if any distros include the patch in their 2.4 releases (Red Hat doesn't)
Install LVM2 into existing system (LVM1 and LVM2 commands can co-exist)
Boot 2.4 kernel w/device mapper and LVM2
*hand waving*
http://linux.msede.com/lvm_mlist/archive/2003/1
(AKA http://tinyurl.com/2jj3h)
Install 2.6 kernel w/device mapper and LVM2
In this case, you're only running LVM2 commands and device mapper. You still have to convert the LVM1 metadata on disk to LVM2 *hand waving*
LVM2 uses an 'lvm' command that has the operation you want to perform as an argument. This 'lvm vgcreate' instead of 'vgcreate'. AFAIK, the remainder of the arguments are the same as before.
I've tried all versions of 2.6 (2.6.1,2,3) but still get this problem. Everything seems smoother/more responsive except for a problem I have with a game (enemy territory). In 2.4 this game usually loads a map in 20-30 seconds. In 2.6 it takes about the same time but every map thereafter gets longer and longer, until they start taking several minutes. I did a test by launching my own server and just kept reloading the same map. 1st try 32 seconds, 5th try over 4 minutes. If anything it should be slightly quicker as some would be in memory/swap. The only other game I have in linux similar to enemy territory is quake3. It has the same normal load times in both 2.4 and 2.6, but it's maps are much smaller than enemy territory's so it doesn't stress the system as much. This leads me to believe that it's more a swap/memory issue than a graphics driver issue. I did hdparm tests and dma is enabled and I'm getting about the same speed in 2.4 as in 2.6. My system is a p4 1.6 with 128 megs ram gf4ti 4200. Now, I realize 128 megs is low these days, and would probably help aleviate this problem but it seems when a system is stressed in this way 2.4 performs better than 2.6. In 2.4 I can play on a server for as much as I want but with 2.6 I usually get kicked within a couple of new maps due to it timing out. Reconnecting to the server doesnt help, but quiting ET and restarting helps for that initial map, but then the cycle repeats. I don't see a way on this forum of attaching my config, I compiled the kernel myself and have gone over it several times to see if some option could be the cause of this. The first thing I tried was turning off the preemptive kernel option, but didn't help. My system is debian based (morphix distro) and as I mentioned I compile the kernel myself, not a precompiled kernel. I also made sure X doesn't have a negative nice value. You might suggest to throw more ram at the problem and even though it might help, I shouldn't have to as 2.4 seems to get by.
Install Debian unstable. if it works, good. At that point, call it 'stable' and stop upgrading it.
If you find something doesn't work, update your package cache and download an updated version of that program. If it works, good. At that point, call it "debian stable" and stop upgrading it.
Wash, rinse and repeat.
Not only is it not particularly informative in any sense, it is also basically wrong.
> Loads any modules you need
It doesnt quite work like that- in its default config it basically loads all modules, and doesnt let you unload them- so when you plug something in it has a higher chance of "just working".
This isnt anything special, and GEEWHIZBANG! it actually ends up functioning like a good old monolithic kernel.
> Lets you do tasks preemtpively
Hahah as the AC said - "you can complete tasks before you even knew you wanted to do them"
> Boots in a much shorter time (from 2.4.23's 35 sec to ~14 sec in my case
I don't know about you, but most of my systems booting time is in the init scripts- I saw little difference in actual kernel boot time...
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
But, if I understand correctly, if you install via Knoppix, you're pretty much stuck with Debian "unstable". Is that really a good idea for someone unfamiliar with Debian?
Most people trying out Debian as a desktop distro should use unstable so that they get the latest packages. It is actually very stable.
If you use stable or testing you will probably be disappointed by the age of the packages.
#!/
Oh, and another problem I had was "Error: Unknown pseudo-op: `.incbin'" -- this was fixed by upgrading binutils to the latest version. Aside from these two problems, the upgrade went smoothly.
"No one likes working in a hamster wheel, and your shop smells of cedar shavings from here." - TaleSpinner
As an aside, you can save yourself a lot of trouble in doing a fresh install with some intelligent partitioning. Most systems have an expert mode (or may offer nothing but expert mode, depending on the system) that lets you specify which partition corresponds to which mount point manually and decide which partitions should and should not be reformatted. If you set up /home on a separate partition, you can wipe everything else while leaving your user data alone. That can save you the trouble of having to restore all of your personal files when you install the new system. It's not necessarily perfect- some configuration files may change between versions of your favorite desktop environment, for instance- but it's a big improvement. You should obviously back up your data before doing the install just in case, but you should be doing periodic backups of your system already anyway.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
The 2.6 kernel looks for /etc/modprobe.conf, instead of the old /etc/modules.conf
Hope this helps. It took me a good few hours to track down why my ethernet card driver wasn't loading on boot.
cdrecord works with atapi burners now. (I make this blanket statement based only on the fact that I was able to burn a cd this morning).
The trick is:
cdrecord -scanbus dev=ATAPI
cdrecord dev=ATAPI:1,0,0 isname.iso
no boot time kernel options need to be passed (no more hdb=ide-scsi nonsense).
Good luck.
I don't know... I've installed Debian on about half a dozen different laptops now, each with horribly undocumented chipsets and lcd systems. Managed to get X working in each case. If you think getting XFree86 v 4.x is rough, man you have no idea how hard it used to be with XFree86 v 3.x! xf86config used to consistently produce completely useless modelines for 99% of all monitors, it used to take days sometimes to find a mode that barely worked just enough so you could run xvidtune and fix it. It took me about a good evenings worth of messing around to convert my Debian system to a 2.6 kernel, and I use ALSA sound, nForce2 motherboard, GeForceFX graphics, lots of bleeding-edge hardware so I always have to roll my own kernels from source. My tip: install GRUB as your bootloader, it will save your butt. Debian's not a simple system but it really rewards those who take the time to learn it. It just feels like an old-time big iron system. I really can't quantify it but when I use other distros they seem really lightweight to me. Don't expect to slap Debian on your box and be an expert with it in 45 minutes. Its a heavyweight OS for people who demand a bit more.
Clickety Click
I've been using 2.6 since .0 with absolutely no problems (execpt for monkeying with nvidia binary driver patches for a while there).
.2 and .3 too), but it doesn't really seem to have much momentum for getting included.
:)
The only complaint I can come up with (which isn't actually a complaint at all) is that 2.6 is still lacking kexec() support. Randy Dunlap has been doing some work on it including patches for 2.6.1 (works with
I've only rebooted my workstation 3 times since 2.6.2 came out, and 2 of those was a 'kexec -e' reboot. So I haven't had to wait on my annoying Video BIOS, Motherboard BIOS, or Adaptec BIOS in almost a month, which is nice.
Still, I can see why it is not included because it does break non-standard consoles (e.g. fbcon) on kexec reboot. Sure this is offtopic, but everyone else seems to be bitching about their beefs with 2.6 so I thought I would too
XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-U
"One thing about Debian that is NOT simple is the install! I never have gotten X to work under Debian, and I DID get it to work under Slackware, and even FreeBSD."
/etc/X11 and take a look at where all of these decisions were recorded.
Been there. Debian does install automatically on a FEW machines, particularly older machines that were popular and used "standard" components. I'm using a Dell GX1 that I got for $99.
Here s what I have done in the past when I got stuck without X-windows working...
Install Debian and go through the X-windows set-up process. Do the best you can at guessing your card information, refresh rates and whether or not to use framebuffers.
Locate the XF86Config(-4) file in
Now boot a copy of Knoppix (the bootable CD version of Linux), and, assuming it did a better job of setting up X-windows than you did, check the same settings for it (same location). Differences are likely to be in the horizontal and vertical refresh rates, the use of framebuffers, or the driver being used, also the list of module options such as "glx", "dri".
Surprisingly, X will fail to load properly even if your MOUSE settings are wrong. So you might have done everything right for video and gotten a trivial mouse parameter wrong and still have problems. (The systems DOES tell you this and tells you what log file to go read when this happens, but I remember being a bit intimidated by this process the first couple of times).
There are also some command line utilities you can run to straighten out your X setup, but I'm lazy and would rather just SEE that the system can work (using Knoppix, and then just copy what works.
Above process also works for diagnosing some network card and sound card problems.
Future versions of Debian will probably have better automatic device detection and configuration. In the mean time Knoppix (which is based on Debian) is a handy thing to have around.
Was it worth it. If you're keen, probably - boot times are reduced and the system seems more responsive when under load. But for the most part - if you already have fast hardware - you might not notice the difference. A safe approach might be to wait for distro's to catch up - I have no idea how easy it's going to be to upgrade my RH 9 system to RH-Fedora now that I've changed all these things.
Here's the major things I had to do after the upgrade...
I had to stop using ide-scsi for my burner - 2.6.3 can lock up totally if I use ide-scsi. According to the ide-cd maintainer ide-scsi is on the way out. The cdrecord (v2) in RH 9 is capable of using ATAPI devices - see the man page. If you're using k3b, just point it a
I have es1371 on board sound. I found ALSA sound was worse than OSS - annoying clicks at the ends of sounds when transitioning to silence - might be able to fixed with tweaking pci priorities. I found it easy to stick with OSS - if fact, originally after first upgrading, OSS kept working without me doing anything (just make sure enable the OSS kernel build options as well as the ALSA ones).
Rpm has some kind of issue - threading? Using the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL environment variable fixes it. I use the following script to run it:For example:It's also been reported that upgrading to the latest rpm will fix it. You can also use my script to run anything that doesn't like the new threading model - for example, older versions of xine.
Getting 3D under X11 to work was a pain. In an effort to get it to work I downloaded and built the latest X11 driver. But I'm not sure this is necessary because I later found my major hurdle was that the AGP module had been split and I now need to load four modules to get it to work:Obviously which agp related modules to load now varies depending on your hardware. In my case this is a AMD processor, VIA mainboard, and an ATI 9200 graphics card. Here is my modprobe.conf entry:I suspect this is all I really needed to do to get 3D running.
I had to upgrade to lm_sensors-2.8.4 to get temperature and RPM monitoring to function - and I had to reconfigure the settings to get good fan RPM readings. Ksensors needed a rebuild.
Uhh, I think there are actually about three or four hundred lines in between "make menuconfig" and "make bzImage".
You also have to manually upgrade all the packages to 2.6-supporting versions (by reading the README to find out what they are), and download and install the kernel source. Even if you wish to configure and compile the kernel yourself, Debian's package system will do this for you.
But the real issues involved in upgrading a kernel have nothing to do with how to install it. That is easy. LVM has been deprecated by a new version, devfs has been deprecated, ide-scsi has been deprecated, etc.: there are real issues to resolve that require changes -outside- the kernel and knowledge of the underlying issues.