I guess I should have mentioned that after my first install, I used the Mandrake on-line update to install a bunch of security and bug fixes. Unfortunately, I also selected the 2.4.8-xx kernel that they offered and when I rebooted the machine, the system was no longer in the land of the living. Not knowing what might have been overwritten I decided to just do a re-install which only took about 20 minutes and got me right back to where I was before attempting the on-line update. I concluded that not testing a kernel before using it was a bad idea! ;^).
This evening I'm going to try turning off the "Automatically mount hard drive" kernel option and I'll rebuild the kernels after saving the tree from the existing installation. That way, if I still have problems at least I will be able to restore a working copy. I think I might also try asking Mandrake about how users can figure out what the kernel options are for whatever is installed by the distro. It seems like at a minimum you should be able to get kernel sources and configuration for what they automatically install. Thanks for the input... -Alex Wirth's Law: Software gets slower faster than Hardware gets faster! "On the side of the software box, in the 'System Requirements' section, it said 'Requires Windows 95 or better'. So I installed Linux." - Anonymous Want to know what it looked like 1, 10, 100, 1000, 1,000,000 years ago? Just look up on a clear night! On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Rich C wrote: > Well, I have tried to build a 2.4.17-x kernel for MY mandrake 8.1 system, > but it doesn't seem to get the network running, and I haven't had time to > pursue it lately. > > But here is what I've learned so far: > > The .config file is in /usr/src/linux. I downloaded the pure kernel tarball, > not RPMs, because I wanted an UNMODIFIED kernel to build Real Time Linux on, > and Red Hat's (and thus Mandrake's) kernel is heavily patched. > > I copied this .config file to my new kernel source directory, and used it as > a basis for make xconfig. However, there were some mismatches that I haven't > had time to sort out yet. But, if you're building the same version, you > should be better off than me. > > When building a new kernel, DO NOT use /usr/src/linux. Make a separate > directory tree to keep everything separate from your original (working) > kernel. the kernel source documentation recommends this. > > I assumed that when you recompile a kernel, you also need to rebuild the > modules, because of pointers and stuff. I don't know how true this is, but I > always did it as a matter of course. > > You might also want to think about upgrading to 2.4.8-34.1. There have been > some security fixes and so forth. > > Rich Cloutier > President, C*O > SYSTEM SUPPORT SERVICES > www.sysupport.com > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alex Hewitt USG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 2:06 PM > Subject: Couple of dumb kernel build questions (Mandrake 8.1) > > > > Well after recently having very good success installing Mandrake 8.1 under > > VmWare, I upgraded the hard drive in my laptop and since it was an empty > disk I > > decided to take a shot at installing Mandrake 8.1. Imagine my surprise > when > > Mandrake smoothly and happily found pretty much all the hardware and even > > managed to get X configured on the first attempt! To make things even more > > amazing, Mandrake noticed the LinkSys wireless PCMCIA card I had placed in > the > > system and brought it up! Really impressive. > > > > But now to the problems that I've had all along with this laptop. It uses > ACPI > > power management hardware. I'd really like to make full use of the power > > management but building a new kernel has been a bit of a pain. > > > > First, Mandrake as far as I can tell doesn't ship the kernel sources on > any > > of the CDs. I was easily able to copy them down from rpmfind but I was > running > > around in circles for a while figuring out exactly which rpms were needed. > The > > kernel sources rpm depends on a version ncurses. I downloaded that and > then > > the kernel sources installed ok. Now it gets more interesting. The kernel > that > > Mandrake put on my laptop is almost 100% in terms of it's recognizing and > using > > the system hardware. But the kernel sources don't have the specific kernel > > configuration that was used to build the kernel on the distro. I did > notice > > that there are a bunch of .config files saved in a directory on the system > with > > names like "mumble-kernel-enterprsed.config" and so on. It seems possible > that > > Mandrake actually has the configuration file somewhere on the system but > I'm > > not sure which one, if any, is the correct one. > > > > At any rate, I took a flyer on configuring the kernel using 'make > xconfig'. I > > guessed at what most of the likely options would be making as many modular > as > > possible. The kernel built fine. I copied it to /boot and then modified > > lilo.conf to add the new kernel so that I could test it. > > > > On the reboot I selected my new kernel and at the point where it would > fsck the > > disk, it said "Can't fsck, hard drive hda1 already mounted". I did notice > that > > there was a kernel configuration option "automatically mount disks" and > I'm > > suspicious that I should have said 'no' rather than 'yes' to that option. > > > > Oddly enough, if I ignored the warnings and kept pushing the system to > continue > > to boot it made it all the way up and X started ok. I did see lots of > "undefined > > symbol" messages and the PCMCIA support didn't start. Since I didn't build > the > > modules in a separate step, I'm guessing that I need to build/re-build the > > modules. > > > > That brings up another question. The Mandrake installed kernel is clearly > using > > modules that are already on the system. If I rebuild the modules, will > that mess > > up the kernel that mostly runs correctly? If the kernel that was installed > and > > the kernel sources are the same rev (2.4.8-26), why do I need to rebuild > > modules? Is there an easy way for the two sets of modules to co-exist if I > need > > to have two sets to support two different kernels? > > > > Any takers? > > > > -Alex > > > > P.S. I'm so close to having my laptop work properly that I'm really hoping > > to be able to ditch Windows on this rig! ;^) > > > > Wirth's Law: Software gets slower faster than Hardware gets faster! > > > > "On the side of the software box, in the 'System Requirements' section, it > > said 'Requires Windows 95 or better'. So I installed Linux." - Anonymous > > > > Want to know what it looked like 1, 10, 100, 1000, 1,000,000 > > years ago? Just look up on a clear night! > > > > > > ***************************************************************** > > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. > > ***************************************************************** > > > > > ***************************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. > ***************************************************************** > > ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
