----- Original Message ----- From: "Alex Hewitt USG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Rich C" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "GNHLUG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 2:59 PM Subject: Re: Couple of dumb kernel build questions (Mandrake 8.1)
> 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! ;^). Ah yes, I forgot about that! The 2.4.8-34.1 kernel update messes up some symbolic links in /boot. You have to go in there, fix the links (vmlinuz, System.map, and one other I forget.) Then do a new mkinitrd for the new kernel, and rerun LILO to get everything pointed to. THEN it will boot! I learned this the hard way too. When I updated my Red Hat kernel, they fixed all that stuff for me. > > 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. Like I said, there is a .config file in /usr/src/linux that will be the default install. It didn't work for me because the version of kernel I was trying to build had way different questions and more options. But it should work OK for you. There is also "make oldconfig" which I have never tried, but it is supposed to keep your existing configuration and only ask you questions pertaining to "new" features...don't know if it comes in a gui version though...:) Rich Cloutier President, C*O SYSTEM SUPPORT SERVICES www.sysupport.com > > 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. *****************************************************************
