Hi all, Thank you for the clarifications.
The reason that I started this discussion, was because I am looking for a replacement for Debian which is currently running on most of my ARM devices. The newest Debian releases no longer work on many of them due to their aging kernel. For example, I have a Thecus N2200 stuck on kernel 2.6.24, which conflicts with udev in any Debian version later than lenny. I also have some Allwinner A10 devices that need their kernel compiled with CONFIG_FHANDLE=y if you want to use systemd (present in the most recent Debian release) or upstart. This would not be a problem because there is a nice linux-sunxi kernel project, except that the driver my device needs are nowhere to be found. It would be a pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless if RedSleeve did not have similar limitations. If I find the time, I will test it on some of my devices and report the results. Thanks again and best regards, Arnoud 2015-05-12 22:37 GMT+02:00 Jacco Ligthart <[email protected]>: > Hi all, > > Here my take on this for EL7 (spoiler: not much different from EL6) > > The "stock" EL7 kernel is probably not useful for anyone. It is only there > for the headers (and rpm requirements) > the reason for this is twofold: > - upstream never takes ARM into account when applying patches. So, while > the kernel now builds, it is next to impossible to determine which (parts > of) patches are missing for a good and secure kernel. > - there are many different devices with different CPU's all requiring > different .config files. So even if you could build good kernels with it, > you should do this many times, each time with a different .config. The > current EL7 kernel is build with the generic config for a BCM2835 CPU. I > hoped that it might work for a raspberry, but it didn't. > > What I *did* do, is create kernel rpm's for the odroid U3 and raspberrypi > (model 1 and 2). This enables easy creation of rootfs-es and kernel > updates. These rpm's are basically a method of repackaging the .tar.gz > files you can find on their respective websites. (with some additional > voodoo to create -devel rpm's, so people are able to build their own > modules) > > for reference, EL7 ships with a 3.10. The odroid kernel is a 3.8 and > raspberrypi is 3.18. Both work just fine (just as the both work on EL6) > > Jacco > > On Tuesday, 12 May, 2015 00:41 CEST, Gordan Bobic <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > On 2015-05-11 21:15, Arnoud Onnink wrote: > > > Dear Gordan and Bjarne, > > > > > > Of course once one has his device hacked it's trivial to test whether > > > RedSleeve works with its kernel. Unfortunately on many devices the > > > manufacturers make our lives so difficult that some hours of work are > > > needed before you end up in a situation where you can swap the rootfs > > > at will. For this reason it'd be nice to have some sort of indication > > > whether it might be worth the effort, or not. > > > > Using the kernel that ships with the device has worked in every case > > so far for me. > > > > > Gordan, I agree that device howtos are very important. I would ask the > > > authors if they could add some _uname -a_ output to each howto: that > > > would already help a lot. From these results we could maintain a > > > table, as Bjarne suggests, of course with some kind of note that "if > > > you find your version listed here it is not a guarantee that it will > > > work, your results may vary because of device-specific modifications". > > > > I don't think it is as big an issue as you are suggesting. Most > > kernels will work. There may be narrower requirement for EL7 due > > to systemd, but EL6 will work at the very least with kernels 2.6.32 > > and later, and quite likely some earlier ones as well. > > > > > It would also be great to distinguish which devices support "stock > > > kernels" (RedSleeve), and which have "stuck kernels" (from the > > > manufacturer). > > > > On EL6 at least, there are no "stock kernels". It's stuck or build > > your own. EL6s 2.6.32 is too old to have meaningful support for most > > ARMs. I have managed to get earlier EL6 2.6.32 kernel built with > > some manual fixing, but I never actually got one of those to work > > on a SheevaPlug (Marvell Kirkwood was the only feasible ARM SoC > > supported on a kernel that old). > > > > > I think that should be immediately obvious from _uname > > > -a_ output? From the Wiki I currently get the impression that many of > > > the currently documented devices actually work with the RedSleeve > > > kernel. > > > > No - none do, because there is no such thing as a RedSleeve > > kernel. The kernel rpm that is in the distro is purely there > > for the headers and to satisfy the dependencies. In every > > case you will have to sort out a kernel yourself, be it by > > using whatever the device ships with or by building your own. > > > > Gordan > > _______________________________________________ > > users mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.redsleeve.org/mailman/listinfo/users > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.redsleeve.org/mailman/listinfo/users >
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