Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 28 Dec 2006, Christof Lange wrote:

> Hi Sindi,
>
> I studied blfiles.htm on your website and downloaded:
>
> a) David's 2.4.31 kernel with the module/pppd packet
>   (from _your_ site)
>
> b) your "2.4.31 KERNEL for LAPTOPS with USB-STORAGE and PCMCIA
>   support" bzimagela.431 with modules-la-nonpcmcia-431.tgz
>
> and was happy to realize that both kernels worked well in my
> existing BL2 installation.
>
> If I am allowed to make a little suggestion: As the file names in
> your download directory are quite similar to each other it would
> be a gread improvement in user-friendlyness to insert HTML links
> into blfiles.htm (as you doubtlessly intended in the beginning).

If you have time before I do, you could add the
<a href="http://keesan.freeshell.org/bl (and where necessary /2.4.31)) and 
</a href> to my html code, and also indicate where something 
is cryptic or wrong or outdated or missing, and I will fix it up and post 
a better copy.  What I have is mainly to remind me about the files.

> But here are my experiences:
>
> a) David's kernel:
>
> After booting into my BL2 file system, copying the entire usbspec.tgz
> into /lib I started to load usb-relevant modules with insmod. This
> did not work, because insmod did not find the path to the modules.

userspec.tgz - contains /lib/modules/...   Needs to be unpackaged on / not 
on /lib.


> Then I went to the subdirectories and loaded those modules I could
> find. In two cases I got an error message with some 10 dependencies,
> i.e. unresolved symbols. But I could not find any other modules with
> these names. So I could not get the USB memory drives working and
> gave up.

modules.dep lists the dependencies for each module.  The unresolved 
symbols often give you a clue but don't tell you the actual name of what 
needs to be loaded first.  See initrd.gz or my archive postings for a list 
of dependencies for usb-storage.  usbcore, uhci or ohci (depends on your 
motherboard or USB card), scsi_mod, sd_mod, usb-storage?

> b) Your Laptop kernel bzimagela.431:
>
> Works for me. I placed the new modules in the directory (after
> deleting David's modules - as you had warned me not to mix them up).
You can put them in two separately named directories and then
ln -s 2.4.31-david 2.4.31  to test with David's kernel and modules
then delete 2.4.31 (ln -sf would not work for me, for some reason)
ln -s 2.4.31-sindi 2.4.31 to test my kernel and modules

> I could load all USB-like modules successfully, and plugging/mounting
> of USB sticks worked perfectly. Other than in David's floppy-version,
> the error message when I unplugged a mounted device was rather short:
> only one line. So my complain from the last mail has been solved too.
> The only thing I noticed, was that those devices that had already been
> unplugged, still seemed to be mounted, if they had not been ordinarily
> unmounted before unplugging. I wonder whether this could be automized
> by some kind of small script demon.

You need to manually unmount before unplugging.  Unplugging a mounted file 
system can in theory mess it up badly.  Treat this the same as a floppy 
disk.  To use the hotplug support that I configured for would also require 
kmod, which none of my kernels support.

> Then I read the following passage in your blfiles.htm:
>
> ------------------------------
>
> bzimagjd.431 configjd.431 ide-cd.o.jd.431 (remove the .jd.431) Same
> as 'la' but with built-in support for IDE FLOPPY (internal zip drive)
> and module support for IDE CD (non-SCSI CD burner), named for Jim D.
> For use on Jim's desktop without scsi, sound, or framebuffer (which
> will eventually be added back for vesafb and aty only).
>
> See zgv-5.9-uclibc.tgz for a zgv which works with kernel 2.4.31 in
> libc5. Kernel 2.4.31 needs libvga.so.1.4.3, not available for libc5.
> Use this kernel only if you don't already have a libvga.so.1 because
> it will overwrite it and disable existing programs. Suggested use is
> in BL3 for a small non-X viewer that views more formats than xli.
>
> --------------------------------
>
> In the beginning I thought that the libvga problem relates only to
> bzimagjd.431, but then I rather checked zgv and got an error message.
>
> Do I understand correctly that neither of your kernels will tolerate
> the existence of libvga.so in the file system? That means that any
> program requireing libvga ceases to work? Is that all? Or does
> the kernel "censor" even other files in the file system?

This libvga problem concerns only the use of David's uclibc-static zgv. 
You can ignore it.  It has nothing to do with the kernel.

I forget just why he compiled the uclibc zgv.   I have been able to use it 
in ext2 BL only by changing my libvga, which breaks other programs 
dependent on it if you have any. (BL3 does not, but in BL2 I am using 
svgalib links2, and bmv, and the SW7.1 gs uses svgalib).

> As I read the sentence "use this kernel only..." a bit to late, what
> will I have to do now, in order to fix my installation? Probably not
> delete libvga, but only replace the graphic programs by different ones
> that do not need libvga, right?

Ignore the libvga stuff, just do not copy over David's zgv or libvga to 
your setup.  He used uclibc to save space, I think.


> I will probably test your other 2.4.31 kernels soon, as my ultimate
> goal is to integrate even the CD burner. But first I will see if I am
> able to create a RAM-disk version of BL2 working with the laptop
> kernel.

I am uploading two variants of the la kernel - ly and lm, with built-in or 
module support for ipchains and cd-rom, which makes them larger.  I 
removed ISA, Joliet and hermes support from la.  I can try to make you an 
even smaller kernel for your RAMdisk project.

My all-purpose desktop kernel is now 'smf', with support for sound, scsi, 
framebuffer, firewall (ipchains) as modules (and builtin ide-zip).  It 
also works with pcmcia modules.  'sy' has no ide-zip or firewall support 
but lets you boot linux on a scsi drive, and is a lot bigger.

> Thanks a lot for all the good work,

Thanks for your sound and mutt packages.

Sindi

> Christof