Baslinux mailing list

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On Tue, 31 Mar 2009, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> As already described in the first part of my posting, graphics 
> (X-windows) are not yet fully satisfactory and i couldn't get the 
> "standard Xserver" run properly. On the other hand, other linux distros 
> like knoppix and morphix do run on that mashine (well "run" is an 
> euphemism, they rather "crawl" but they work at least). So it must be 
> possible.

> Therefore i looked for software to support the Intel 810 and i believe 
> to have found some, eg.g. here: 
> "http://keesan.freeshell.org/bl/blfiles.htm";. That page however states 
> that it requires a 2.4 kernel, while BasicLinux has only a 2.2.26 
> kernel. Lukily i also found on the same site a "FULL 2.4.31 KERNEL" 
> which i downloaded to replace the one that came with the initial 
> BasicLinux package.

I simply mirrored the libc5 and glibc21 TinyX server packages from Xorg. 
For BL3 use the libc5 i810 server (and Steven's package no-xvesa for 
adding standard X, which adds and modifies a few things besides changing 
servers).  BL3 uses libc5-based X libraries.

A 2.4 kernel is needed to use glibc from Slackware 9.1 through 11.0, 
which were compiled to require kernel 2.4 or later.  It will work in 
BL3.50 but uses a bit more memory, and you also need different modules.

> The system even boots with that new kernel, however unlike the original 
> kernel, the 2.4 kernel, due to some reason which is still unknown to me, 
> insists to mount the root filesystem in read-only mode, which is the 
> cause for many more problems:

2.4 kernels never worked for me in the DOS loop version of BL3 except in 
read-only mode.  They work if you boot to an ext2 partition. But you can 
use a 2.2 kernel with BL3.50.

The following I think means you are running the loop version (from a DOS 
baslin directory).  And that you upgraded gcc when you switched kernels.
2.95.3 has worked well for me.  What is senior2.16?

> /<#>cat /proc/version
> Linux version 2.2.26 (root AT senior2.16) (gcc version egcs-2.91.66 
> 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)) #6 Fri Nov 11 17:21:34 NZDT 2005
> /<#>cat /etc/mtab
> /dev/hda5 /DOS msdos rw 0 0
> /dev/root / ext2 rw 0 0
> /dev/root.old /initrd ext2 rw 0 0
> none /proc proc rw 0 0
>
>
> /<#>cat /proc/version
> Linux version 2.4.31 (root AT localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 3.2.3) #23 Wed 
> Dec 21 15:53:09 PST 2005
> /<#>cat /etc/mtab
> rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
> /dev/root.old /initrd ext2 rw 0 0
> /dev/hda5 /initrd/DOS msdos rw 0 0
> /dev/root / ext2 ro 0 0
> none /proc proc rw 0 0
>
>
> What ist the reason for this unlike behaviour, and what can i do about it?

Nobody could tell me the reason, but the solution is to:

1.  use 2.2 kernel with BL3.50 (and libc5, or glibc 2.1 or 2.2 or 2.3.1)
2.  install to ext2 partition and use 2.4 kernel if you want USB storage 
support.  The loop version is for learning on and is small.

There is also an i810 svgalib but it only works for me in VGA mode. Can 
you replace onboard video with an AGP or even PCI video card?  Most cards 
do work correctly with Xvesa.  Riva is good for framebuffer if you like to 
change modes with rivafb, so is matrox though it is complicated, but ATI 
and S3 Savage and i740 do vesafb.  (I forget whether Steven's big 2.2.26 
kernel has framebuffer support but most of my kernels do).  If you don't 
need VESA 2.0 (for framebuffer) older S3 PCI cards work well (including 
Virge).

You seem very knowledgeable and I hope you can solve some of my problems 
soon.  This is my first and only linux.

Sindi