LinuxQuestions.org
Welcome to the most active Linux Forum on the web.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Debian
User Name
Password
Debian This forum is for the discussion of Debian Linux.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 07-19-2004, 12:36 PM   #1
m_yates
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Upstate
Distribution: Debian, Mint, Mythbuntu
Posts: 1,249

Rep: Reputation: 101Reputation: 101
Guide to 2.6 kernel upgrade/recompile


I successfully upgraded to the 2.6.7 kernel and then patched it to include the Debian Logo at boot up and Win4Lin support. I ran into some issues that took some time to figure out, so I thought I'd post my upgrade path here in the event it may help anyone else. I was using kernel 2.4.26 initially with the nvidia display driver. Here are the steps to take:

1. Install a 2.6 kernel using apt-get:
Code:
apt-get -t unstable install kernel-image-2.6.7-1-386
2. The PS/2 mouse and nvidia driver won't work with the new kernel. To make sure the new kernel boots up, you need to add the lines "psmouse" and "mousedev" to /etc/modules, and temporarily change the video driver listed in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 from "nvidia" to "nv". If you have a USB mouse and/or keyboard, you may need to add "usbhid" tp /etc/modules to get it to work.

3. Make sure that the kernel is listed in either /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf depending on which bootloader you use. Note that Debian uses initrd, so you have to include the kernel's initrd or it won't boot. I use grub, and the entry looks something like:
Quote:
title Linux, 2.6.7
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7-1-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro hdc=scsi
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.7-1-386
savedefault
boot
Also edit /etc/fstab to include the line:
Quote:
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
and make sure you have the /sys directory:
Code:
mkdir /sys
4. Reboot into the new kernel and make sure that everything is working. It *should* work, but of course mileage may vary. NOTE: If you experience system freezes or shutdowns with the new kernel, try adding "acpi=off" to the kernel line in grub's menu.lst.

5. For re-compiling, it is important to use Debian kernel sources, because they have cramfs patches that allow the initrd to work. Install kernel-source and the debian boot logo:
Code:
apt-get -t unstable install kernel-source-2.6.7 kernel-patch-debianlogo
I also downloaded 2.6 Win4Lin patches from Netraverse. These files are called "mki-adapter26_1_3_6.patch" and "Kernel-Win4Lin3-2.6.7.patch"

6. Unpack kernel-source and create symbolic link to /usr/src/linux:
Code:
cd /usr/src
tar -jxf kernel-source-2.6.7.tar.bz2
rm linux
ln -s kernel-source-2.6.7 linux
7. Unpack the debian boot logo patch. As of this writing, the latest version was for kernel 2.6.2, but it works with kernel 2.6.7:
Code:
cd /usr/src/kernel-patches/diffs/debianlogo
gunzip debian-logo-2.6.2.gz
8. Patch the kernel to include the Debian logo and Win4Lin support:
Code:
cd /usr/src/linux
patch -p1 < /usr/src/kernel-patches/diffs/debianlogo/debian-logo-2.6.2
patch -p1 < /usr/src/mki-adapter26_1_3_6.patch
patch -p1 < /usr/src/Kernel-Win4Lin3-2.6.7.patch
9. Copy the existing kernel configuration as a starting point and configure the kernel:
Code:
cd /usr/src/linux
cp /boot/config-2.6.7-1-386 .config
make menuconfig
You need to change two things in menuconfig. First enable the following option for win4lin support:
Quote:
NeTraverse Win4Lin Support --->[*] Include NeTraverse Win4Lin Support
Second, enable the following options for framebuffer console with debian boot logo:
Quote:
Graphics support --->[*] Support for frame buffer devices[*] VESA VGA graphics support
Console display driver support --->[*] Video mode selection support
<*> Framebuffer Console support[*] Select compiled-in fonts[*] VGA 8x8 font[*] VGA 8x16 font
Logo Configuration --->[*] Debian GNU/Linux Open Use logo (NEW)
Say "N" to all other device drivers except vesa. The Debian configuration has lots of things built as modules here and it seems to cause problems (at least for me). Say "N" to all other boot logos except Debian.

10. Compile and install the kernel:
Code:
make-kpkg clean
make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-mykernelname kernel_image
cd /usr/src
dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.7-mykernelname_10.00.Custom_i386.deb
Where "mykernelname" is the name you want appended. Mine is "win4lin", so my kernel is named 2.6.7-win4lin.

11. Finally, make an entry for the new kernel in your boot loader. Dpkg should do this automatically, but you should check everything to be sure. The entry for Grub in menu.lst would be something like:
Code:
title           Linux, 2.6.7
root            (hd0,0)
kernel         /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7-mykernelname root=/dev/hda1 ro hdc=scsi video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr vga=788
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.7-mykernelname
savedefault
boot
Note that you need to add the "video=" and "vga=" to select the driver and resolution for the console. More details are in Gentoo's documentation:http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handboo...?part=1&chap=9
NOTE: You may need to add "acpi=off" to the kernel line if you experience system freezes or shutdowns.

12. Reboot with the new kernel. You should see the Debian logo at the top of the screen and nice small fonts during boot up. You should also now be able to install Win4Lin from Netraverse to run legacy windows applications. You will have to re-install the nvidia display driver. Go to www.nvidia.com, download the latest driver and follow the directions. After it installs, change the driver listed in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 from "nv" back to "nvidia".

I hope this helps others. I spent a lot of time over the weekend figuring this out. Please let me know if there are mistakes above.

-Matt

Last edited by m_yates; 09-10-2004 at 06:51 AM.
 
Old 07-19-2004, 09:29 PM   #2
godzilla_roar20
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: PA
Distribution: Fedora Core 1, Knoppix
Posts: 74

Rep: Reputation: 15
yep!
 
Old 07-19-2004, 09:34 PM   #3
m_yates
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Upstate
Distribution: Debian, Mint, Mythbuntu
Posts: 1,249

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 101Reputation: 101
Well, I don't know if that is yep! it helped you, or yep! it is full of mistakes. If the former, I'm glad to hear it If the latter, I'm very sorry
 
Old 07-22-2004, 03:07 AM   #4
dukeinlondon
Member
 
Registered: May 2003
Location: London
Distribution: kubuntu 8.10
Posts: 593
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 30
Nice one. Thanks.
 
Old 07-22-2004, 09:39 AM   #5
laclavis
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: WPI, MA
Distribution: debian
Posts: 1

Rep: Reputation: 0
it was quite helpful. thanks!
 
Old 07-22-2004, 11:09 AM   #6
macondo
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Central America
Distribution: Slackwre64-current Devuan
Posts: 1,034

Rep: Reputation: 62
I just succesfully upgraded my kernel following your instructions to the letter.

Perfect!

thanks bud!
 
Old 07-22-2004, 11:43 AM   #7
HappyTux
Senior Member
 
Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Distribution: Debian AMD64
Posts: 4,170

Rep: Reputation: 244Reputation: 244Reputation: 244
You may want to edit and include fakeroot in front of the lines.
Code:
fakeroot make-kpkg clean
fakeroot make-kpkg kernel_image
This is why the package exists there is no need to compile a kernel as root as long as you are a member of the src group (if not then adduser user_name src as root then logout and back in) nice post otherwise though.
 
Old 07-23-2004, 03:37 AM   #8
R00ts
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Austin TX, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16
Posts: 547

Rep: Reputation: 30
Please help me. I'll give you my first born...ok I won't but I'll give you respect

I'm trying to upgrade my kernel from 2.4.25 to 2.6.6 (so very close to the same upgrade). I installed the debian kernel image, source, and headers, and it boots up alright but when I get to my bootloader my USB keyboard won't respond, and my USB mouse won't respond. If I plug in a PS/2 keyboard that works, but a PS/2 mouse still won't work. Its very frustrating and I don't know how to fix it. I tried adding the two lines you said in your guide above to /etc/modules, but that didn't help. What do I need to do to get it working? I've been (slowly) trying to upgrade my kernel for almost two weeks and I'm getting rather frustrated with it right now. Please give me divine guidance


PS: When I last tried to boot it up a couple hours ago, I think I saw it display something about a couple mouse modules (like /dev/mouse maybe?) not being found. I didn't get a clear shot at it though because the boot screen goes by so fast. But why the heck wouldn't mouse modules be compiled into the debian packaged kernel in the first place?
 
Old 07-23-2004, 07:39 AM   #9
m_yates
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Upstate
Distribution: Debian, Mint, Mythbuntu
Posts: 1,249

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 101Reputation: 101
r00ts, I stumbled upon this post:http://lists.debian.org/debian-power.../msg00480.html It seems you need modules ohci-hcd and usbhid for the usbmouse to work. I just checked the kernel configuration from debian and usbhid and ohci-hcd are built as modules. Try adding them to /etc/modules and see if that works. I can't test it myself because I don't have usb input devices.

I'm glad to hear from others that my post has helped with some things. To happytux: I couldn't get fakeroot to work properly. Granted, I didn't try very hard, but I added myself to the "src" group, and then tried running "fakeroot make-kpkg clean" as a user and it told me I didn't have permission. I think the problem was that my /usr/src/linux directory has the group "root" not "src". In any event, I just became root and continued without fakeroot. The documentation here: http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html suggests using fakeroot too, but I didn't take the time to figure out why it wasn't working for me.
 
Old 07-23-2004, 10:06 PM   #10
R00ts
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Austin TX, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16
Posts: 547

Rep: Reputation: 30
I tried adding those two modules (as well as usbmouse and usbkbd) but it still didn't work. I also found another post that said to try adding in a couple other modules, but those failed as well. I'm about to just uninstall this kernel and do a re-compile from scratch because I'm getting nowhere fast. Thanks for trying to help though.
 
Old 07-26-2004, 02:43 AM   #11
R00ts
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Austin TX, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16
Posts: 547

Rep: Reputation: 30
Ok, so I scratched my 2.6.6 kernel installation and followed your instructions for the 2.6.7 kernel. I got as far as step #4 before something went wrong (new record ). It's really weird, because it looks like everything is working ok. The kernel boots ok, startx works and I get a graphical login prompt. My USB mouse and keyboard actually work. But after I login and my session finishes initialization, I'll have about 10 seconds before something very very bad happens. I've tried booting it twice and here's what happened each time:

1) Machine froze completely. My monitor displayed a "no signal found" and I couldn't do a damn thing except turn off the computer and turn it back on.

2) Machine automatically restarts without warning.


Does anyone have any clue as to what could be causing this? The only thing I have edited myself is my /etc/modules file below.

Code:
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a "#", and everything on the line after them are ignored.

ide-cd
ide-detect
psmouse  # Added for 2.6.6 kernel upgrade
mousedev # "                            "


# USB
ehci-hcd
uhci-hcd
ohci-hcd
usbhid

# Mouse
usbmouse

# Keyboard
usbkbd
I'm not sure I even need half of those modules, but they are there just in case. Thanks for any help you can provide. I'm so hopeless when it comes to kernel upgrades.
 
Old 07-26-2004, 09:29 AM   #12
m_yates
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Upstate
Distribution: Debian, Mint, Mythbuntu
Posts: 1,249

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 101Reputation: 101
I would suggest commenting out the USB modules and seeing if it does it again. If your keyboard and mouse don't work, try just uncommenting "usbhid" and see if that works. I think the mouse and keyboard only need the usb-human input device (usbhid) to work. The usbmouse and usbkbd drivers are probably not needed. It is possible that some of the other drivers are conflicting, but I'm not sure about that.
 
Old 07-26-2004, 04:23 PM   #13
R00ts
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Austin TX, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16
Posts: 547

Rep: Reputation: 30
I tried commenting out things so my /etc/modules file looks like this:

Code:
ide-cd
ide-detect

# Mouse
psmouse
mousedev

# USB
#ehci-hcd
#uhci-hcd
#ohci-hcd
usbhid

# Mouse
#usbmouse

# Keyboard
#usbkbd
But I had the same problem (the mouse and keyboard still worked). Someone told me that it sounds like a problem with AMP or ACPI (both of which I am totally clueless about what they are), and to try compiling my own kernel. I'm considering that option, but first I'll need to read what AMP and ACPI are.


On another note I have a question about kernel modules. Do both my 2.4.25 kernel and my 2.6.7 kernel look to /etc/modules to find out what modules to load when booting the kernel? I thought that they would have different files since each kernel may need different modules (or maybe modules is something new to 2.6.x kernels?). Also is there a way to find out what modules I have installed and other detailed information for a specific kernel? Thanks for your help.
 
Old 07-26-2004, 05:23 PM   #14
m_yates
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Upstate
Distribution: Debian, Mint, Mythbuntu
Posts: 1,249

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 101Reputation: 101
Well, glad that the mouse still works. It may be an acpi problem. The 2.6 kernel uses acpi for power management features and the 2.4 kernel used apm (although you could compile acpi into it).

Try adding "acpi=off" on your kernel line in grub. That boot option should prevent acpi from being loaded.
 
Old 07-26-2004, 07:05 PM   #15
R00ts
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Austin TX, USA
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16
Posts: 547

Rep: Reputation: 30
Hah! It works it works! Thank you so much m_yates!!! I'm so pumped WOOHOOOO!!!! I am in your debt
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Recompile drivers after upgrade? Tons of Fun Debian 4 09-11-2005 10:00 PM
recompile kernel laurentwahl Linux - Software 5 06-02-2005 02:27 PM
Another Kernel Guide 2.6.11 xaos5 Slackware 20 03-26-2005 12:49 PM
kernel recompile error (kernel panic) tombaaaaa Linux - Newbie 4 08-04-2004 04:32 PM
should i recompile after kernel upgrade? doralsoral Linux - Software 1 03-26-2004 11:50 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Debian

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:34 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration