How can I find what Kernel is in in a given Debian release?

C5 Hardtop · 10-12-2013, 06:46 PM

My Macbook Pro 17" 8,3 fails to boot after installation. I feel it is a graphics driver related problem.

The AMD Radeon HD 6770M adapter HWID is: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6740&SUBSYS_00F9106B&REV_00

There are posts (found via ixquick search) that support this "feeling" and one person reported this issue having the same hwid and installing with a specific kernel version got past this problem. Additionally, I installed Debian without "Desktop" and the system booted to the prompt just fine, where before it would boot off the disk, "do stuff" and hang after a few seconds.

I'm looking for a release of Debian that has kernel version 3.9.x, even if it is the unstable release. It was the Testing version within the last few days that exhibited this issue.

BTW, the testing release (amd64) was clean installed via usb key and it booted off the drive. This is interesting because it is an EFI scenario, no other software was used (not even rEFI).

widget · 10-12-2013, 08:46 PM

Wheezy, Debian Stable uses 3.2

Jessie, Debian Testing is using 3.10 (3.10-3 I think. Haven't upgraded from 3.10-2 on this install)

Sid is using a newer 3.10-11

Sid has been quite unstable for me lately. Having serious problems with xorg/xserver right now and haven't been able to fix it. Yet.

Jessie is very stable at this time.

Drakeo · 10-12-2013, 11:46 PM

how to know what kernel you are running for sure open a terminal and the command is uname -r for every thing uname -a

C5 Hardtop · 10-13-2013, 11:20 AM

It sounds like the answer is "you don't, without installing it". (the question is " How can I find what Kernel is in in a given Debian release?")

Is that what you guys mean?

273 · 10-13-2013, 11:42 AM

I can't see a 3.9 kernel for any Debian release:
http://packages.debian.org/search?ke...=linux-image-3
The defaults seem to be 3.2 and 3.10:
http://packages.debian.org/stable/kernel/
http://packages.debian.org/testing/kernel/
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kernel/

Dutch Master · 10-13-2013, 11:50 AM

Alternative to consider:

1) install Stable as normal
2) if booting this fails (as you claim), boot from a live-cd (Linux Mint, et all)
3) chroot into the Debian system and install a fresh kernel from the kernel.org guys (using the tried "configure, make, make install" method)

Usually the latest stable kernel is the best choice, but apparently you're setup requires a specific kernel. You can find earlier releases in the FTP archive.

The Macbook is an Apple product, are you sure you got the right version of Debian for that device?

273 · 10-13-2013, 11:54 AM

If you were to choose to compile and install your own kernel I found this to be a safe method for Debian:
http://mapopa.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/compiling-2.html
I nearly always seem forget to go through menu config and enable something and only find out days later when something doesn't work. But using this method means you can boot to an older kernel in GRUB and apt-get remove the custom one.

C5 Hardtop · 10-13-2013, 01:19 PM

Because Linux is packaged based, we search for Linux-Image to get information about the Kernel. On the Debian distro, I can search for that package and analyze the results looking for the platform architecture I plan to use and the version of the kernel is within the package name. My mistake was searching the Debian site for "Kernel", but the correct search key is Linux-Image. Beautiful, thanks for that!

As far as getting the Mac running, I have no idea what is wrong and took an approach to solving the problem that is leveraging submitted problems and resolutions. If a submitted problem has like symptoms and there is a resolution, I will try the resolution.

Using a specific kernel (3.9.x) may have been the latest version of the kernel at the time and I may not need that. Since I had installed a kernel within the "Testing" release, the submitted problem I was leveraging may not be the same or there was a regression after 3.9.x.

Ideally, I feel the best approach would connect a kernel mode debugger to the laptop with the latest "Testing" or "Unstable" (not sure which) release, boot and see if there is a break in the debugger. If there isn't a break then we would do a manual break-in and try to find out what the problem is using debugger commands. Then with an idea of what the issue is based on "debugging" (said loosely), we would look for known issues and hope for a fix (?).

I need to ramp up on kd debugging for Linux to be able to do that (as well as what debugger bus options exist).

What is the ideal approach to getting boot problems we hit fixed? Anyone care to share the ideal approach?

273 · 10-13-2013, 01:29 PM

If you can install without a desktop and have no problems then I don't think you need or would want to spend hours wit ha kernel debugger to try to get X11 working.
It sounds to me like a graphics card driver issue so I'd look at doing something like this:
https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary
If you don't have a wired network connection though it could be tricky and perhaps one of the non-free net installers would be the way to go (see lower down this page):
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/debian-installer/
If you can do a command line only install you may also be able to access the command line of the system which appears frozen by using the Ctrl+Alt+F1 combination also. That would confirm it is a driver issue preventing X11 from starting.