I just finished upgrading my Slackware 9.1 to the latest 2.6.4 kernel without problems. I chose to avoid loading any modules in the kernel at boot, which I heard was a better idea. I used to have sound and alsaconf would detect my sound card. However, after upgrading it no longer detects the sound card at all. LSmod still lists the modules though. This isn't such a big deal because I'm disabling the onboard sound and I installed an Audigy2 card. When I reboot it sees the firewire port on the sound card but Alsa doesn't find it. Also, when I LSmod it still shows the old onboard modules loaded. I rmmod those modules but at reboot they're still there even though it's disabled. Is there a way I can perminately remove them?

Finaly, after the compile I got SMP working fine but when I used to boot to X with Gnome it would boot with only 30mb in use. Now when I boot with 2.6.4 it's 90mb at boot. Any ideas on why it went up? I figured since I'm no longer loading the modules in the kernel it should have decreased correct?

I'm getting USB errors while booting. X loads up fine but I checked the syslog and I couldn't find the errors that were displayed. Anyone know where I can find these so I can copy and paste them?

Finaly, I'm getting this error in the SYSlog but I'm not sure how to resolve it.


Mar 16 11:02:18 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Mar 16 11:02:18 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
Mar 16 11:02:18 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Mar 16 11:02:18 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
Mar 16 11:09:46 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Mar 16 11:09:46 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
Mar 16 11:09:46 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Mar 16 11:09:46 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
Mar 16 11:22:34 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
Mar 16 11:22:34 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
Mar 16 11:22:34 media400sc kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).

Here's my lspci Output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2578 (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 2579 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d2 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d4 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d7 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24de (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24dd (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d0 (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24db (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d1 (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 24d3 (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R100 QD [Radeon 7200]
02:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
02:01.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 04)
02:01.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port (rev 04)
02:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)

Here's the LSmod output:

Module Size Used by
snd_pcm_oss 49668 0
snd_pcm 87680 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 10244 1 snd_pcm
snd_timer 23936 1 snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss 18432 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd 46980 4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
uhci_hcd 31880 0
ohci_hcd 16512 0
ehci_hcd 24832 0
agpgart 27468 0

Any help, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, M.P

I prefer to compile most of the hardware like ethernet controlle, Ide, floppy, file system and some the frame buffer stuff into the kernel, but the rest like USB, VIDEO, Sound, firewall as modules. You are right using lspci to see what hardware you have it really help building the kernel for you specific needs.

Ok, I decided to recompile the 2.6.4 kernel instead. This time I included my Audio Card , Video Card (Radeon , DRI and AGP) and Network Card in the kenrel. I set the Firewire card and USB as modules.

I haven't updated my XF86Config file to support DRI & GLX yet.

The problem I've noticed now is, even with SMP enabled the system is much slower, especially when loading apps like mozilla. The memory usage is still at 90mb but something in the kernel is slowing response time down noticably.

These are my questions:

1) Can I have two kernels compiled? If so, how can I setup Lilo to boot off either?

2) Can someone provide me with a list of modules for the 2.6 kernel which are beneficial for the 875P chipset and 2.4P4c's with Hyper Threading? I do read each modules description , but I'd like to build a more optimized kernel and I'm sure I'm missing some modules which take advantage of the hardware I have.

I've been building machines since the 286 days, and I'm MCSE and MSDBA certified.. but I'm new to linux in the sence that I've tried Debian, Mandrake and now Slackware (being my fav) .. but I'm not famliar with all the nooks and cranies in the kernel.

Thanks again, M.P

1) Sure. It is in fact quite common to have more than one - keep your old one as fallback in case the new kernel doesn't work out well. Just add a new image section for your new kernel.

2) I really don't know much about either Intel's P4 HT models or their current motherboards since I haven't used either. This article at linuxhardware.org might be good reading though.

As for sluggishness of your system it sounds like you may have to enable DMA access for your harddrives. Use hdparm to test your drives and set options. To enable DMA you will need your IDE controller fully supported in the kernel though.

Some hdparm basics: hdparm -i /dev/hda (where /dev/hda should be replaced by the actual device name for your disk) returns some info on your drive settings. Also try hdparm -v /dev/hda and hdparm -I /dev/hda for *lots* of info. Use hdparm -tT /dev/hda to test the transfer speeds and hdparm -d1 /dev/hda to enable DMA, and use hdparm -d1 -X udma6 /dev/hda to enable UDMA-6 transfers (this is experimental!). Refer to the man page for more information: man hdparm.


Håkan

Try the following config it is for a 865PE NEO LS. You will need to configure it for your hardware though. And make any of the changes from modules to builtin'

http://home.comcast.net/~wnelsonjr/conf26

You may also want to try the mm series of kernel there is experimental smt in addition to smp.

Walt