Debian, Kernel 2.6.2 and KDE 2.3?
 

Hi I have just installed Knoppix - which of course is debian - on my my harddrive. So far so good, but unfortunately I have run into a few snags. You see I plan on installing a 2.6 kernel as I have fairly modern hardware and this kernel offers several features that I need if I want my hardware to be fully supported.

However I was wondering if there was anything I needed to install or anything special I needed to do to get the 2.6.2 kernel to run sucessfully? I know a few things are different about 2.6x, so I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice?

Also I have never used lilo before and am not cetain how useful it would be to change my boot manager, so how would I edit lilo to ensure both my old and new kernel were avaialable in case of problems?

Additionally I installed - or I thought I installed KDE 3.3 via apt-get. But when I start Knoppix it still says I only have 3.1.5. KDE 3.3 isn't listed on the login screen in the list of avaiable Windows managers either.

How do I start KDE 3.3 and make sure it replaces my existing version of KDE 3.1.5 (since there is no point in having two versions of KDE installed)?

I did ask these questions on the official Knoppix forum - but unfortuately the harddrive install forum doesn't seem to be too well populated - either that or they just aren't as friendly or helpful as the Gentoo forum I used to inhabit - or even this one. In any case you guys have always been really helpful in the past - so any advice that you can offer this time round would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

GJ

1) If you use fairly major programs for your hardware-intesive stuff (cd burning, etc.), then they should automatically be able to work with the changes from kernel 2.4 to 2.6. More minor programs may have more limited programming and therefore have some problems. For example, cd burning on ATAPI cd drives in 2.4 used to work by scsi emulation. With kernel 2.6, it's directly ATAPI. K3B, arson, and other more well-known burning programs have no problem, but some cheaper programs can't handle the change. In terms of hotplug-like things (programs that ARE hardware control), they usually deal with more generic kernel functions, so they don't care whether you're using 2.4 or 2.6.

2) For LILO, add this for a second kernel:

image=/boot/vmlinuz.alt <---- the alternative kernel
label=alternative <---- your label for it
root=/dev/hda1 <---- your root partition
read-only

Personally, I find it easier to just have a backup boot floppy and let the BIOS boot to that if I have kernel problems. Then, I can just have one entry in LILO. But LILO can handle multiple kernels just fine.

3) Finally, there is no KDE 3.3 yet, so I'll assume you mean 3.2. :-) KDE 3.1.5 is the latest in the debian package system. If you want 3.2, it's technically still experimental, but I've had no problems with it (installed for about a week). If you want to install it, add these to your /etc/apt/sources.list (yes, both of them):

deb http://people.debian.org/~ccheney/kde-3.1.95/ ./
deb http://people.debian.org/~bab/kde-3.2 ./

Then run 'apt-get -u -t people.debian.org dist-upgrade' to upgrade to 3.2. Note: copied that from here: http://wiki.debian.net/?DebianKDE . <- From the Debian KDE package developers. They also say that 3.2 should be in unstable in not too long.

Doh! Ok 3.2 it is then. Just a couple of questions about the kernel left. I mean I'm sure that I heard somewhere that I had to create a directory for it to mount some file system or other that isn't required in 2.4x kernels? Also isn't there some sort of utility, or bin utils or anything like that I have to install? Lastly how do I get the same way cool hardware detection back that the Knoppix CD has?

I mean in Gentoo all I had to do was add hotplug to the default runlevel by doing 'rc-update add hotpug default' which all in all was as easy as pie. Is there a way I can add similar scripts and drivers to their default runlevels (say for example if I wanted to add alsa to it's default run level) or do I have to edit some configuration files or other by hand? If so which one/s?

Thanks for the great input in the meantime! :D

Kind regards,

GJ

u need to upgrade module loading stuff for 2.6, forget where to d-load it,think in rusy's kenrel page (part of kernel.org under people on ftp.)

Mmm thanks... But that is a little vauge if you will forgive me for saying so. As it stands I went ahead and compiled and installed the kernel - and I can boot it - but about 10 seconds into the boot process I get a kernel panic which gives me this message:

Now I suspect that this is because, as you said, there are a bunch of scripts that need updating too - but again as this is debian and not Gentoo I haven't got a clue where to start.

In Gentoo it is simply /etc/init.d/kernel-version and in this directory there is a simple text file that tells the kernel what modules to use at boot time.

I noticed that debian also has this directory - although in this instance it is filled with what seem to be a rather more complete set of scripts. For eample one file I found in there was a script to automatically configure my Audigy 2 sound card. It actually works very well - and I guess the question is how to get it to run at boot time so that my card is always correctly configured.

However before I do that, I would very much like to figure out how to get a 2.6x kernel properly running - as I am keen not to be left behind as work on 2.6x progresses.

Any advice anyone can offer would therefore be very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

G. J

[EXPLITIVE]! Sorry, I forgot about that. I was using the updated version before I installed 2.6 (with my 2.4 kernel - it works with both), so I forgot about that. Anyway, you need to get the package module-init-tools from unstable. Run this command:

'apt-get -t unstable install module-init-tools'

Make sure that you have a mirror for unstable in your /etc/apt/sources.list . (e.g. my source is 'deb http://debian.crosslink.net/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free'). Again, SORRY about that! I guess I kindof caused that kernel panic for you.

Hey man I did what you said and added those servers to my debian sources, but when I try to run aptget it just says it 'cannot stat etc. etc. xyg server etc' (I'm ad-libing of course). In any case what its saying is that those servers are no longer reachable.

Any clues?

As for module-init-tools after I did what you said to upgrade KDE (which didn't upgrade) it says I now have the latest version.

With regard to the Kernel, I don't think that is what it's saying. I think its saying that some script or other issued an obsolete command - although which one I'm not certain of. Has anyone got any clues?

As I said I'm sure there are a few more configuration files that I need to edit - and I seem to recall that I need to creat some sort of directory or other on my / directory so that the 2.6x kernel can mount something there that isn't needed by 2.4x kernels - although what I'm afraid I can't recall. The last 2.6 kernels I tried were some of the early beta).

Any clues anyone can offer would be much appreciated.

GJ