What kernel update to choose? (Debian)

brgsousa · 09-13-2010, 09:02 AM

Hi everyone!
I need a kernel higher than 2.6.20 and that supports 4 GB of memory. Is that possible with a 32 bit system?

Code:

# uname -a
Linux machine 2.6.14-2-686-smp #1 SMP Mon Nov 14 14:56:10 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

# aptitude search linux-image-2.6
v   linux-image-2.6                                                        -
p   linux-image-2.6-486                                                    - Linux 2.6 image on x86
p   linux-image-2.6-686                                                    - Linux 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p   linux-image-2.6-686-bigmem                                             - Linux 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p   linux-image-2.6-amd64                                                  - Linux 2.6 image on AMD64
p   linux-image-2.6-k7                                                     - Linux 2.6 image on AMD K7 - transition package
p   linux-image-2.6-openvz-686                                             - Linux 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, OpenVZ support
p   linux-image-2.6-vserver-686                                            - Linux 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, Linux-VServer support
p   linux-image-2.6-vserver-686-bigmem                                     - Linux 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, Linux-VServer support
p   linux-image-2.6-xen-686                                                - Linux 2.6 image on i686, oldstyle Xen support
i   linux-image-2.6.14-2-686-smp                                           - Linux kernel 2.6.14 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4 SMP machines
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-486                                               - Linux 2.6.26 image on x86
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-686                                               - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-686-bigmem                                        - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64                                             - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-openvz-686                                        - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, OpenVZ support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-vserver-686                                       - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, Linux-VServer support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-vserver-686-bigmem                                - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, Linux-VServer support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-1-xen-686                                           - Linux 2.6.26 image on i686, oldstyle Xen support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-486                                               - Linux 2.6.26 image on x86
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-686                                               - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-686-bigmem                                        - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-amd64                                             - Linux 2.6.26 image on AMD64
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-openvz-686                                        - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, OpenVZ support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-vserver-686                                       - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, Linux-VServer support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-vserver-686-bigmem                                - Linux 2.6.26 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, Linux-VServer support
p   linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686                                           - Linux 2.6.26 image on i686, oldstyle Xen support

# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3291       3173        118          0         57       2792
-/+ buffers/cache:        323       2967
Swap:          760          0        760

So... Which one do I install?

Regards,

gdejonge · 09-13-2010, 09:28 AM

Please next time state which debian you are running (cat /etc/debian_version)

Have you tried to do a standard upgrade of your kernel.
Use sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to install the latest kernel available for your current distribution.

_______________
Gerrard

brgsousa · 09-13-2010, 09:36 AM

Thanks for replying.
There's a problem... there are packages from sarge, etch and lenny installed. So... tons of new things should be installed and I didn't see linux kernel among them

Code:

# cat /etc/debian_version
5.0.3

# aptitude -s dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
The following packages are BROKEN:
  clamav-freshclam
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  aspell{a} bash-completion{a} bsd-mailx{a} courier-authlib{a} courier-authlib-userdb{a} db4.6-util{a} debian-faq{a} defoma{a} dhcp3-client{a}
  dhcp3-common{a} discover{a} discover-data{a} expect{a} fam{a} freeradius-common{a} freeradius-utils{a} gpgv{a} grub-common{a} gsfonts{a} gsfonts-x11{a}
  guile-1.8-libs{a} libbind9-50{a} libc6-dev{a} libcap2{a} libclamav5{a} libdbi-perl{a} libdevmapper1.02.1{a} libdiscover2{a} libdns55{a}
  liberror-perl{a} libfam0{a} libfont-afm-perl{a} libfontenc1{a} libfreeradius2{a} libfreetype6{a} libfribidi0{a} libgc1c2{a} libgnutls26{a}
  libgssglue1{a} libhtml-format-perl{a} libhtml-tree-perl{a} libio-socket-inet6-perl{a} libisc52{a} libisccc50{a} libisccfg50{a} libkeyutils1{a}
  libldap-2.4-2{a} liblwres50{a} libmail-spf-perl{a} libmime-tools-perl{a} libneon27-gnutls{a} libnet-cidr-perl{a} libnet-daemon-perl{a}
  libnetaddr-ip-perl{a} libnewt0.52{a} libnfsidmap2{a} libntlm0{a} libparse-syslog-perl{a} libpcap0.8{a} libpci3{a} libperl5.10{a} libplrpc-perl{a}
  libpng12-0{a} libpq5{a} librpcsecgss3{a} libserf-0-0{a} libslang2{a} libsnmp15{a} libsocket6-perl{a} libssh2-1{a} libsys-hostname-long-perl{a}
  libsys-syslog-perl{a} libt1-5{a} libtalloc1{a} libvolume-id0{a} libwbclient0{a} libwww-perl{a} libx11-6{a} libx11-data{a} libxau6{a} libxcb-xlib0{a}
  libxcb1{a} libxdmcp6{a} libxext6{a} libxfont1{a} libxmuu1{a} linux-libc-dev{a} lockfile-progs{a} modconf{a} netcat-traditional{a} nvi-doc{a}
  openssh-blacklist-extra{a} openssl-blacklist{a} re2c{a} sysvinit-utils{a} tcl8.4{a} tzdata{a} update-inetd{a} uuid-runtime{a} x11-common{a} xauth{a}
  xfonts-encodings{a} xfonts-utils{a}
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  aspell-pt-common{a} libdb4.4{u} libdiscover1{a} libgc1{a} libneon26{u} libnewt0.51{a} libnfsidmap1{a} linux-kernel-headers{a} modutils{a}
The following packages will be upgraded:
  adduser apache2-utils arj aspell-pt-br at base-files base-passwd bash bc bin86 bind9-host bison bsdmainutils bsdutils busybox bzip2 ca-certificates
  clamav clamav-base clamav-daemon console-common console-data console-tools courier-authdaemon courier-base courier-maildrop cpio cron dc debconf-i18n
  debianutils dhcp-client diff discover1 discover1-data dmidecode dnsutils doc-debian doc-linux-text dovecot-common dovecot-imapd dovecot-pop3d dselect
  e2fslibs e2fsprogs ed eject fdutils file findutils finger flex freeradius ftpd gawk gdb gettext-base gnu-efi gnupg grep groff-base grub guile-1.6-libs
  gzip hostname iamerican ibrazilian ibritish ifupdown imapproxy inetutils-inetd info initramfs-tools initscripts iptables iputils-ping iso-codes ispell
  klibc-utils klogd krb5-config krb5-user less libacl1 libapr1 libaprutil1 libarchive-zip-perl libaspell15 libattr1 libblkid1 libbz2-1.0 libc6 libclamav2
  libcomerr2 libconfig-inifiles-perl libconsole libconvert-binhex-perl libconvert-tnef-perl libcurl3 libdb1-compat libdb4.2 libdigest-hmac-perl libedit2
  libevent1 libexpat1 libfam0c102 libgcrypt11 libgdbm3 libgmp3c2 libgpg-error0 libgsasl7 libguile-ltdl-1 libhesiod0 libhtml-tagset-perl libidn11
  libio-multiplex-perl libio-stringy-perl libkadm55 libklibc libkrb53 liblockfile1 libltdl3 libmagic1 libmailtools-perl libmailutils1 libmime-perl
  libmysqlclient15off libnet-server-perl libnss-db libpam-modules libpam-radius-auth libpam-runtime libpam-smbpass libpam0g libpaper1 libpcre3
  libqthreads-12 libreadline5 libsasl2-2 libsensors3 libsepol1 libsnmp-base libss2 libssl0.9.8 libstdc++5 libsvn1 libsysfs2 libtasn1-3
  libtext-wrapi18n-perl libtextwrap1 libtimedate-perl libusb-0.1-4 libuuid1 libwrap0 libxml2 libzephyr3 locales localization-config login logrotate lpr
  lsb-base lsof m4 mailman mailx make makedev mawk mb2md mime-support mlock module-init-tools mount mpack mtools mtr-tiny mutt myspell-pt-br mysql-common
  nano ncurses-base ncurses-bin ncurses-term net-tools netbase netcat nfs-common nmap ntpdate nvi openssh-blacklist openssh-client openssh-server openssl
  passwd patch pciutils pidentd portmap postfix postgrey ppp pppconfig pppoe pppoeconf procmail procps psmisc pwgen quota quotatool readline-common
  samba-common sasl2-bin sed sharutils smbclient snmpd spamassassin spamc squirrelmail squirrelmail-locales ssh ssl-cert strace subversion sudo sysklogd
  sysv-rc sysvinit tar tcpd tcsh telnet texinfo time traceroute udev usbutils util-linux util-linux-locales vacation w3m whiptail whois winbind xml-core
  xpdf-common xpdf-utils
The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed:
  libnet-rblclient-perl libpaper-utils libsasl2-modules wbritish
251 packages upgraded, 103 newly installed, 9 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4577kB/171MB of archives. After unpacking 145MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  clamav-freshclam: Conflicts: libclamav2 but 0.91.2-4.0lenny1 is to be installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Install the following packages:
libsasl2-modules [2.1.22.dfsg1-23+lenny1 (stable, stable)]

Keep the following packages at their current version:
clamav-freshclam [0.90.1dfsg-3etch11 (now)]

Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
defoma recommends libft-perl
Score is -89

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

Regards,

gdejonge · 09-13-2010, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brgsousa

Thanks for replying.
There's a problem... there are packages from sarge, etch and lenny installed. So... tons of new things should be installed and I didn't see linux kernel among them

Code:

# cat /etc/debian_version
5.0.3

Wow, Talking about mixing releases

I did a quick check on my own debian (lenny) box. Which is a VIA C7 32-bit box.

Code:

Sirius:/# cat /etc/debian_version
5.0.6


Sirius:/# ls -l /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1220119 2007-05-10 06:10 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-486
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1220479 2009-05-05 07:38 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-486
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1469808 2010-08-30 13:03 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-486
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1507408 2010-08-30 13:05 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686
Sirius:/#

As you see 2.6.26-2-686 is the latest kernel version for a 32-bit X86 system.

You might try to install that one.

__________________
Gerrard

TobiSGD · 09-13-2010, 11:17 AM

If you run a system with mixed repositories it is always a good idea to post your /etc/apt/sources.list. If there are always entries for lenny then try

Code:

apt-get -t lenny linux-image-2.6-686-bigmem

Mabe you have to type stable instead of lenny. This should update your kernel to 2.6.26-686-bigmem from lenny. The bigmem-kernels are compiled with PAE enabled, so that your are able to use more than 4 GB of RAM on a 32 bit-system.

rahulkya · 09-13-2010, 11:42 AM

Yes it is possible with 32-bit systems....try installing kernel module with "PAE" instead of "SMP" ....get it from anywhere..