What was the last 2.6 kernel and where can it be found?

tim914 · 03-14-2018, 01:48 PM

Hi All,

I have a dedicated environment with some custom hardware that requires a 2.6 kernel. However, the motherboard blew a cap and has been replaced by its newer Intel sibling. The only issue is the new board only has USB-3 on board, so I need to rebuild a kernel that can support the current Intel USB-3 chip.

I'm using 2.6.39, but that doesn't get me there. I'm hoping that there was a later 2.6 kernel that will work with the new USB-3 chip.

Any pointers? Kernel.org no longer offers up the 2.6 tree.

hydrurga · 03-14-2018, 01:52 PM

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel, 2.6.39 was the last release in the 2.6 line.

Are you sure that the custom hardware won't work with a later kernel?

According to http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online...er-for-USB-3.0, support for USB 3.0 was added in 2.6.31.

According to https://www.ptgrey.com/KB/10685, support for USB 3.1 was added in 3.5.

BW-userx · 03-14-2018, 01:59 PM

Index of /pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/

tim914 · 03-14-2018, 02:08 PM

@hydrurga - yes, unfortunately very sure - we only have the .ko for the very old and quite unsupported device and while it can be successfully force loaded into a 2.3.28 through 2.6.39 kernel, it won't load in a 3.0 kernel.

@BW-userx - Thanks for the link.

It looks like I need to do some motherboard swapping ...

AwesomeMachine · 03-15-2018, 01:13 PM

May I ask what this device is? Does it use proprietary modules that haven't been updated?

jefro · 03-16-2018, 03:57 PM

It may be possible to add in support for new hardware in almost any old kernel. Old kernels never do well on new hardware. I assume you are talking either about xhci or other usb 3?

I'd be tempted to go to kernel.org for generic kernels but I'd consider the distro version if you are using some distro. It may be available from the distro.

https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/

RandomTroll · 03-18-2018, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim914

I have a dedicated environment with some custom hardware that requires a 2.6 kernel.

I'd think you'd more likely build new drivers for the custom hardware. Software makes everything work now; you can port it to a new kernel.