Configuring a Slackware 10.1 SMP Kernel
 

Hi there.
I installed Slackware 10.1 recently on my dual Pentium III Coppermine (1GHz) system and it runs fine, but I am hoping that I can compile a Kernel with SMP enabled so I don't have an idle CPU sitting around.
Last time I tried it (under Slackware 10.0), I got nowhere because I didn't know enough to finish the configuration part . I have a few issues:

WHERE IS THE FILE CONTAINING MY CURRENT KERNEL CONFIGURATION?
Trolling around my system in search of some help I finally found a file:
/boot/config
which looks like it contains some parameters that indicate how my current kernel is configured.

Q1 - Is that right? If not, where can I find out how my current kernel is set up?
Q2 - If so, can I just use these parameters and change the SMP parameter?
Is that enough?

SHOULD I COMPILE FOR PIII INSTEAD OF I486?
I noticed that in the 'config' file (above) the parameter 'CONFIG_M486=Y' was used and all the other type of Intel processors disabled.

Q3 - If I enable another Processor Type, will it make any difference to processing
speed/efficiency?
Q4 - If so, which particular parameter should I use? I noticed both '586' and 'PIII'
parameters in the list.

WHAT IMPACT WILL A NEW KERNEL HAVE ON THE REST OF MY SETUP?
I know, for example, that I will need to reinstall the NVIDIA driver with that kernel, but in looking around I came across others that seemed to have a number of other problems, such as broken KDE configs etc., but these all seemed pretty old postings ....

Q5 What other 'gotcha's do I have to look out for in Slackware 10.1 ?

As always, many thanks in advance for any and all info.

Well first what kind of kernel you wanting to recompile? 2.4? 2.6? If it's 2.6 then that config is useless if memory serves me right cause it's for a 2.4 kernel. Yes you can change it to your specific cpu architecture and it's fine. You should in fact. The reason that one says for 486 is because slackware is a 486 compiled distro so that is the least requirement needed for your hardware. As for broken KDE configs, the kernel doesn't touch anything to do with KDE. Thats userland stuff and the kernel doesn't even know what it is let alone how to screw it up. You can just enable SMP in the kernel config. If you don't know how to compile a kernel I think there is a sticky thread at the top of this section.

If you go to your local Slackware mirror under slackware-10.1/kernels you will find a subdirectory for each stock kernel. Pick the one closest to what you want, grab the file config and copy it to .config (that's dot-config) in the kernel source directory. From there do a make xconfig or make menuconfig. You probably want to make only a few changes at first, until you get the hang of it, like enabling SMP and changing the processor type.

These days I go with the generic kernel myself, so someone else will have to answer the rest of your questions.

Mike

If you're not using the same kernel version as the .config then you will have to do a "make oldconfig".

Thank you all for your help so far.
Apologies for the delay in responding, as I live in Australia (we sleep at different times here...).

- As a first step I just want to enable the SMP functionality. A 2.6 Kernel may be the next step...
- I am using the standard Slackware installation Kernel at the moment. I think that should be 2.4.xx (26?).

I will keep you posted about the results
Regards

SMP Kernel Results - Where's the sound card?
 

Well! That was a learning curve! :study:

Firstly let me tell you all that I am writing this using my new, SMP/PIII Kernel, a MUCH faster machine overall!
Thanks to all of you that helped so far.
So far?
Yes, 'cause the battle is not yet over!

Forgetting all the rest (read on below if you're interested in the details - and the gotchas!) once I successfully
booted into Linux using my new Kernel and started KDE (with startx) I got the following window, labelled
'artsmessage':
- Error while initializing the sound driver device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device).

Now, I had no problem with the single-CPU Kernel that came with the Slackware 10.1 distro, so I thought this
was very strange. :scratch:
I have a Creative Labs Audigy 2 Value card, which is in the HCL list, and which worked fine before my compilation
of an SMP Kernel. During reconfiguration of the Kernel, I only touched the SMP and CPU Type parameters, leaving
all the others unchanged, so I figured whaaaaaa? :confused:

So I:
- ran Alsaconf - which found no known sound cards :scratch:
- ran /sbin/lspci - which gave: Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs: Unknown device 0008 :scratch:
- found that modprobe.conf is empty :scratch:

so I looked at the ALSA packages with Kpackage (in KDE) and found that for the package:
alsa-driver-1.0.8-2.4.29-i486-1, all the files under the directory /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel are missing!! :confused:
So the /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/sound directory and all its contents are missing!

I'm not sure, but this should have been the situation under the original Kernel, when my sound card worked!
I didn't touch any package at all in generating the new Kernel.
What's going on? Anyone out there know?

PS A few Gotchas when changing Kernels
------------------
I followed the well-known sticky and found:

Gotcha 1: - When modifying lilo.conf, instead of : label = slack.old I used : label = 1_CPU Linux -- WRONG!
The label text should not have spaces because the make install script fails with Install error 2 and lilo.conf is not modified automagically to include the new Kernel as an option in Lilo boot.

Gotcha 2: - When running the sequence of commands in that sticky, then re-booting into the old Kernel (which should have been exactly the same as my previous one), I found that :
- My NVIDIA module had NOT been included AND
- the mouse could not be found (:scratch: ).
So if you want to keep using your old (and laboriously set-up) configuration, BEWARE! I guess you will need to copy your old vmlinuz and map etc. manually!

Yea, sound modules need to be replaced as well. Since you recompiled the kernel yourself and didn't use a slak-pak, your existing modules directory gets wiped. That will buger up packages that install to that directory. Any package that installs to /lib/modules/$(uname -r) need to be manually recompiled unless you can find a corresponding kernel version number for the package. If I installed a new 2.6.10 kernel I'd have to find an 'alsa-driver-1.0.8_2.6.10-i486-1.tgz' package or just download the alsa-driver source and compile it myself. Even tho you used the same kernel, when you 'make modules_install', that wipes your existing /lib/modules/<kernel version> directory.... Not too big of a deal as long as you don't have ALOT of extra modules that you compiled in there.

The nvidia driver installs it's module to /lib/modules/$(uname -r)... Driverloader, NdisWrapper, specialized modem drivers, et. all.... I update kernels frequently so I recompile alsa myself most of the time instead of waiting on Patrick... I also don't like having sound modules for every card imaginable. So I Just compile the needed support only for alsa-driver.

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...ve_Labs#matrix

Find your card and follow the directions. If it uses the 'emu10k1' driver, the above will work. Of course, you can just do a 'removepkg' on the existing alsa-driver slak-pak and then reinstall it since your using the same kernel.. Then run 'alsaconf' 'alsamixer' 'alsactl store' again altho the last 2 probably aren't necessary..

Thanks for the info jong357,

I tried the first method you mentioned, but I still get the same problem in KDE.
Mind you, I downloaded alsa 1.0.9a, - I hope this didn't stuff anything up...

Q1 I assume that version 1.0.9a alsa is compatible with 2.4.29 kernels? I checked the alsa site but I had no luck with this...
Q2 Can I still, at this stage, download and install the Slackware alsa package? i.e. carry out the second of the two approaches you suggested or do I need to clean up some directories before I can proceed? (I have looked, and the packages seem to have been unchanged by the new installation)

Thanks in advance...

Correction!!
Apologies, I was using Kpackage and it did not SEEM to indicate any differences in /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound, but in refreshing, I can now see:

- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/acore/seq
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/acore/seq/oss
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/pci
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/pci/ac97
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/pci/emuk10k1
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/support
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/support/pnp
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/synth
- /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernels/sound/synth/emux

However I still have the same problem. (?)
apologies...

I always assumed that if you use alsa-driver-1.0.9 that you would need to upgrade alsa-lib, alsa-oss and alsa-utils as well... That could cause a problem allthough I'm not sure. It's good form to keep the version numbers the same anyway... I'd try doing a removepkg on alsa-driver if it's in pkgtools and then do an installpkg on the default alsa-driver-1.0.8.... That should overwrite the 1.0.9 that you installed by hand. All the alsa's should be the same version anyway. There are 4 different ones installed. Give that a try.

I'm not sure what the 'first suggestion' was... Did you use a slak-pak or compile alsa from source? Occasionally, the slak-paks don't work for me.. Alsa can be finiky sometimes. If the slak-pak didn't work, then try compiling from source. And, as I mentioned, make sure all 4 alsa packages are the same version...