help with kernel 2.6.15.1

hosler · 01-21-2006, 02:26 PM

I am trying to compile the 2.6.15.1 kernel on my laptop. I get this output when running /sbin/lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 01)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 01)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
01:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)

When I run make menu config to configure my kernel, I get totatlly lost when trying to choose which drivers to select. Could anyone point me in the right direction.

MS3FGX · 01-21-2006, 02:56 PM

Well, basically, you need to find out which driver each device needs by searching online.

Doesn't sound like a lot of fun, I know.

You can get a pretty good idea what drivers you need by booting up to the normal Slackware kernel, and running lsmod. This shows all the modules that your hardware is currently using, so at the very least, you are going to want to include most, if not all, of those listed.

Doing:

lsmod > ./Modules.txt

And printing out the resulting file is a good idea, or at least write them down.

Now, if there is hardware on your machine that does not work with the default Slackware kernel, then you are going to have to do the leg work and find out what driver is required and enable it.

Now, it is also worth mentioning that during the process of including these drivers into your kernel, you have the option of either compiling them into the main kernel, or having them as loadable modules.

There are many schools of thought on the subject, but personally, any hardware I know is not changing anytime soon, I go ahead and compile into the kernel. For me, this results with probably 95% of my drivers being compiled in, and I generally just include support for loadable modules, and not necessarily actually compile any modules.

This leaves the option open later if I need to add something to the system (but even then, if it was something that I would likely not be removing from the system I would go ahead and recompile the kernel with support for that built in).

But the choice is yours.

hosler · 01-21-2006, 03:38 PM

Is there a website that will tell me which drivers to install according to the modules i need to run?

also, i noticed that when I use my 2.4.x config file as a template for configuring my 2.6.x kernel many options were there. When I use a blank config file, i see that many options are not there. Expecially in the device drivers section. How can I view all the options?

con · 01-21-2006, 03:57 PM

Quote:

How can I view all the options?

there is an option in the toolbar for that

hosler · 01-21-2006, 06:14 PM

How come other distrobutions, such as ubuntu, dont require you to ever compile a kernel? Do they just select everything?

hosler · 01-21-2006, 08:40 PM

Slackware comes with a generic 2.6.13 kernel. Does it also come with the .config file?

j79zlr · 01-21-2006, 09:38 PM

Yes Ubuntu basically compiles everything as modules in their kernels. I've been using linux for years, and compiled probably 100's of kernels, and when I tried Ubuntu, I couldn't get my custom kernels to boot. Even the developers on their forum said "I don't know why it doesn't work, I can't get it to work either, why do you need a custom kernel anyways?" Regardless, I find Ubuntu to be noob friendly and power user unfriendly. It didn't last on my PC long.

MQMan · 01-21-2006, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Slackware comes with a generic 2.6.13 kernel. Does it also come with the .config file?

Yes. Look in /boot and /usr/src/linux-2.6.13

Quote:

How come other distrobutions, such as ubuntu, dont require you to ever compile a kernel

Who says you have to compile a kernel with Slack. I haven't.

If you want to move to a newer kernel, then for any distribution, if that version hasn't been "packaged", then you'll have to compile it yourself. Slack current has 2.6.14 in it. No doubt Pat will add 2.6.15 at some point.

Cheers,
Eddie

detpenguin · 01-21-2006, 10:07 PM

i just upgraded to 2.6.14.6...no compiling...just a little bit of tweaking things after...i've never compiled a kernel, and i've been using slack for almost 2 years now...