slackware 14.1 3.10.17 kernel question on setting up generic kernel

Bertman123 · 01-12-2014, 02:45 PM

I blacklisted the kernels in slackpkg and changed the mirror to current. I then updated slackpkg and then changed the mirror to 14.1. From there I did slackpkg update, slackpkg upgrade-all, slackpkg install-new, and slackpkg clean system. Everything on that end seemed to go just fine. It was installing the new kernel that seemed to have problems.

I did seem to get it resolved by installing all of the kernel packages, where before I only installed the generic kernel, kernel modules, and mkinitrd and I'm sure that's where I made my mistake. In everything I read I didn't see any mention of which kernel packages to install, but I was smart enough to not mess with my working kernel. I already had the generic kernel installed and set up and it did work, but I could not install proprietary drivers, which is a problem I had previously with my laptop and the dreaded broadcom drivers. :-p

One thing to note is that even when blacklisting the nouveau driver I could still boot into my xfce desktop and still get to the internet without my screen going all funny without the correct video driver working. This was before installing the nvidia driver too. But after installing all of the kernel files, huge kernel, kernel source, kernel firmware, etc. I was able to then install the nvidia drivers. Which also means that when I stall another kernel I'll be able to get my broadcom wireless drivers working as well.

Thank you all for your help with this. It has been quite a learning experience for me.

Richard Cranium · 01-12-2014, 05:48 PM

Kernel updates are something that slackroll handles better (IMO) than slackpkg.

slackroll's user interface is more painful to use than slackpkg.

It may not matter, but you should check your /etc/rc.d/rc.modules symlink. I'm willing to bet that it isn't pointing to rc.modules-3.2.45.

(I say that it probably doesn't matter because I just checked mine and it's pointing to rc.modules.3.2.45. I'm running 14.1, so that should be pointing to rc.modules-3.10.17. I'll be changing that symlink a couple of seconds after I hit "post".)

(And, no, I'm not using slackroll on this box. I'm starting to wish that I had.)

NOTE: I just did a diff on rc.modules-3.2.45 and rc.modules-3.10.17. They are the same, other than what I had manually changed in my 3.2.45 copy. That's probably true between the two rc.module versions for Slackware 14.0.

Bertman123 · 01-12-2014, 06:28 PM

How do you change a symlink? I can see myself creating more problems. :-p

enorbet · 01-12-2014, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertman123

How do you change a symlink? I can see myself creating more problems. :-p

Even if you refuse to build one yourself, it behooves you to read AlienBob's excellent HowTo HERE

For one thing it shows what symlinks should be changed and how. In Linux, all objects are files. A symlink is simply a file that links to another file so

Code:

 To Remove

rm -f /boot/foo

To Make a New One (an example)

ln -s /boot/vmlinuz-3.12.2.foo /boot/vmlinuz

Bertman123 · 01-12-2014, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

Even if you refuse to build one yourself, it behooves you to read AlienBob's excellent HowTo HERE

For one thing it shows what symlinks should be changed and how. In Linux, all objects are files. A symlink is simply a file that links to another file so

Code:

 To Remove

rm -f /boot/foo

To Make a New One (an example)

ln -s /boot/vmlinuz-3.12.2.foo /boot/vmlinuz

Is there a way to check and see what the current symlink is to see if it needs changing?

Bertman123 · 01-12-2014, 10:12 PM

Should I remove the old kernel or leave it? Which kernel files are safe to delete?

Richard Cranium · 01-13-2014, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertman123

Is there a way to check and see what the current symlink is to see if it needs changing?

Code:

ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.modules

Bertman123 · 01-14-2014, 10:47 AM

Okay, so it looks like the symlink is pointing to the 3.2.29 kernel as per the output below.

bash-4.2$ ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Jan 9 21:59 /etc/rc.d/rc.modules -> rc.modules-3.2.29

This page mentioned the following:

If you decide to build your own 2.6 kernel from source, you might get bitten by the fact that there will not be a file called /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-$(uname -r) - you will have to create it yourself. The rc.modules usually is a symlink to the rc.modules-2.6.37.6-smp. A typical result from the absence of a rc.modules file for your specific kernel is that your mouse will not be working. Take that behaviour as a hint to create the rc.modules file! You can take a full copy of any existing rc.modules-2.6.xx file. If your system does not have any rc file for a 2.6 kernel you can take the one on the Slackware CD as an example:
/source/k/kernel-modules-smp/rc.modules.new.
Here's an example in case you would have built a new kernel with version 2.6.38.2.alien and you already had installed a Slackware kernel 2.6.37.6-smp:

cp -a /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-2.6.37.6-smp /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-2.6.38.2.alien

The file /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-2.6.38.2.alien will then be used when your new kernel 2.6.38.2.alien boots.

Does this mean that I can just do the following to create a new symlimk to the new kernel?

cp -a /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-3.2.29 /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-3.10.17