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Hi,
Correct me if it is not true or some hardware might need the module to be inbuilt.
I don't why it's built-in (in the generic kernel), but my custom-built kernel has it as a module (which normally isn't loaded, only the oldest of my three systems has got working floppy drives - actually 2: both 3.5" and 5"25').
So it most certainly isn't required, but the amount of memory saved isn't all that much, the module in my system is about 67 KB (and most of that is overhead, to make it into a loadable module).
The huge kernel, of course, should have it built-in, just like most block device drivers.
I have a floppy drive. At the time I bought this board (2010) I was still of a mind to insist on a floppy controller. An alternate method of booting the machine, some flashing programs still need DOS etc.
I don't use it, so I build floppy as a module, and blacklist it so it won't load (I'd just manually load it if I want it... haven't in several years to be honest)
As for why it's (still?) built in to Slackware's kernels, perhaps it's a throw back from the bootdisk and rootdisk days. Perhaps someone might need to access a floppy disk in the case of the modules directory being unavailable.
Time will tell if their efforts will be as extensive or expert as those of the regular linux kernel dev team, but the prospect of getting kernel bugfixes and security patches for 14.2 long after the LTS cycle gives me a profound sense of security and continuity.
4.4 might already be the most robust and thoroughly debugged kernel we have ever seen, and that will only deepen with time.
Time will tell if their efforts will be as extensive or expert as those of the regular linux kernel dev team, but the prospect of getting kernel bugfixes and security patches for 14.2 long after the LTS cycle gives me a profound sense of security and continuity.
4.4 might already be the most robust and thoroughly debugged kernel we have ever seen, and that will only deepen with time.
I doubt any LTS kernel is any more stable or robust than the latest Stable or mainline release kernel. Looking at the 4.4.xxx changelog you can see fixes for bugs that were fixed in mainline kernels going back 4 years. A number of fixes dating back to 2016 that were never rebased back to the LTS kernels that the latest kernel already had/have. So the newest 5.6/5.7 will have fixes in it that will not be in the 4.4 or newer LTS kernels for a number of years.
tl;dr - The LTS kernels might not have shiny new bugs to be tested and fixed but they have a greater number of bugs that months and years old that are fixed in newer released series kernels.
Distribution: Slackware64-current with "True Multilib" and KDE4Town.
Posts: 9,095
Original Poster
Rep:
Year 2020, Round 35
Another batch of kernel updates has been scheduled for release on Wednesday, 03 June 2020, at approximately 17:00, GMT. If no problems are found while testing the release candidates, they might be available sometime on Tuesday (depending on your time zone).
There will be 177 patches in the 5.6.16 update, 142 in 5.4.44, 95 in 4.19.126, 77 in 4.14.183, 61 in 4.9.226 and, finally, 48 patches in the 4.4.226 update.
Distribution: Slackware64-current with "True Multilib" and KDE4Town.
Posts: 9,095
Original Poster
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew.46
This kernel built fine on my system but I could not install NVidia 440.82 so I have retreated to the stock -current kernel. Anybody else with success?
Did the nouveau driver work?
Not two minutes ago I was on the Nvidia website looking for a new driver. It may take a few days, but they
will issue a driver that works with the new stable kernel. They always do.
Last edited by cwizardone; 06-01-2020 at 07:40 PM.
I did not test this as my working / gaming always requires the NVidia binary blob...
Quote:
Not two minutes ago I was on the Nvidia website looking for a new driver. It may take a few days, but they will issue a driver that works with the new stable kernel. They always do.
Like you I checked, I am happy to wait a week or so, my system is running well enough with the stock kernel...
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