compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Alan Bort]

Ok... here is the deal.

I've read a couple tutorials on compiling kernel and stuff... but in
both my machines I have Mandrake 9.1 and a friend told me that it had
some compatibility issues with the new plain kernel... ANyway... the
problem is that I want to put the new kernel (not the latest, just
2.4.20) on my Alphaserver200 Is that possible.. (I KNOW IT IS)...

Since Lilo is not an option... what happends if I missconfigure
something??? how do I boot to another kernel??? from the bios console???

I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
that the FULL kernel???

I'm currently running RH7.0 on my alpha and It's an important machine in
my network... it's the router and the http/sendmail/ftp/etc server...

I'd appreciate all the help you can give me here... I'm new to linux (at
least at this level) and I certainly never did somthing like this... I
don't want to screw THIS one... I'm already downloading RH9 that isn't
supposed to have any trouble with the not-mdified kernel... so I think I
can screw that one up a few times... also... it's an x86 intel... so
LILO works and I can boot to any kernel I want.


Thanks a lot.

-- 
Alan Bort
Linux Registered User 298277 -Country Manager- [http://counter.li.org]
[ http://www.linuxquestions.org ] Username: Ciccio
[ http://es.tldp.org ]
Ciccio.-

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Måns Rullgård]

Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:

> Ok... here is the deal.
> 
> I've read a couple tutorials on compiling kernel and stuff... but in
> both my machines I have Mandrake 9.1 and a friend told me that it had
> some compatibility issues with the new plain kernel... ANyway... the
> problem is that I want to put the new kernel (not the latest, just
> 2.4.20) on my Alphaserver200 Is that possible.. (I KNOW IT IS)...

Don't use 2.4.20 on Alpha, it has nasty bugs.  2.4.19 is fine, as are
2.4.21-pre1 and up.

> Since Lilo is not an option... what happends if I missconfigure
> something??? how do I boot to another kernel??? from the bios console???

Have you read the aboot man pages.  On Alphas, aboot does what lilo
does on PCs (approximately).

> I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> that the FULL kernel???

Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.

> I'm currently running RH7.0 on my alpha and It's an important machine in
> my network... it's the router and the http/sendmail/ftp/etc server...
> 
> I'd appreciate all the help you can give me here... I'm new to linux (at
> least at this level) and I certainly never did somthing like this... I
> don't want to screw THIS one... I'm already downloading RH9 that isn't
> supposed to have any trouble with the not-mdified kernel... so I think I
> can screw that one up a few times... also... it's an x86 intel... so
> LILO works and I can boot to any kernel I want.

Read about aboot.

If you're new at this stuff, you WILL screw it up once or twice before
you learn it.  That doesn't mean that you'll loose any data, of
course.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@users.sf.net
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2700 bytes --]

On Sat, 2003-04-26 10:47:15 +0200, Måns Rullgård <mru@users.sourceforge.net>
wrote in message <yw1xel3p4pd8.fsf@zaphod.guide>:
> Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:
> 
> > Ok... here is the deal.
> > 
> > I've read a couple tutorials on compiling kernel and stuff... but in
> > both my machines I have Mandrake 9.1 and a friend told me that it had
> > some compatibility issues with the new plain kernel... ANyway... the
> > problem is that I want to put the new kernel (not the latest, just
> > 2.4.20) on my Alphaserver200 Is that possible.. (I KNOW IT IS)...
> 
> Don't use 2.4.20 on Alpha, it has nasty bugs.  2.4.19 is fine, as are
> 2.4.21-pre1 and up.

Or 2.5.x. I'm running them for quite some time on NoName, Miata and
Avanti with no problems at all.

> > Since Lilo is not an option... what happends if I missconfigure
> > something??? how do I boot to another kernel??? from the bios console???
> 
> Have you read the aboot man pages.  On Alphas, aboot does what lilo
> does on PCs (approximately).

aboot (for SRM-based machines), or milo (which is for AlphaBIOS based
machines).

> > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > that the FULL kernel???
> 
> Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.

Maybe it contains loads of drivers. I think you can easily get a 4MB
uncompressed kernel image...

> > I'm currently running RH7.0 on my alpha and It's an important machine in
> > my network... it's the router and the http/sendmail/ftp/etc server...
> > 
> > I'd appreciate all the help you can give me here... I'm new to linux (at
> > least at this level) and I certainly never did somthing like this... I
> > don't want to screw THIS one... I'm already downloading RH9 that isn't
> > supposed to have any trouble with the not-mdified kernel... so I think I
> > can screw that one up a few times... also... it's an x86 intel... so
> > LILO works and I can boot to any kernel I want.
> 
> Read about aboot.
> 
> If you're new at this stuff, you WILL screw it up once or twice before
> you learn it.  That doesn't mean that you'll loose any data, of
> course.

I subscribe that. Alpha is _not_ i386, so some things _are_ different.
Please, do some reading (and asking) first, then eventually don't shoot
your foot.

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
      ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(IRAQ_WAR_2 | DRM | TCPA));

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Alan Bort]

El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 05:47, Måns Rullgård escribió:
> Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:
> 
> > Ok... here is the deal.
> > 
> > I've read a couple tutorials on compiling kernel and stuff... but in
> > both my machines I have Mandrake 9.1 and a friend told me that it had
> > some compatibility issues with the new plain kernel... ANyway... the
> > problem is that I want to put the new kernel (not the latest, just
> > 2.4.20) on my Alphaserver200 Is that possible.. (I KNOW IT IS)...
> 
> Don't use 2.4.20 on Alpha, it has nasty bugs.  2.4.19 is fine, as are
> 2.4.21-pre1 and up.
Ok. I'll dload it.

> 
> > Since Lilo is not an option... what happends if I missconfigure
> > something??? how do I boot to another kernel??? from the bios console???
> 
> Have you read the aboot man pages.  On Alphas, aboot does what lilo
> does on PCs (approximately).
I'll read them

> > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > that the FULL kernel???
> 
> Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2

that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....

> 
> > I'm currently running RH7.0 on my alpha and It's an important machine in
> > my network... it's the router and the http/sendmail/ftp/etc server...
> > 
> > I'd appreciate all the help you can give me here... I'm new to linux (at
> > least at this level) and I certainly never did somthing like this... I
> > don't want to screw THIS one... I'm already downloading RH9 that isn't
> > supposed to have any trouble with the not-mdified kernel... so I think I
> > can screw that one up a few times... also... it's an x86 intel... so
> > LILO works and I can boot to any kernel I want.
> 
> Read about aboot.
> 
> If you're new at this stuff, you WILL screw it up once or twice before
> you learn it.  That doesn't mean that you'll loose any data, of
> course.
But I will be able to boot to my good kernel... won't I?

-- 
Alan Bort
Linux Registered User 298277 -Country Manager- [http://counter.li.org]
[ http://www.linuxquestions.org ] Username: Ciccio
[ http://es.tldp.org ]
Ciccio.-

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Alan Bort]

El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 09:33, Jan-Benedict Glaw escribió:
[SNIP]
> > Don't use 2.4.20 on Alpha, it has nasty bugs.  2.4.19 is fine, as are
> > 2.4.21-pre1 and up.
> 
> Or 2.5.x. I'm running them for quite some time on NoName, Miata and
> Avanti with no problems at all.
I'll try with 2.4.19 I think it is a little more tested... or at least I
think it should

> 
> > > Since Lilo is not an option... what happends if I missconfigure
> > > something??? how do I boot to another kernel??? from the bios console???
> > 
> > Have you read the aboot man pages.  On Alphas, aboot does what lilo
> > does on PCs (approximately).
> 
> aboot (for SRM-based machines), or milo (which is for AlphaBIOS based
> machines).
> 
> > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > that the FULL kernel???
> > 
> > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> Maybe it contains loads of drivers. I think you can easily get a 4MB
> uncompressed kernel image...
The problem is that It's 4MB compressed WITH BZ2!
> 
[SNIP]
> 
> I subscribe that. Alpha is _not_ i386, so some things _are_ different.
> Please, do some reading (and asking) first, then eventually don't shoot
> your foot.
Of course... I'll odo as much resaerch as I do for ANY 'new' sthing I do
on linux... but... will reading preapre me well for what I should
expect???

Thanks a lot.
-- 
Alan Bort
Linux Registered User 298277 -Country Manager- [http://counter.li.org]
[ http://www.linuxquestions.org ] Username: Ciccio
[ http://es.tldp.org ]
Ciccio.-

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Måns Rullgård]

Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:

> > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > that the FULL kernel???
> > 
> > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> 
> that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....

That's the patch (i.e. difference) from 2.4.19 to 2.4.20.  The full
source is called linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2, but remember that 2.4.20 is
broken.

> > > I'm currently running RH7.0 on my alpha and It's an important machine in
> > > my network... it's the router and the http/sendmail/ftp/etc server...
> > > 
> > > I'd appreciate all the help you can give me here... I'm new to linux (at
> > > least at this level) and I certainly never did somthing like this... I
> > > don't want to screw THIS one... I'm already downloading RH9 that isn't
> > > supposed to have any trouble with the not-mdified kernel... so I think I
> > > can screw that one up a few times... also... it's an x86 intel... so
> > > LILO works and I can boot to any kernel I want.
> > 
> > Read about aboot.
> > 
> > If you're new at this stuff, you WILL screw it up once or twice before
> > you learn it.  That doesn't mean that you'll loose any data, of
> > course.
> But I will be able to boot to my good kernel... won't I?

Sooner or later, of course.  Which distribution is installed right now?

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@users.sf.net
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Alan Bort]

El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 10:52, Måns Rullgård escribió:
> Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:
> 
> > > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > > that the FULL kernel???
> > > 
> > > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> > well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> > 
> > that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....
> 
> That's the patch (i.e. difference) from 2.4.19 to 2.4.20.  The full
> source is called linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2, but remember that 2.4.20 is
> broken.
Well. On kernel.org, in the main page there is a link to THAT kernel...
I could searcho for the full ~.19 version... but... how big is it???
cause my /boot partition is about 12 MB.. the Image will be smalller
than that... won't it???
> 
> > > > I'm currently running RH7.0 on my alpha and It's an important machine in
> > > > my network... it's the router and the http/sendmail/ftp/etc server...
> > > > 
> > > > I'd appreciate all the help you can give me here... I'm new to linux (at
> > > > least at this level) and I certainly never did somthing like this... I
> > > > don't want to screw THIS one... I'm already downloading RH9 that isn't
> > > > supposed to have any trouble with the not-mdified kernel... so I think I
> > > > can screw that one up a few times... also... it's an x86 intel... so
> > > > LILO works and I can boot to any kernel I want.
> > > 
> > > Read about aboot.
> > > 
> > > If you're new at this stuff, you WILL screw it up once or twice before
> > > you learn it.  That doesn't mean that you'll loose any data, of
> > > course.
> > But I will be able to boot to my good kernel... won't I?
> 
> Sooner or later, of course.  Which distribution is installed right now?
Redhat 7.0 for alphaserver (obviously)

here is the cat of /proc/version:

Linux version 2.4.3-12 (root@george.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version 2.96
20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-85)) #1 Fri Jun 8 13:20:17 EDT 2001

Oh, BTW.. I can't seem to get the system time corretly... though I don't
care... heheh. For some things I need it to be right or I'll get
something like WARNING the file has a modification time in the future.

Tnx a lot-


-- 
Alan Bort
Linux Registered User 298277 -Country Manager- [http://counter.li.org]
[ http://www.linuxquestions.org ] Username: Ciccio
[ http://es.tldp.org ]
Ciccio.-

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3025 bytes --]

On Sat, 2003-04-26 09:54:10 -0300, Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py>
wrote in message <1051361649.1968.70.camel@Gandalf>:
> El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 09:33, Jan-Benedict Glaw escribió:
> > > Don't use 2.4.20 on Alpha, it has nasty bugs.  2.4.19 is fine, as are
> > > 2.4.21-pre1 and up.
> > 
> > Or 2.5.x. I'm running them for quite some time on NoName, Miata and
> > Avanti with no problems at all.
> I'll try with 2.4.19 I think it is a little more tested... or at least I
> think it should

Then try 2.4.19. But I stand my word - 2.5.x is running quite well for
me. However, it's a bit challenging to get 2.5.x running (for the first
time) because some things are different. You've to use a new set of
module utilities (no longer modutils but module-init-tools) and some
things got modularized you may not expect to be modules. So if you miss
to load the keyboard modules (if you didn't compile it directly into
kernel image) you come up with basically no keyboard (or even with no
output to monitor:)

> > > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > > that the FULL kernel???
> > > 
> > > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> > Maybe it contains loads of drivers. I think you can easily get a 4MB
> > uncompressed kernel image...
> The problem is that It's 4MB compressed WITH BZ2!

Wow, that's really big then. However, is any bootloader capable of
booting a .bz2 image? IIRC only ELF and gzip compressed ELF images are
supported (with aboot as well as with milo).

> [SNIP]
> > 
> > I subscribe that. Alpha is _not_ i386, so some things _are_ different.
> > Please, do some reading (and asking) first, then eventually don't shoot
> > your foot.
> Of course... I'll odo as much resaerch as I do for ANY 'new' sthing I do
> on linux... but... will reading preapre me well for what I should
> expect???

Well, for a first-time alpha user, some things are really wired. First,
you maybo don't have to use well-known DOS-compatible partitions but BSD
partitions instead. Then you've got to get one of a set ot twe new boot
loaders to work properly. This includes to figure out how to interact
with them (how to pass kernel parameters or boot loader parameters from
SRM or from within AlphaBIOS, how to set environment variables there,
...).

That are the most common nitpicks there, I think. However, you've got to
start learning about the boot process with every new platform you start
playing with. This said, HP-PA boxen are different, as well as Sparc
machines are another thing. ...and Amigas, Ataris and Macs are
different, too.

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
      ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(IRAQ_WAR_2 | DRM | TCPA));

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Måns Rullgård]

Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:

> > > well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> > > 
> > > that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....
> > 
> > That's the patch (i.e. difference) from 2.4.19 to 2.4.20.  The full
> > source is called linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2, but remember that 2.4.20 is
> > broken.
> Well. On kernel.org, in the main page there is a link to THAT kernel...
> I could searcho for the full ~.19 version... but... how big is it???
> cause my /boot partition is about 12 MB.. the Image will be smalller
> than that... won't it???

The image will be about 1M compressed.  You'll find all 2.4 kernels in
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/

Get the kernel and compile it, then post your /etc/aboot.conf and
someone can tell you what to do.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@users.sf.net
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1331 bytes --]

On Sat, 2003-04-26 09:48:48 -0300, Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py>
wrote in message <1051361328.1967.64.camel@Gandalf>:
> El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 05:47, Måns Rullgård escribió:
> > Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:
> > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > that the FULL kernel???
> > 
> > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> 
> that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....

Showing this, it seems you're not really familiar with compiling a new
kernel at all. Maybe first start with building a kernel for a PeeCee.
Then, try to boot it.

Those patch files contain the difference from a complete kernel source
(version n-1) to version n. So patch-2.4.20 is capable of changing a
source tree containing 2.4.19 to 2.4.20. To use this patch, you'll also
need the full sources of its preceding version, here, this is
linux-2.4.19.

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
      ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(IRAQ_WAR_2 | DRM | TCPA));

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2244 bytes --]

On Sat, 2003-04-26 11:00:23 -0300, Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py>
wrote in message <1051365623.1967.79.camel@Gandalf>:
> El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 10:52, Måns Rullgård escribió:
> > Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py> writes:
> > 
> > > > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > > > that the FULL kernel???
> > > > 
> > > > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > > > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> > > well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> > > 
> > > that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....
> > 
> > That's the patch (i.e. difference) from 2.4.19 to 2.4.20.  The full
> > source is called linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2, but remember that 2.4.20 is
> > broken.
> Well. On kernel.org, in the main page there is a link to THAT kernel...
> I could searcho for the full ~.19 version... but... how big is it???
> cause my /boot partition is about 12 MB.. the Image will be smalller
> than that... won't it???

First, you download _source code_. This is about a 25MB compressed file
containing about 120MB of sources. Then, you've got to configure and
build these sources. The resulting binary file is the kernel image to
boot of about 1.5 .. 3 MB size (comressed with gzip). This file can be
booted through aboot or milo.

> here is the cat of /proc/version:
> 
> Linux version 2.4.3-12 (root@george.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version 2.96
> 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-85)) #1 Fri Jun 8 13:20:17 EDT 2001
> 
> Oh, BTW.. I can't seem to get the system time corretly... though I don't
> care... heheh. For some things I need it to be right or I'll get

These early 2.4.x kernel contain a bug wrt. time handling on boot-up. I
fixed that some time later IIRC.

> something like WARNING the file has a modification time in the future.

# date -s '....'

will fix it, possibly as well as installing ntpdate and ntpd.

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
      ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(IRAQ_WAR_2 | DRM | TCPA));

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Alan Bort]

El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 12:58, Jan-Benedict Glaw escribió:
> On Sat, 2003-04-26 09:54:10 -0300, Alan Bort <333101@personal.net.py>
> wrote in message <1051361649.1968.70.camel@Gandalf>:
> > El sáb, 26 de 04 de 2003 a las 09:33, Jan-Benedict Glaw escribió:
> > > > Don't use 2.4.20 on Alpha, it has nasty bugs.  2.4.19 is fine, as are
> > > > 2.4.21-pre1 and up.
> > > 
> > > Or 2.5.x. I'm running them for quite some time on NoName, Miata and
> > > Avanti with no problems at all.
> > I'll try with 2.4.19 I think it is a little more tested... or at least I
> > think it should
> 
> Then try 2.4.19. But I stand my word - 2.5.x is running quite well for
> me. However, it's a bit challenging to get 2.5.x running (for the first
> time) because some things are different. You've to use a new set of
> module utilities (no longer modutils but module-init-tools) and some
> things got modularized you may not expect to be modules. So if you miss
> to load the keyboard modules (if you didn't compile it directly into
> kernel image) you come up with basically no keyboard (or even with no
> output to monitor:)
Well... I was going to take out my video card and make the output
through a serial port... because I need the second PCI for another
10/100 eth... (the on-board is just 10 and the one I have is plugged to
the radio-modem)

> 
> > > > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little less)... is
> > > > > that the FULL kernel???
> > > > 
> > > > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up around 1.5 MB in
> > > > size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> > > Maybe it contains loads of drivers. I think you can easily get a 4MB
> > > uncompressed kernel image...
> > The problem is that It's 4MB compressed WITH BZ2!
> 
> Wow, that's really big then. However, is any bootloader capable of
> booting a .bz2 image? IIRC only ELF and gzip compressed ELF images are
> supported (with aboot as well as with milo).
> 
> > [SNIP]
> > > 
> > > I subscribe that. Alpha is _not_ i386, so some things _are_ different.
> > > Please, do some reading (and asking) first, then eventually don't shoot
> > > your foot.
> > Of course... I'll odo as much resaerch as I do for ANY 'new' sthing I do
> > on linux... but... will reading preapre me well for what I should
> > expect???
> 
> Well, for a first-time alpha user, some things are really wired. First,
> you maybo don't have to use well-known DOS-compatible partitions but BSD
> partitions instead. Then you've got to get one of a set ot twe new boot
> loaders to work properly. This includes to figure out how to interact
> with them (how to pass kernel parameters or boot loader parameters from
> SRM or from within AlphaBIOS, how to set environment variables there,
> ...).
> 
> That are the most common nitpicks there, I think. However, you've got to
> start learning about the boot process with every new platform you start
> playing with. This said, HP-PA boxen are different, as well as Sparc
> machines are another thing. ...and Amigas, Ataris and Macs are
> different, too.
> 
> MfG, JBG
-- 
Alan Bort
Linux Registered User 298277 -Country Manager- [http://counter.li.org]
[ http://www.linuxquestions.org ] Username: Ciccio
[ http://es.tldp.org ]
Ciccio.-

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-alpha" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

RE: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Oliver Pitzeier]

[ ... ]
> First, you download _source code_. This is about a 25MB 
> compressed file containing about 120MB of sources. Then, 
> you've got to configure and build these sources. The 
> resulting binary file is the kernel image to boot of about 
> 1.5 .. 3 MB size (comressed with gzip). This file can be 
> booted through aboot or milo.

Like this one:

[oliver@track oliver]$ ls -lah /boot/vmlinuz-2.5.64
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1.9M Mar  6 16:58 /boot/vmlinuz-2.5.64

[ ... ]

And aboot.conf should look something like this:

[oliver@track oliver]$ cat /etc/aboot.conf
# aboot default configurations
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel paths are relative to /boot/
0:1/vmlinuz-2.5.64 root=/dev/sda3 console=tty0

> > something like WARNING the file has a modification time in 
> the future.
> 
> # date -s '....'
> 
> will fix it, possibly as well as installing ntpdate and ntpd.

You can try rdate as well...

rdate -s <timeserver>; hwclock -w

br,
 Oliver

RE: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Oliver Pitzeier]

Alan Bort wrote:
> > > > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little 
> > > > > less)... is that the FULL kernel???
> > > > 
> > > > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up 
> > > > around 1.5 MB 
> > > > in size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> > > well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> > > 
> > > that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....
> > 
> > That's the patch (i.e. difference) from 2.4.19 to 2.4.20.  The full 
> > source is called linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2, but remember that 2.4.20 is 
> > broken.
>
> Well. On kernel.org, in the main page there is a link to THAT 
> kernel... I could searcho for the full ~.19 version... but... 
> how big is it??? cause my /boot partition is about 12 MB.. 
> the Image will be smalller than that... won't it???

wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/patch-2.4.19.bz2
tar xfvj linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2; \
cd linux-2.4.19; \
make menuconfig; \
make dep; make; \
make modules;

Maybe that helps?

br,
 Oliver

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 754 bytes --]

On Sat, 2003-04-26 21:36:23 +0200, Oliver Pitzeier <o.pitzeier@uptime.at>
wrote in message <001901c30c2b$26993e10$1011a8c0@roadrunner>:

> > > something like WARNING the file has a modification time in 
> > the future.
> > 
> > # date -s '....'
> > 
> > will fix it, possibly as well as installing ntpdate and ntpd.
> 
> You can try rdate as well...

Oh please, let the r-utilities go back to where they came from: to hell.

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
      ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(IRAQ_WAR_2 | DRM | TCPA));

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1645 bytes --]

On Sat, 2003-04-26 21:42:15 +0200, Oliver Pitzeier <o.pitzeier@uptime.at>
wrote in message <002201c30c2b$f5300d80$1011a8c0@roadrunner>:
> Alan Bort wrote:
> > > > > > I've noted that the downloadable file is only 4 MB (a little 
> > > > > > less)... is that the FULL kernel???
> > > > > 
> > > > > Is that already compiled?  My kernels usually end up 
> > > > > around 1.5 MB 
> > > > > in size, or ~2.7 MB uncompressed.
> > > > well: 4,0M    patch-2.4.20.bz2
> > > > 
> > > > that's what du patch-2.4.20.bz2 returns....
> > > 
> > > That's the patch (i.e. difference) from 2.4.19 to 2.4.20.  The full 
> > > source is called linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2, but remember that 2.4.20 is 
> > > broken.
> >
> > Well. On kernel.org, in the main page there is a link to THAT 
> > kernel... I could searcho for the full ~.19 version... but... 
> > how big is it??? cause my /boot partition is about 12 MB.. 
> > the Image will be smalller than that... won't it???
> 
> wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/patch-2.4.19.bz2
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> tar xfvj linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2; \
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> cd linux-2.4.19; \
> make menuconfig; \
> make dep; make; \
> make modules;
> 
> Maybe that helps?

Maybe a little, but there's an obvious bug:)

MfG, JBG

-- 
   Jan-Benedict Glaw       jbglaw@lug-owl.de    . +49-172-7608481
   "Eine Freie Meinung in  einem Freien Kopf    | Gegen Zensur | Gegen Krieg
    fuer einen Freien Staat voll Freier Bürger" | im Internet! |   im Irak!
      ret = do_actions((curr | FREE_SPEECH) & ~(IRAQ_WAR_2 | DRM | TCPA));

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

RE: compiling kernel for an alphaserver (VERY OLD ONE)

[Oliver Pitzeier]

Jan-Benedict Glaw wrote:
> > > Well. On kernel.org, in the main page there is a link to THAT
> > > kernel... I could searcho for the full ~.19 version... but... 
> > > how big is it??? cause my /boot partition is about 12 MB.. 
> > > the Image will be smalller than that... won't it???
> > 
> > wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/patch-2.4.19.bz2
>                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > tar xfvj linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2; \
>            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > cd linux-2.4.19; \
> > make menuconfig; \
> > make dep; make; \
> > make modules;
> > 
> > Maybe that helps?
> 
> Maybe a little, but there's an obvious bug:)

Sure there is... I shouldn't work 32 hours in a row. :-)

Sleep well, folks!

Best regards,
 Oliver