Etch-and-a-half kernel in Etch
Nikos Chantziaras
pages, some game servers, etc (I'm not a business or anything). But, I
have no physical access to it.
I'm trying to upgrade the kernel from 2.6.18 to 2.6.24. Pretty standard
upgrade procedure:
apt-get install linux-source-2.6.24
cd /usr/src
rm linux && ln -s linux-source-2.6.24 linux
cd linux
make clean && make mrproper
zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
make oldconfig
"oldconfig" doesn't show much that would affect boot behavior. Then I
build the thing:
fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-custom kernel_image
kernel_headers
cd ..
dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.24-custom_2.6.24-custom-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb
dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.24-custom_2.6.24-custom-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb
I then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and insert this:
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.24-custom
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-custom root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-custom
savedefault
This is entry #3 in there (counted from 0) so to test it, I do:
grub-reboot 3
Doesn't boot. I have to do a remote hardware reset (which uses the
previous "saveddefault" entry) to get the system back.
Have I missed something? I can build custom 2.6.18 kernels with the
above procedure (including a grub-reboot) just fine. They always boot.
Anything else than 2.6.18 does not boot (also tried vanilla kernels
ranging from 2.6.24.x to 2.6.26.x).
The huge problem here is that I have no clue what the error message is.
The server is about 3000 kilometers from here so going there to take a
look at the monitor (if the machine even has one) is a no-no. I've
tried to configure the kernel with netconsole and the NIC driver
built-in, but the error seems to happen early in the boot process,
before the NIC driver is loaded.
Any hints at how to proceed are greatly appreciated.
(In case you wonder: it's a real (dedicated) machine, no VPS or
virtualized thing or something like that.)
Mark Madsen
> Any hints at how to proceed are greatly appreciated.
See what happens if you try doing it the Debian way:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-kernel.en.html
says:
"Help is available by executing the command
make-kpkg --help
and through the manual page make-kpkg(1)."
Anton Ertl
>Have I missed something? I can build custom 2.6.18 kernels with the
>above procedure (including a grub-reboot) just fine. They always boot.
> Anything else than 2.6.18 does not boot (also tried vanilla kernels
>ranging from 2.6.24.x to 2.6.26.x).
I don't see anything suspicious in your procedure. On
<http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/build-debian-kernel.html> you
can see what I did to build a 2.6.25 kernel, and the result works with
etch. My guess is that you need something in the configuration that
was not necessary in 2.6.18. Maybe you should start with a Debian
config for the kernel version you use, like I did.
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
an...@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
Sheridan Hutchinson
> I'm trying to upgrade the kernel from 2.6.18 to 2.6.24. Pretty
> standard upgrade procedure:
>
>
> apt-get install linux-source-2.6.24 cd /usr/src rm linux && ln -s
> linux-source-2.6.24 linux cd linux make clean && make mrproper zcat
> /proc/config.gz > .config make oldconfig
Hi Nick,
Sounds like you've got an interesting machine there.
Firstly, like the other poster said, you're not building the kernel the
'Debian' way and it would be advantageous to you if you did, even if
it's because your kernel can be managed as a nice easy package.
You've mentioned you've tried 'vanilla' kernels, however have you tried
the pre-compiled stock generic kernel for your architecture?
--
Regards,
Sheridan Hutchinson
sher...@shezza.org
Nikos Chantziaras
(For some reason I don't see anyone else who replied. Maybe my news
server didn't sync yet or is broken :P Google Groups shows them OK.)
Anyway, I've used make-kpkg to build the kernel (as described in my OP).
I was under the impression that this is "the Debian way" or kernel
building. I followed instruction from:
http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_debian_etch
Thanks for the pre-compiled kernel tip. I'll try to boot that one and
then use its config file as a base. In case you wonder, I need a custom
kernel because I need to change the kernel "tick" timer from 250Hz to
1000Hz (yes, it's a server, but this server is not OK with 250Hz because
it needs to run game servers with good latency.)