Announcing Pappy's Kernel Seeds. <closed, use new thread>

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:45 am Post subject:

I just uploaded .configs for 2.6.27.13 in both x86 and x86_64 flavors. Also uploaded the proper .27 x86_64 kernels. Ooops.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:44 am Post subject:

I'm a little late in making this announcement, but since the last emerge --sync, I've been dealing with getting GEM configured properly. Yes, that's right. For ~arch users, GEM has made it into portage. I'll discuss that in a moment.

As of 02-02-2009, I added .configs for 2.6.27.14 and 2.6.28.3 in both x86 and x86_64. I also fixed a minor error in 2.6.28-x86_64 through 2.6.28.2-x86_64. I think I'm finally zeroing in on how to produce seeds without so many mistakes. YAY!

Anyway, back to GEM. It is in portage with the addition of media-libs/mesa-7.3 and x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel-2.6.1 last night (02-03-2009). And it works. I've been tweaking the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for this machine (pappy-lap), and I think I finally am at a spot where I might be able to watch a DVD in Linux, at long last. Initially, things are looking good with Constantine, but I'll really know when I play Silence Of The Lambs. That's for later.

Also, for i915 and most likely >i915 video chips, you can now run the .28 kernel without noticeable errors. 2.6.28.3 has been up and running on this machine for over five hours, and I haven't had a problem, or any weird things going on.

No, I'm not pulling the nVidia card from core-too to see if it would have worked for that machine. Therefore, I will assume that it should work with >=i915 for you as well. Please let me know if this is the case or not. Thanks.

For those of you with =<i830, stick with .27 kernels. Gen-tosh will not start X with the .28 kernel. I'm going to post a bug report later.

That's the news from Pappy land.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:22 am Post subject:

I love it when this happens! Before the official ebuilds have even hit the tree, but after my custom ebuilds hit my overlay, I was whipping up new .configs. That's right, before the portage source comes new .configs for 2.6.27.15 and 2.6.28.4 in both x86 and x86_64 flavors. Enjoy!

Blessed be!
Pappy
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rmh3093 · Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject:

Yes this is a good idea, maybe you would consider join the zen-sources team and make your kernel seeds as another zen project... I think it would complement our kernel work well....
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:36 pm Post subject:

I'd be interested in that. I've never worked with the zen kernel, but since it's built on the vanilla kernel, I'm sure I could do something with it. I'd like to discuss this further, perhaps in private.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:43 pm Post subject:

And once again, before portage even contains the source ebuilds, I just uploaded the .configs for 2.6.27.16 and 2.6.28.5 in both x86 and x86_64 flavors. Enjoy!

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:43 am Post subject:

Portage beat me this round. However, the new .configs for 2.6.27.17 in both x86 and x86_64 flavors are ready to go. Enjoy!

Blessed be!
Pappy
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lightning · n00b Joined: 14 Nov 2007 Posts: 65

Hi pappy, I finally decided to upgrade my kernel, so time to use your seed arrived. I can feel that performance is better then before, though some problems happened I can't solve.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:57 am Post subject:

When you say you migrated, you mean that your original kernel was that version forever, correct? Therefore, you used a seed and added your devices. You didn't use make oldconfig to set up the new kernel, right?

If both are true, also send your original (as in the .26-r1), as well as the results of lspci -n and cat /proc/cpuinfo along with your /etc/fstab file, and I'll see what the problem might be. My first thought would be different ALSA version issues, but I don't want to make that emphatic statement without looking. Therefore, I'd have to look and compare your old and new setup.

Also, if you could, post your /var/log/dmesg with your working kernel and the new one as well.

I know that's a lot of info, but there've been a few changes in the kernel since your version. Also, since it is so much, please post it in a private message.

Thanks.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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myceliv · Apprentice Joined: 29 Nov 2007 Posts: 178

Nice work, Pappy, finally got around to trying one of your seeds, since a missing Makefile blocking a merge and outdated nvidia driver and ...

Well... finally had to get off my lazy butt and upgrade kernels...

And found your config was a much nicer base to work from than either make oldconfig or defaults! Very nice. Just to make sure, I diffed after customizing, with a make oldconfig version to make sure I'd not missed something important to get a kernel that would work on all my machines and hardware, and found it had been signifigantly easier than I'd gotten used to to get the config right.

Thanks! you rock!

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:09 am Post subject:

myceliv,

Thanks for the kind words. It means a lot to me that the seeds are helpful. It is my mission to help the fight of ridding the world of Microsoft.

<soapbox> And even though the Redmond folk are helping us in the fight by continuously dropping goldleaf, bejeweled turds, it does the Linux world no good to have something as basic as the kernel be so elusive. </soapbox>

Thanks again for the kind words, especially, "your rock." Those words look so good together.

Enough of the ego stroke, it's been a banner couple days for .configs. I'm practically swimming in code! I just uploaded .configs for 2.6.27.18, 2.6.28.6, and (at long last) 2.6.28-gentoo-r1. Almost a month since I got to put up a gentoo-source .config. Hmm.

Come and get 'em!

Blessed be!
Pappy
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audiodef · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:53 pm Post subject:

Trying out the 2.6.28-r1 seed. I learned a few things about what to set just by looking at the seed. Things seem to be a little smoother/faster, although I'm still testing it. I ran into one major problem, though - video. Using the recommended i915 either as a module or in the kernel didn't work for me.

See this thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-5489693.html#5489693

Did I do something wrong, or do I just have to stick with i810?
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:59 pm Post subject:

If your device is an i810, then yes, you'll have to stick to it. Don't feel too bad. Gen-tosh has an I830 chip, and so far, the only kernels that work are in the .27 family. Any other version results in serious instability. Since there are a lot of .27 kernels out there, that shouldn't be too bitter a pill to swallow. I guess it's just a sign that it's time to think about retiring gen-tosh.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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audiodef · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:44 pm Post subject:

What's gen-tosh?

Question about choosing a seed: what's a good way to find out what kernel (and then what seed) would be best for a particular machine? I'm starting to think the .28 kernel is partly responsible for one of my machines being slow just 'cuz it's .28.
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:43 am Post subject:

audiodef · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject:

bam-bam - that made me giggle madly. :-P

I've named my own machines after dead, white composers: Mozart, Beethoven and Bach so far. My GF has a laptop named Baku and a desktop named Junior. All Gentoo except Beethoven which is Windoze by necessity.

Thanks for the info, Pappy. I really appreciate it. I think I just have a couple of desktops with less-than-stellar CPU's (Celeron) and there ain't much I can do 'bout it. I am going to take your advice and stick with .27 kernels for those, though. Baku is a Centrino Duo and has been doing great with .28 (great with .28! Sounds like a catchy sales-phrase). I hope to replace my Beethoven audio workstation with Something Else (a Mac, maybe) at some point and then it will be my hot new dual-core Gentoo box. ;-)

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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:40 pm Post subject:

I used to name my computers after Roman gods. After I held my roommate's hand to get him using computers, he began calling his machines "fred" (fucked-up ridiculous electronic device). There was fred, fred-V and fred-II, which became bam-bam. I set up his lover's computer as wilma, so that started the flintstones thing. Bam-bam was an off the cuff name. I've considered calling it Ichabod since it runs mostly headless.

I don't think computers are like boats. I changed the name of this from debby-anne-II (it's original inception ran Debian...cheesy? You bet!) to core-too. I replaced everything but the hard drive. Therefore, I figured I could safely rename it. Since it's not a boat, I am not worried that I'm going to drown because I offended Poseidon.

Presently, the .29 kernels I've tried aren't too fond of gen-tosh, and it seems the feelings are mutual. I'm hoping that they iron out some of the bigger bugs when the .29 goes from rc to full release status. I'd love to see the the old machine working with full GEM support. I'm not holding my breath that it will happen, but according to someone in the know, there are lots of dri-patches yet to be tried.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:32 am Post subject:

It's almost like a fire sale at kernel.org. Two days ago, they released 2.6.27.18 and 2.6.28.6. Just this evening, it's 2.6.27.19 and 2.6.28.7. Add to that 2.6.27-gentoo-r9 has been released, and it's a frickin' frackin' free for all! I have new .configs for all the above listed kernel versions. Shop 'til you drop!

I'm personally geeked on this one. I've been waiting for 2.6.27-gentoo-r9. It's time to give gen-tosh a new kernel that won't give it video heartburn. Yay!

Blessed be!
Pappy
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audiodef · Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:33 pm Post subject:

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:46 pm Post subject:

That was pretty good.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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thtroyer · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Posts: 55

Woah. This is excellent.

I've been compiling my kernel on a whim, and I get something workable/usable. Using Pappy's "seed", I replaced my kernel fairly easily, with everything actually working the first time (audio, SATA, iwl3945 wifi).

Beyond that, it shaved ~6 seconds off my boot time.
http://img3.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bootchart1.png
http://img22.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bootchart.png

Very nice.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:04 am Post subject:

I aim to please! Good to hear I hit the mark!

Blessed be!
Pappy
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Tariella · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:57 am Post subject:

Hi Pappy,
I finally found the time to try one of your kernel seeds on my old laptop.
Unfortunately it won't boot - all I can see is a black screen and the laptop hangs.

I used your x86 2.6.28-r2 gentoo config, following the guide on your homepage.
cat /proc/cpuinfo
lspci -vv
new kernel config (adapted seed)
last working kernel config (2.6.27-gentoo-r2)

I'm sure I missed something important - please help.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:55 am Post subject:

Tariella,

Try using only the VESA frame buffer or only the native (S3 UniChrome Pro) frame buffer, not both. You are probably running into some sort of driver conflict. If if that still doesn't get it, you'll have to write a bug report on the issue. I'm betting you could move to the latest and greatest .27 kernel, and get your full functionality back.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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Tariella · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:36 am Post subject:

Oh, I thought I could use both drivers and specify the one to use in the grub.conf. :oops:

Just wanted to try which of them worked better without rebuilding the kernel, lazy me.
I knew it must have been a stupid mistake on my side.

Thank you very much for pointing this out.
Sorry I did trouble you with something this trivial. The kernel is still a great big mystery for me.

I'll use your 2.6.27 kernel seed with only one fb driver and let you know how it works for me.

Thanks!