Old Machine - Should I upgrade to 2.6?

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

Hi all,

I have a pentium pro 200 which is currently running my network (NAT, dhcp, dns, etc). I would like to try wondershaper or some other shaper to improve my network performance so I tried to emerge iproute2 however, I was given the following dillema:

Gherald · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 5:36 pm Post subject:

you may as well upgrade, 2.6.10 is one of the most stable releases ever.

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

What about distcc? Do you think it's worth it to upgrade GCC and Distcc in 2.4 so that I can use distcc as part of the upgrade process to 2.6? Even though I'll have to recompile glibc a second time in 2.6?

-P

Jake · Veteran Joined: 31 Jul 2003 Posts: 1132

Neither a 2.6 kernel nor new kernel headers require recompiling glibc. If you want to take advantage of 2.6 kernel features like NPTL, you need to build glibc against 2.6-based kernel headers (linux26-headers in portage). In your case, iproute2 builds against the kernel headers and requires something only present in kernels >= 2.4.21.

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

Are you sure about that? I understand that I don't *have* to re-emerge glibc when I upgrade to 2.6 but all over the forums everyone seems to suggest fire and brimstone if you don't re-emerge glibc after upgrading the linux-headers or linux26-headers.

-P

Gherald · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:54 pm Post subject:

You do not have to recompile glibc. However, you must do so to get any benefits, especially if going from kernel 2.4/linux-headers to kernel 2.6/linux26-headers.

Here is what I would do in your situation:

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

Thank you for your helpful responses.

I was wondering, however, if I don't have to re-emerge glibc then why bother upgrading the kernel at all. Couldn't I just emerge iproute2 and be done? However (again), if glibc is the only thing that requires the linux-headers then why does iproute2 require them in the emerge? Is there an implied "emerge glibc" based on the fact that iproute2 requires a linux-headers upgrade?

Thanks,
P

Gherald · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject:

Notice that next to linux-headers it says "[ebuild NS ]" The S means that a new version in a different SLOT is availeable. This makes me think you installed linux-headers before linux26-headers was split off and now both packages provide virtual/os-headers ?

Basically, your systems seems out of date. Ack, I didn't even notice you had an old gcc. Really, you should update gcc first thing and then do something similar to my above post. If you don't want to install 2.6 that's your call to make. But certainly if you stick with 2.4 then at least gcc, linux-headers, and glibc should all be updated before you emerge anything else (in particular, distcc and iproute2).

Jake · Veteran Joined: 31 Jul 2003 Posts: 1132

Gherald · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject:

There is a difference between what should be updated and what must be updated.

Portage is only concerned with what must be updated, or at least what the person who wrote the ebuild specified must be updated.

In this case:

1) gcc should be updated simply because gcc is what actually compiles things and it's silly to spend time compiling new things with an outdated compiler.
2) linux-headers should be updated because portage told him so
3) glibc should be re-emerged because gcc and linux-headers have both been updated (either is a sufficient condition)

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

Hmm... maybe my original question was too fuddled -

I have an old, slow machine which hasn't been touched much since I set up my network. I want to improve my network performance, but I'm not interested in upgrading to a 2.6 kernel since that seems like a lot of pain for little gain.

My issue is that I have to install a new version of the linux-headers to install iproute2 (to improve the network performance). If linux-headers requires me to re-emerge glibc then I believe that will be enough pain to make it worth it to upgrade to 2.6. However, if I don't have to re-emerge glibc then I'll be happy with 2.4.

What do you all think?
-P

Gherald · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 10:59 pm Post subject:

cerebus_k · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:19 pm Post subject:

Gherald · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:39 pm Post subject:

I'm not much of a programmer yet, but from my understanding the linux-headers are the interfaces to the kernel. I gather that glibc implements those interfaces by including the header files. You'll need to get a developer on the line if you want a real explanation; I just know that re-emerging glibc is something that should be done, and that there is no practical reason not to do it since you can let it run nice-ed overnight.

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

Hey all,

Thanks for your help - here's what I decided to do:

"Fix" linux-headers
1. unmerge old linux-headers
2. merge new 2.4 linux-headers

Upgrade GCC
3. re-merge gcc (which includes re-emerging glibc)

Install distcc
4. emerge distcc on localhost & faster machines

Upgrade to 2.6 using distcc
5. Basically just follow the upgrading manual
*6. I'm currently compiling the kernel
7. The last step will be install the 2.6 headers and re-emerge glibc (again)

install iproute2
8. emerge iproute2
9. get my shaping on

Distcc appears to be working and speeding up the process so I'm happy about that - plus its fun to see it work across multiple machines (and my wireless network).

Thanks again,
P