FW: [Gllug] kernel

[Simon A. Boggis]

On Wed, 2004-01-14 at 21:48, Murray wrote:
> that is fantastic! thank you very much.
> 

Glad to be of service (:

> it's a pcmcia bluetooth card - the cardmgr recognises the card ok, but it's
> not loading the bluetooth modules, and it doesn't look like they are on the
> disk.

Ah OK - in that case you'll almost certainly [1] want to get the package
'pcmcia-source' which'll produce /usr/src/pcmcia-cs.tar.gz, which
unpacks into /usr/src/modules. 

[1] "Almost certainly" because you have a choice between kernel and
standalone pcmcia-cs support. These a mutually incompatible, but I used
to find that the standalone often had more drivers in 2.4 - I now run
2.6 on personal machines such as my laptop, where you can't use the
pcmcia-cs standalone stuff.

I forgot to say before, that whilst the docs for 'kernel-package' are
pretty clear for doing it the debian way, a very brief summary for the
"vanilla" (non-debian-packaged-result) way, off the top of my head is:

  cd /usr/src
  tar -xjvf linux-2.4.X.tar.bz2
  tar -xzvf pcmcia-cs.tar.gz
  ln -svi linux-2.4.X linux
  cd linux
  cp /boot/config-2.4.Y-blah .config
  make oldconfig
  [this'll ask you any _new_ questions]
  make menufconfig
  [to set new options, if needed, else skip]
  make bzImage
  make modules
  make install
  [remember to sort out lilo or grub or whatever you use to boot the new
image]
  cd ../modules/pcmcia-cs
  make config
  make all
  make install

which is why I like kernel-package (: (plus it saves on tidying up when
I uninstall old kernels).

> which is odd, becaus the docs for Bluez claim they have been included in the
> kernel since 2.4.6
> 
> http://bluez.sourceforge.net/howto/node4.html

bf2.4 is mainly meant to get your system booted at install time AFAIK,
not to run as a main kernel - you can install packages called something
like kernel-image-2.4.18-1-686 which are probably more complete.

> 
> but then the page below claims that on a Woody system (which I think
> 2.4.18-bf2.4 is, and I think my system was originally - it's now a horrid

I think you're right - that was a woody install kernel.

> mix of stable, testing and unstable) you need at least 2.4.21
> 
> http://bluez.sourceforge.net/download/debian/APT-README
> 
> My understanding is that I can have both old and new kernels around, and
> boot with either?  I assume that involves some lilo magic.

Absolutely - don't destroy or remove your old kernel before you're sure
the old one works, and be sure you understand lilo or grub before you
interfere with it, else you'll not be able to boot without a rescue
disk.

The default debian lilo.conf is reasonably commented and 'man lilo.conf'
tells all about the rest. Debian likes to manipulate symlinks:

/vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-2.4.24-exec-shield-sab.686.1.0
/vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-2.4.23-exec-shield-sab.exec.shield.686.1.0

but because I am cautious by nature when it comes to being able to boot,
I prefer to put in explicit sections in my /etc/lilo.conf, so that I can
be sure that no auto-manipulation of those symlinks will affect my
ability to boot an old kernel:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.24-exec-shield-sab.686.1.0
        label=2424-execshield
        read-only
        optional
        alias=linux

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.23-exec-shield-sab.exec.shield.686.1.0
        label=2423-execshield
        read-only
        optional
        alias=linuxold

# old faithful for emergencies
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-bf2.4
        label=bf24
        read-only
        vga=normal

If you run 'lilo -v -t' first you can test what would be done with a new
config without doing any harm.

Simon

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