Debian 2.6.24 kernel

Tony Baechler tony at baechler.net
Mon Apr 28 04:51:21 EDT 2008


Hi,

I changed the subject for clarity.

Gaijin wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 05:09:58AM -0700, Tony Baechler wrote:
>   
>> I strongly suggest not using the Shane Etch kernel.  It has known 
>> security flaws and has not been updated in over a year.  That's one of 
>> the reasons why I built the 2.6.24 kernel packages.  Since you're 
>> already running unstable, there's no reason not to upgrade to my kernel 
>>     
>
> 	<grins> Yeah, but *MY* computer is working. <dodges thrown ISA
> cards>  I've already downloaded your packages, but haven't gotten around
> to installing them yet with everything else that's going on.  Linux is
> my only working OS without JAWS for the Win-XP laptop, and I'm in no
> hurry to do yet another full re-install of Lenny from Shane's Etch CD.
>   

I understand.  However, at least on my system, the kernel is very safe 
and works great other than the Speakup issues.  It is identical to the 
official Debian packages except that I patched Speakup into the source.  
If you were to download and install the linux-image-2.6.24-6-686 
package, you would get the same thing but without Speakup.  I suppose 
it's bleeding edge as far as it's from unstable, but it seems fine to 
me.  Besides, since it looks like you're familiar with lilo, just make a 
backup of your old kernel as "linuxold" or something so you can boot 
into it if my kernel doesn't work for you.  I really don't think you'll 
have problems with it though.  As you might know, the next release of 
Debian will be the "Etch and a half" release.  That will be out before 
Lenny.  I suspect that it will include the 2.6.24 kernel.

> I'm nowhere near ready to ride the bleeding edge with the rest of youse
> guys.  Hell, I have yet to even figure out how to copy a file to CDRW.
>   

I think you should look at wodim.  I'm not sure how to burn data CDs yet 
but I've produced several audio CDs without trouble.  You could also 
look at growisofs which is what I'm using for DVD burning.  Look at the 
I think debburn package for a simpler front-end.  Maybe it's just called 
burn or cdburn, I'm not sure.  Debian has many front-end programs that 
make CD burning easier.

> I'm too busy communicating with people again after 4 years of isolation,
> surrounded by people who throw full-blown panic attacks when I ask them
> to read the screen.  Eh...whatever.  OT stuff.
>   
If you want to tell me about it off list, I'm willing to listen.  I've 
certainly had my isolation moments over time due to various medical issues.

> 	Have you tried going back to default settings to see if that
> fixes the problem, and then work in kernel changes a bit at a time?  

No.  The problem is not the kernel.  The problem has to do with that I 
installed from the grml live CD and decided to take all the grml junk 
out.  For some reason, rc.local isn't being read which is where I set my 
Speakup parameters and have my beep.  I think it might have to do with 
udev because I get errors about /dev/pts not mounted even though it is.  
I suppose this could be part of my Speakup problems but it worked great 
on older kernels.  I still have my grml kernel as a backup but I prefer 
the Debian kernel which seems faster and more stable.

> I'm
> running a Celeron myself and was pleasantly surprised the compile only
> took a half hour, rather than the 4-hour compile time it took with my
> last computer.  So, not even an:
>
>   
Hmm, interesting.  The build machine is a SMP machine with a two core 
processor and I think 2 GB of RAM, but the build took about two or three 
hours.  Then again, I was compiling everything and trying to build all 
packages.

> 	echo -e "\a"
>
> ...makes the system beep for you?  If that's the case, then I would
> definitely compile the kernel with  default options, except for choosing
> the CPU, and see if even that worked first.    Then I'd let the system
> run for a week befor trying to modify anything, but then that's me.  

I don't know about that echo command, but I can get the speaker to beep 
as much as I want after it boots.  Again, I am using the default Debian 
kernel.


I'm like you in that I would run lilo three times before rebooting as 
well.  I'm also worried about the kernel not booting.  Fortunately, I 
still have Windows 98 installed here as the main OS so I'm not totally 
locked out of the computer or anything.  No, I've resigned myself to 
reinstalling from the Shane CD also, but fortunately I have a newer 
kernel to install after I go back to Etch and upgrade.  I'm waiting on 
that though because I have some files I don't want to lose and am 
waiting for Speakup to be more stable.  I'll probably rebuild the kernel 
packages again after the bugs are fixed (assuming it's not my kernel 
that's the problem, of course) and after the next round of security 
updates come out.

Thanks for your help though.  I think I know how to fix my rc.local 
issue but I'm not sure what's wrong with udev or why /dev/pts isn't working.




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