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March 07, 2004

Linux Kernel 2.6.3 Part 3

I've recompiled the kernel again. This time, I selected all configurations from scratch. Some interesting things have happened as a result.

- I get some weird USB errors on boot. What's even more strange is when I actually get into the GUI, everything works just fine.
- I get an error saying that eth0 can't be recognized. Again, when I get into the GUI, it works just fine.
- Despite any errors that I've recieved, everything seems to be working well. In addition, I've actually noticed a dramatic speed improvement, especially on the network side.

I'll post more as I continue to play around with the kernel and keep trying compiling options. I think I'm going to do a comparison between my recent config file and the RedHat config file to see exactly what the differences are, and why I might be getting the errors I've been getting on boot.

Posted by ed at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

Linux Kernel 2.6.3 Part 2

Okay ... so I decided to take another look at the 2.6.3 kernel.

I got it to work. :D

Apparently, even though IPtables reported that it was turned off, the fact is that it was really running. I downloaded a program called Firestarter from Sourceforge and used it to configure my firewall settings. After doing some testing in the 2.4.x kernel, I rebooted into the 2.6.3 kernel and gave it a go. Success at last.

A couple of thoughts on the new 2.6.3 kernel:

1. I'm really digging ALSA. The mixer settings more much more robust than OSS. As a result, my audio sounds MUCH better. I'm using a SB Live! MP3 card, which was detected with no problems at all. Alsaconf is a great utility.

2. I'm waiting to see exactly how fast this new kernel really is. I haven't noticed that much of a difference as of yet. I'm sure that'll change down the line.

3. The new xconfig utility is completely different than previous versions. The jury is still out on that one.

4. I completely screwed up my initial attempt of compiling the kernel that I downloaded from kernel.org. So, I cheated and used the config from the RPM available from RedHat. I just made a few corrections, like NTFS and Athlon support, and recompiled. It worked like a charm.

5. I used to be afraid of compiling the kernel. I think that in order to get past that issue, you really need to do it a couple of times to get the hang of it. Now that I've done it a dozen or so times with the 2.6.3 kernel, I really feel comfortable with it. After all, it's really just a couple of steps:

make clean
make mrproper
make xconfig
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
mkinitrd /boot/kernel#.img kernel# (you usually name it with the kernel version)

Once this process has completed, you just need to move a couple of things:

mv /boot/System.map /boot/System.map.bak
cp /usr/src/kernel#/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage# (you usually name it with the kernel)
cp /usr/src/kernel#/System.map /boot/System.map

Finally, you just need to edit your boot loader ... in my case I use Grub. The example below shows my grub config with the 2.6.3 kernel:

title Linux 2.6.3
root (hd1,0)
kernel /bzImage-2.6.3 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi rhgb
initrd /initrd-2.6.3.img

BTW ... this is a great resource for leaning how to compile the 2.6.x kernel. It's a complete re-write of the original kernel how-to. Good thing too, that old one was REALLY out of date.

Posted by ed at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

Before I Forget...

I just wanted to make a rundown of all the capital projects for Feb and March:

- Newsroom Script Printers
Two T634tn printers with 4 500-sheet drawers, 1 2000-sheet tray, and 5-bin mailbox each.

- News and General PCs
6 Dell Latitude D505 laptops (one is mine, muahahah)
2 Dell Optiplex desktops

- IT Backbone
5 APC Backup power units
2 Lexmark W820 printers with 11x17 capacity
12 Dell M5200 printers

- Server Upgrades
1 Dell 2650 with Windows 2003 and 50 CALs
1 Dell PowerVault 770n with Windows Storage Server 2003 and 1TB of file storage
1 Dell PowerVault 112T dual tape backup system with 160 tape capacity

A note about the 12 Dell printers ... I'm literally getting a 2 -4 -1 deal on the M5200. For every printer, they're giving me one free. So, I'm spending under $500 (with s/h & tax)per laser printer that normally goes for over $1000 (with s/h & tax).

By the time May and/or June hits, the IT department will be doing VERY well for itself.

Posted by ed at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

Linux Kernel 2.6.3

So I decided to give the new Linux kernel another go today.

Believe it or not, I got most of it working... with the exception of one minor thing.

Internet connectivity.

It's actually quite weird. I initially tried using the RedHat kernel RPM, but ran into the problem of having network connectivity, but no Internet connectivity. So, I decided to take the config file from that kernel source, make it my own, and rebuild the kernel. I even went as far as to build the modules directly into the kernel itself. Still the same problem occurred.

Here's the gist of it:

- I can ping sites outside of my home network, like yahoo.com.
- I can do an nslookup of sites outside of my home network.
- I can't open a web browser and type in an address, either DNS or IP, and have the page load.
- I can't open a web site using an ftp client using either DNS or IP.
- I can ping and navigate inside of my home network using IP addresses.
- Using IP addresses, I can use programs like VNC to connect to other machines on my home network.
- I've manually edited all network config files, but nothing has helped.
- I've manually restarted the networking service, but that hasn't helped either.
- I've tried different network cards, based on the tulip module and other modules. No good.

This thing is acting like the 2.6.3 kernel doesn't like either the module, something is blocking DNS, or something has closed off all the ports in my PC. I've tested everything I know to test, but am still having the same problems.

What's really weird is if I go back into 2.4.x kernel, I have absolutely on problems at all. The same is also true for Windows.

I've gone over my kernel config file at least a dozen times trying to see if I missed anything, but at the moment everything seems to be set properly. I've posted my problem to a couple of different forums to see what kind of ideas that other people might have. I've found that usually if you give someone else a problem you've been busting your noggin on for a while, they can give you a fresh perspective that you haven't considered. Let's hope that this is the case with this particular issue.

On that note, I'm going to bed. I'm tired of messing around with this thing for today.

Oh... before I forget... I did get Alsa and USB working with no problems at all. I played some MP3's through ALSA, and man did it sound great. Can't wait to try some gaming with it.

Posted by ed at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)