Need help making a decision

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Ahau
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#16 by Ahau » 03 Jun 2011, 14:01

RC2 came out with a kernel that supported PAE (previous version did not). This is the second (third?) time we've heard this problem... I'm thinking PAE won't be in the kernel for final (but, I don't make those decisions ;) )
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!

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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#17 by fanthom » 04 Jun 2011, 11:48

"Indications were that I needed a cpu with pae support."
yes - this is my fault. will be corrected for FINAL.
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#18 by quotaholic » 05 Jun 2011, 18:58

Excellent. Think I made a mistake along the way on one or more of my attempts. I really need to name this kernel in the same context that porteus has, no? With the -porteus appended to the version or uname? Also when in makeconfig I see a default size for ramdisk. Should I adjust the default size or is the default okay? Just trying to eliminate possibilities of fail.

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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#19 by fanthom » 05 Jun 2011, 19:42

@quotaholic
1) you can pick up any name for your kernel. just remember to have the same name in /mnt/cdrom/lib/modules/2.6.38.x-your_name
2) you should change initrd size in kernel config only if you resize initrd itself. if you just replace a files inside intird then you are fine. remember to leave more than 600KB of free space in the ramdisk.

Cheers
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#20 by quotaholic » 05 Jun 2011, 21:12

Thanks for the quick reply Fanthom! I am actually trying to bypass the xinitrd portion for now. Call it training wheels if you will however this is my first kernel compile and I am on attempt number 8 or so now. Once I get one that works I will try the initrd step too.

Hey on a completely unrelated note is anyone here playing back 1080p content on an ati driver? Tried to build a htpc on slackware and omg its soo much faster than *buntu's. Cant get 1080p working well though. My thread:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=102863

Thanks
quotaholic

Posted after 1 hour 17 minutes 23 seconds:
Just tried the same kernel that shipped in rc-2. 2.6.38.7

I even appended -porteus to the end.

I followed this guide:

http://porteus.org/info/docs/51-develop ... ernel.html

and nine times now I have had either a bunch of question marks (when initrd portion is followed) and init hangs,
or
I get kernel panic after vmlinux is loaded, a 303 unknown video mode error results, and initrd hangs causing led blinking. I get this if I skip the initrd part of the tutorial. This is what prompted me to ask about appending porteus to the kernel and version.

I can produce either situation with regularity and consistency. I have to ask, before I attempt try number 10 has someone been though this tutorial and proven it to work? Are there little bits of key information that are missing that a vetran would know about that a newb would not? I linked to my website and my last xbmc tutorial to try to prove that I am not a complete idiot. Granted I am not all that smart but I do know a little about linux and how to follow instructions. I am one try away from giving up and throwing in the towel on porteus. I cant use either distro as it stands. RC-1 does not recognize a usb keyboard plugged in to a legacy 1.1 port on boot and RC-2 needs a pae kernel. And I cant make your "how to" work in compiling the hardware support I need in to your os.

Can someone validate the linked instructions and offer some plausible explanation as to why they produce so many failed builds or where I may be going wrong? Letter by letter I follow the same each time.

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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#21 by brokenman » 06 Jun 2011, 13:31

I get this if I skip the initrd part of the tutorial.
You need to complete the initrd part and also the 000-kernel module must be updated (if using Porteus). They all interact together during boot.

I have step-by-step guide that i wrote for myself when i was having trouble which i can provide for you.

http://www.porteus.org/tmp/kernel-updat ... s-full.txt
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#22 by quotaholic » 06 Jun 2011, 16:47

Ahhh, This is what I needed. Thank you! In scanning the first 20 lines I already see a few commands that were not in this tutorial:

http://porteus.org/info/docs/51-develop ... ernel.html

Once I saw initrd getting mounted as a block device I figured that there was a three way handshake going on. Your text file does a much better job of explaining how to work with initrd.

Thanks again. I'll report back later tonight after I make some time to try this out.

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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#23 by Ahau » 06 Jun 2011, 16:54

If this works out for you, I'll go through and try to merge the two documents, to get a more thorough HOWTO up on the website.
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!

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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#24 by fanthom » 06 Jun 2011, 19:02

@quotaholic
take simplest path at the beginning:
- forget about tweaking initrd and use one provided with rc2. as i said earlier: initrd is important only in case of doing pxe-boot, all "vital" parts are build into porteus kernel.
- use original porteus kernel config
try to bump kernel from 2.6.38.x to 2.6.38.8. in case of successful booting you can start playing with initrd and config.

Good luck!
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#25 by quotaholic » 07 Jun 2011, 23:46

@Fanthom,

Man am I happy to see your post. I was just about to ask what I should be copying over. I built in-kernel support for two of the three possibilities on wifi. Via (non-gpl or very recently gpl) makes the third so I will have to build that in later. Looking at the instructions I didnt have those particular modules in my lib/modules/..... folder. Wasn't sure what to copy over. It would be a pleasure to bypass initrd. In the future though it would be cool to know what has to be in there.

I did in fact go up to 2.6.38.8 as I saw it was the closest to the current "testing" kernel. Assumed it was a bug fix upstream. With initrd put aside I should be testing in just a few minutes.

Thank you!
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#26 by brokenman » 08 Jun 2011, 02:41

Good luck ... just so i get this straight for any future replies ... is this a porteus build, or is it customized for your hand held device?
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#27 by quotaholic » 08 Jun 2011, 14:23

@Fanthom, I did get further through init this time before kernel panic took over. Seems I hung at mounting the root file system. Indications were the script tried all fs variants but was unable to mount. VFS error and some hex along with blinking lights.

When I am going through make config my thinking is that there is a given hardware set and with only 500 mhz cpu's and 512 of ram I need to make it as light as possible. I am stripping just about everything out except what is needed by the hardware. In many cases I am appending "-WebDT" to the end of the kernel version or "uname". I have tried both with "-WebDT" and with "-porteus". I have a ham radio following and a pentest group that likes the blucore and intel 2200 rf options in the hardware. I try to build support in for them. Outside of some extra rt-xx and some atheros, some legacy pcmcia and hotplug for, I am not leaving much in there. As the hardware is geode I try to include geode watchdog timer, southbridge support, set cup for i586, amd, cs5565,etc....

For these reasons I cant help but think that I may have to repack initrd to make it fly.


@all
These tablets are milspec rating and some are still selling for the original pricing of ... well in to 4 digits:

http://www.xriverstore.com/detail.aspx?ID=144

I have been taking a swing at this during a period of unemployment. I lost my job a few weeks ago and situations demand that I make finding a job a full time effort. After ten tries and a week and a half of swinging and missing I am not too eager to make it to 11. So I propose this:

As I run the community support forum for these tablets some key individuals (say who bought a surplus lot used tablets from the military) have gifted me a couple tablets for support and R&D reasons. I will send a willing individual one of these tablets as a gift if they would be willing to recompile the kernel off my .config file, moe the bzImage over, repackage the modules, initrd and again repack the ISO file. I really cant think of any other way that I can fulfill my promise to myself or to my community. Respond here or pm me if interested or if you have any questions. Model being offered is a DT366 with lx800 hardware which makes it a DT360 essentially. Geode LX800 CPU and CS5565 chipset. 512mb ram 8.4" touchscreen, Intel 2200 PCIe, Built in bluetooth, 2 speakers, microphone, dpad and 4 hard buttons on front (x86-acpi atlas_btn controller needed). They have 44 pin ide horizontal DOM or nand flash disk on modules and these come with 512mb chips. Transcend makes 4 and 8gb models and I have a tutorial up on my forum on how to mod one in. The tablet comes with a ac charging dock station as pictured on the top image on each page of my forum.

@Brokenman, I guess it would be a custom build as only the geode based hardware in question would be supported. If there are other uses for it by all means lets exploit them however as its stripped of most hardware drivers I cant picture it being useful to anyone but owners of these tablets. I want to make sure everyones concerns are addressed here. Is it okay with Team Porteus to make a custom build from your OS? If not what would the team suggest for me on how to proceed?

Thanks in advance
quotaholic

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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#28 by Hamza » 08 Jun 2011, 16:09

That will be a thing to run Porteus on a Portable Tablet !

Good Luck :)
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#29 by brokenman » 09 Jun 2011, 00:01

If all you need is to have your kernel compiled for porteus then send your .config to me and i will check it out. If it compiles i can pack it up and upload the ISO.
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Re: Need help making a decision

Post#30 by quotaholic » 09 Jun 2011, 03:46

I really cant tell you how much I appreciate your willingness to help out. When I do land a job again I will inquire upon the missing donate button from the website. For the mean time I will send you a pm.

quotaholic

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