Re: Testing 2.4.x or 2.6.x kernels on Amiga
Hi,
please find my comments in the copy of your message below.
On 29.08.2004, you wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 29, 2004 at 09:56:51PM -0500, Peter Krummrich wrote:
>>
>> apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.27-amiga.
>>
>> The result was that apt did not find the package. So far, I had only the
>> six CDs from Woody R2 in my sources.list. I guessed that the package may
>> be present in the testing distribution on debian servers. So I added the
>> following line to my sources.list to include the testing distribution:
>>
>> deb http://debian.tu-bs.de/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
>>
>> After this, I tried to update the list of available packages by typing:
>>
>> apt-get update.
>>
>> Unfortunately, the scripts had problems with merging the lists of
>> available packeges. The following error messages were displayed:
>>
>> Reading Package Lists... Error! E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room E: Error
>> occured while processing xtel (NewVersion1) E: Problem with MergeList
>>
/var/lib/apt/lists/debian.tu-bs.de_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-m68k_Packages
>> E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
>>
>> Did I run out of memory/swap space or is this a problem with the programs
>> involved in the merging process? I have 64MBytes of RAM and a swap
>> partition of 200 MBytes. Are these package files really that big?
>
> Some tips for /etc/apt/apt.conf
> --- schnipp ---
> // set the default release to testing
> APT::Default-Release "testing";
> //APT::Default-Release "stable";
>
> // show all files that are to be upgraded (-u option)
> Apt::Get::Show-Upgraded "true";
>
> // avoid "dynamic MMap ran out of room" problem
> APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;
> --- schnapp ---
>
Great - thanks for the hint. You guys really have a lot of expertise in this
field. I am glad that I don`t have to expand my swap partition.
> The third one is what you need here. The first helps you with distribution
> pinning, for which you also need /etc/apt/preferences
> --- schnipp ---
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=testing
> Pin-Priority: -1
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=unstable
> Pin-Priority: -2
> --- schnapp ---
>
> Now you can _add_ entried to your sources.list for stable, testing, and
> unstable, or if you prefer woody, sarge, sid. No need to delete anything
> from sources.list anymore. And you do want to upgrade to testing, but you
> will have to download a lot... unless you have DSL, maybe you prefer to
> stay with woody.
>
>> Anyway, in order to circumvent this problem, I deleted the six CDROM
>> entries in my sources.list, just keeping the line with the internet
>> address and redid apt-get update.
>>
>> This time, the scripts terminated without error.
>>
>> Next thing I typed was:
>>
>> apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.27-amiga.
>>
>> I was told again that apt-get did not find the package.
>
> It is not yet in testing. Once you have set up pinning, try apt-get
> install kernel-image-2.4.27-amiga/unstable In case a package needs more
> from unstable and you don't want to type in all the dependencies, do
> apt-get -tunstable install ...
>
>> So I tried kernel-image-2.4.26-amiga. This worked. I managed to copy the
>> kernel image to my Amiga partition and to reboot with the new kernel.
>
> Told you so :-)
>
>> I mainly observed two things - the first beeing that the new kernel
>> indeed comes with a different version of clgen - 1.9.9.1, that is.
>> Unfortunately, I got the same problems as with the old clgen (v1.4 ?).
>> Scrolling still inverts pixels in the lines that are scrolled in some
>> cases. The problem is especially severe when changing to a different
>> resolution (I tried 1024x768-70 using fbset). In this mode, all scrolled
>> lines are completely messed up. It is no problem with my monitor - the
>> bottom line is still fine.
>
> I think something like that came up recently on the list, please search
> the archives. I might remember this wrong, maybe somebody was just trying
> to change resolution with fbset and it did not work?
>
Early August, Lance Tagliapietra raised a question how to change video modes
with the clgen driver. He has an EGS spectrum graphics card. He got help
and found a solution.
Changing resolutions does work with my Picasso II using fbset.
It seems to be a problem with hardware scrolling. When I started testing
Linux on the Amiga several years ago, the driver still used software
scrolling. It was performed by the CPU and worked rather slowly. The
problems started when the driver was extended to hardware scrolling using
the chipset of the graphics card. In low resolution, it works in most
cases. However, sometimes it even messes up the line if I insert characters
in a line or delete some (horizontal scrolling). Lines that are not
scrolled stay clean. Similar problem with vertical scrolling - and much
worse in higher resolutions.
I have not seen any other discussion of this issue on this list so far. Is
there anybody else around with a Picasso II or VI card? As far as I know,
both cards have different chipsets (versions of the CL chipset). Would be
interesting to know, if clgen works with a Picasso IV.
>> Another thing I observed was that the new kernel did not load the
>> Ariadne2 module (did not find it). The 2.2.20 kernel does not have this
>> problem. The Ariadne2 module works fine with my X-Surf ethernet card, so
>> I don´t want to miss it.
>
> The driver has been renamed, from my /etc/modules
> --- schnipp ---
> ariadne2
> # starting with 2.4.23 use this instead:
> 8390
> zorro8390
> --- schnapp ---
Again thanks for the hint. I will change my modules.conf when I test 2.4.x
kernels next time. Do you know any trick to load the right module
automatically depending on the kernel version that is booted?
>
>> So I decided to go back to kernel 2.2.20, which gives me a better
>> performance so far.
>
> Please try 2.2.25, available in sarge/testing. I am not sure if the clgen
> driver is newer there, but this is the latest 2.2 kernel for debian.
>
Will do so...
>> clgen: Driver for Cirrus Logic based graphic boards, v1.4 ?
>> clgen: Picasso II board detected; RAM (2 MB) at $200000, REG at $ec0000
>> clgen: This board has 2097152 bytes of DRAM memory
>> Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 80x30
>> fb1: Amiga ECS frame buffer device, using 640K of video memory
>>
>> Maybe someone with experience with clgen can take a look at them and tell
>> me if he sees something strange. I am still wondering what I can do to
>> get around the problems with the graphics driver. Seems to be a software
>> problem, as the same hardware works perfectly under AmigaOS (no
>> flickering pixels, no inverted pixels when text is scrolled,...).
>
> 2MB is not a lot of memory, are you sure your video mode fits in there?
I am heading for 1024x768 with 8 bits - some compromise between a decent
amount of colors and acceptable speed. On the Amiga side, this works fine.
> With 1024x768 you can not go higher than 16-bit. Other than that, no idea,
> I do not have a clgen card. Actually, I have no (working) video card in my
> A2k anymore...
>
> Christian
>
Regards,
Peter
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