Re: mosix patched kernel not compiling
> umm, i was looking through this process, and i've done most of those
> things almost exactly the same as you said. now, i got an email last
> night from Tim Spriggs, (thanx!) i got that package (libc6-dev) and was
> able to complete the process. i compiled, and installed the kernel, and
> now i am getting another problem. the machine boots, i get the first
> line (LILO 22.2 Loading Linux.....................) at which point the
> machine resets and goes back to the ram check. why? dunno. says
> nothing.
Well, if there are no messages from the loading kernel, the sistem is
rebooting during kernel decompression or, more likely, just as que kernel
starts to load. This can be a kernel misconfiguration (wrong sub-arch) or
possibly the kernel is too large. There is a size limit, in general there
is no problem if you use bzImage, but who knows what after the patch...
> i'm guessing that maybe it's something wrong with lilo, but i changed
> the entries appropriately and ran lilo and it said it saw the new entry.
Unlikely, except for the size limitation.
> now, i did find a couple differences between the method i used and the
> method you have put here. (apart from using a different version of
> kernel and patch)
> a) cp -p System.map /boot/System.map
> i didn't copy any file of this sort myself on my machine, what is the
> purpose of this file? (see note c, is this the same?) (i do not know if
> this file even exists because currently i am unable to boot the machines
> since they just reset over and over)
This could cause some error messages during boot but not this kind of
problem. This file is a map of all symbols in the kernel, used to speed
things up for programs like ps, top, etc. If the wrong file is there, the
kernel detects that and ignores it after some error messages. The error
messages will appear during boot and every time you use ps, etc. It is a
pain, but it is not generally lethal.
> b) cp -p
> you used the preserve trigger. the howto i used did not. is it possible
> that in copying the bzImage, i lost some settings on the file which have
> caused it to not respond? (i only have a root account on here, so
> everything was done in root account, if that might have affected anything)
Nope, I use that only to preserve the date of the file so that later I can
know when I did it, it has no functional effect on the booting kernel.
> c) in my howto, i was told to edit a /etc/mosix/mosix.map file. and i
> edited it to
> 1 10.0.0.10 2
> (i had 2 machines setting up, with IP's 10.0.0.10 and 10.0.0.11) - you make
> no mention of a mosix.map file in your little howto.
Well, I wasn't trying to configure or use Mosix, just to make sure the
patch was consistent and the compilation went OK to the end. I did not
install the userspace tools or try to install and boot the kernel. But now
I did a much more complete thing, see below.
> now, as for the lilo.conf, this is the area i changed, and what it looked
> like after i changed it:
> ---------------------------------
> default=Linux
>
> image=/boot/bzImage
> label=Linux
> read-only
>
> image=/vmlinuz
> label=LinuxOLD2
> read-only
> # restricted
> # alias=1
>
> image=/vmlinuz.old
> label=LinuxOLD
> read-only
> optional
> # restricted
> # alias=2
> --------------------------------
> does this look correct?
Yes it does.
> now since i was working with 2 machines at the same time, and i hosed
> them both at the same time :) i will try and fix one while i try your
> process on the other and i'll see what i can get.
Well, since you have several entries on your lilo.conf, just use the entry
for the old kernel. If you left all the entries complete, that is. In
fact, when I install a new kernel for testing purposes I install it with a
temporary entry in lilo, I have one called "mosix" now. You don't have to
do the whole thing at once, you can install the kernel in each machine,
make sure each one boots, and configure the cluster later.
Well, I oppened up 2.4.18, got the patch and this time did the whole thing
including instaling and booting it here on my home machine. It booted OK.
I was poorly impressed by the fact that the patch was done with different
paths from the 2.4.20, a bit of sloppiness there, but I worked around it.
There were some mosix-related errors during boot since I didn't configure
the userspace tools. In fact, I didn't even install them. But nothing to
be worried about, I got into multi-user, X11, etc. But I did one important
thing that you may not have done: I configured completely the kernel.
You see, your problem may be caused by some misconfiguration, like
compiling a kernel for a PIII and running it on an Athlon or some such
thing. Also, using make oldconfig on a freshly opened tree seems to use no
modules at all and result in an enormous kernel. Since I always keep the
configuration files of the kernels I use, I took a config file from when I
had 2.4.18 on my machine and used it to start the new configuration. This
way I am sure that mostly everything in the kernel is OK and apropriate
for my machine and I only check and change the new things. I used all the
default mosix configurations.
The way you can do this is to go into the kernel tree in a X11 terminal
window and run
__> make xconfig
There is a button for loading an old config file. If you didn't keep a
copy of it in some safe place but still have your old kernel compilation
tree open, it may be in
/usr/src/linux/.config
If you are using some standard kernel from the distribution, it could be
in /boot or /usr/src, I don't quite remember where is the standard place.
Then you save the new configuration file .config (you can also write it to
an auxiliary file in order to keep it safe) and compile your kernel and
modules. The general idea is that everything that can go into modules
should do so. Keep in the kernel only things you need, and only the parts
that cannot be made into modules and the devices you need in order to
mount the root. You want a lean, mean kernel for maximum efficiency and
minimum problems...
Cheers,
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Jorge L. deLyra, Associate Professor of Physics
The University of Sao Paulo, IFUSP-DFMA
For more information: finger delyra@latt.if.usp.br
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