Re: 2.4 Kernel Stability
Hello folks again :-)
Am Montag, 30. Juni 2003 09:49 schrieb James:
> I need many of the new features in a 2.4 based kernel on my portable.
> However, I like the Stable packages, as I have not had any issues, except
> my own lack of knowledge of Debian on a laptop.
> I have a Prostar P-IV running at 2GHz....
I run woody (stable) with kernel 2.4.5 and XFree 4.2.1.
Higher versions may also work well.
With linux on a new laptop, it's a good idea to learn how to compile a custom
kernel that fits to your laptop.
If once you maintained the first steps, it's a great fun :-)
It's one of the most FAQ in linux, and there are many threads in list
archives.
You have to install a package like kernel-source-2.4.5.
There's a lot of docu within.
For compiling install 'kernel-package' and read the related doc (in
/usr/share/doc).
For possibly occuring difficulties with (e.g.) Sound, XFree, ACPI, and pcmcia
cards please feel free to ask on this (or any other) list.
Searching the list archives first is always a good idea.
As you will have a bunch of questions you may look into some of the following
sites (a small collection):
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/laptops.html
http://g.unsa.edu.ar/doc/sdb/en/html/keylist.NOTEBOOK.html
http://tuxmobil.org/
http://hardwaredb.suse.de/extendedSearch.php?LANG=en_UK&PHPSESSID=6b9648a364901b494a2e15f16d00b960
> I read that may people are running 2.4.x kernels on their portables. Is
> there a (semi) stable release of Debian 2.4, that I can run on a portable?
Any release basically works on a range of kernel versions; however the most
safe choice are the ones shipped within. For woody 3.1. it's around 2.4.18 or
sth.
> Could a portable boot 2 kernels (2.2.a and 2.4) from lilo without having
> the installed packages wig out?
(I'm not sure what you mean here)
Booting a kernel doesn't affect the packages.
When the kernel has booted, it passes control to the init-process which
purpose is to start (and also shut down) most of the services that built up
your runlevel configuration.
Debian's default is to directly enter runlevel 2, defined in /etc/rc2.d.
Runlevel 1 is 'single', designed for recovering issues.
There's also an /etc/rcS.d for general booting tasks.
It's easy to define sperate runlevels started from a specific kernel.
3-5 are unused, you can use these for custom.
(Note that other distros differ in the scheme)
For example, me got a standard desktop (2) and an network-study runlevel (3),
each booting with it's own custom version of 2.4.5.
It works through a paramter passed to the init process, given as
kernel-parameter in lilo.config ('init=3').
See /usr/src/kernel-source-2.4.5/Documentation/kernel-parameters
Also /usr/share/doc/debian-policy, chapter 10.3.
> This way I can test everything on the same portable BEFORE making a
> permanent commitment to 2.4.
You can install many different kernels and define many different 'booting
images' at once. No permanent commitment.
For testing different kernels / images with lilo you should prepare a
bootfloppy, and test it carefully.
It is easier and safer to use grub instead - but then again, you would need
to learn the how-to first ....
(but think of the money we've spared (and will do in future) with linux, some
of what we could give some hacker to configure the stuff - it's a fair deal
and helps against unemployment (and M$ also) ;-)
good luck
--
mi <mrl>
btw.
Have a look at:
Re: inittab zerschossen
Datum: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 13:57:21 +0200
Von: Sebastian Henschel <debian@kodeaffe.de>
Kopie: debian-laptop@lists.debian.org
:-)
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