Experimental MIPS 2.6 kernels - please test
I've produced some *experimental* 2.6.15 kernels for mips/mipsel and
I'm looking for people to test them. Note that these are still
experimental, so please don't use them on a production machine and
only try them out if you have some knowledge how to fix things.
If you want to test them, follow the following steps:
- Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following line:
deb http://people.debian.org/~tbm/mips-2.6-kernels mips main
- Run apt-get update
- Install the appropriate kernel package, depending on your machine:
# SGI Indy (R4000, R5000), Indigo2
apt-get install linux-image-r4k-ip22
# SGI O2 (R5000)
apt-get install linux-image-r5k-ip32
# Cobalt (Qube, RaQ, Qube2, RaQ2)
apt-get install linux-image-r5k-cobalt
- You'll notice that this command will pull in some other packages,
including one called "yaird". Debian 2.6 kernels now use initrds,
even though many mips machines don't really need (or can use) them.
I'll try to get rid of this dependency later, but for now it's
there, and you have to be aware of it...
Why? Because yaird will fail if you install these packages on a
machine running 2.4 - which you probably are. However, given that
the initrd is not actually needed for anything, you can simply
ignore this!
It will say something like this:
Failed to find suitable ramdisk generation tool for kernel version
2.6.15-1-r4k-ip22 on running kernel 2.4.26-r4k-ip22 in mkinitramfs mkinitrd.yaird
So the installation will ask you whether you want to abort now.
No, just go ahead. The installation will then fail, but the kernel
image will end up in /boot. You then have to manually change the
/boot/vmlinux (Cobalt) or /vmlinux (SGI) symlink to the new 2.6.15
image.
- Reboot, hope it works.
- After reboot, run the following command:
dpkg --configure --pending
Now yaird will run (because we're on 2.6) and dpkg will be happy.
- Now that you're (hopefully) running the experimental 2.6.15 kernel,
please do all kind of tests and if you notice any regressions to
2.4 or other problems, please send a message to this list. Does
the kernel feel faster/slower than 2.4, etc? (If the kernel works
well for a few days, please send me a private message so I know
that at least someone has tested the images ;)
Known issues:
- On Cobalt, it really doesn't like (some) PCI sounds cards.
Issues I'm particularly interested in:
- Does framebuffer work on Indy?
- Does framebuffer work on O2?
- Is Cobalt 2.6 stable when you use disk and network at the same time
a lot?
- Do PCI cards work in the Cobalt Qube, e.g. USB PCI or SCSI?
Other questions:
- Anyone out there with an SGI O200?
--
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/
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