Re: ippp, ppa, ramdisk (i.e., parameters for kernel compilation)
On Sat, 12 Sep 1998, Remo Badii wrote:
> 1) While selecting/installing isdnutils, I was prompted to enter the
> name of whatever (I did not know what that was) and the message
> ended with (ippp0 ippp1 ippp2 ...):
> I typed ippp0. Afterwards, I got the message that
> /etc/isdn/ipppd.ippp0 is not yet configured. I thought this was all
> right since I haven't bought an ISDN card yet and some configuration
> must be done by hand (as for gpm, I think), by editing a file.
> However, at reboot I also see a new message saying
> INIT: /etc/inittab[74]: id field too long (max 4 characters).
> Is this a problem with that name ipppd.ippp0 or something else?
For now, you can leave that out - if you won't be using it for a while
then don't compile it in. It only takes 15 minutes on a slow machine, so
doing it again later won't hurt. The manual for your ISDN card will
instruct you on what values to give in the config.
> 2) I'll have to choose kernel compilation options: I am working on an
> IBM Thinkpad which will be connected to the rest of the world only
> via an ethernet PCMCIA card and an ISDN card, no printer. Do I need
> ppa (i.e., something I think is related with the parallel port)?
> The boot message about ppa currently says: SPP present, EPP not
> supported, probing 03bc, 0378, 0278 ...
PPA is the parallel port scsi adapter - specifically for support of the
Iomega parallel port Zip drive - you don't need it. The parallel port
support is 'lp' (descended from 'line printer' I beleive).
> 3) Presently, I also get the message:
> RAMDISK driver: 16 ramdisks of 4096k size.
> I do not know what a ramdisk is (although I can imagine it): do
> I need any of them, is that a compilation option?
> I have a 2.1 GB HD, 40 MB ram (probably 64 in the future), and a 40MB
> Swap partition (just in case this is relevant to the ramdisk choice).
RAM disks are only useful in certain situations - you probably won't need
them. A RAM disk is a portion of your RAM that the kernel presents to you
as a hard disk - you can read & write files. Its advantage is speed. Its
disadvantage is that you've gotta give up some RAM.
> 4) At boot time, I also get the message
> Unable to load NLS charset cp437 (nls_cp437): again, I do not know
> what that is, but the file is on the disk, together with several
> other ones with analogous names.
Being out of the Linux world for a while, I can only guess - I think that
is for the internationalization stuff? I compiled my kernel and in the
filesystems section you are asked about internationalization support, and
in the help for that section it mentions that you only really need 2 of
the codepages (for North America and Europe I think?). I chose those 2
that were suggested and got no errors.
> 5) Finally, kernel-package allegedly makes things easy. If I understand
> correctly, I am supposed to rename the directory /etc/modules/2.0.34
> to something else since that gets overwritten. Is all the rest
> automatic? Where does the new image "go", so that I can correctly
> point to it in the new lilo.conf? A sample lilo.conf with the call
> to the original kernel and to a custom-made one would be helpful.
> I do not see any "fakeroot" on the disk: is the command in the
> documentation correct? It ends in kernel-image: do I have to type
> "kernel-image" or a fantasy name for the image to be created?
> THis is not clear from the README file.
After you do the kernel configuration, it is suggested you do 'make dep;
make clean' to correctly set up dependencies, and clean up old object
files so they don't get included. Then I usually use 'make zImage' to
make the kernel. At that point I get a cup of coffee and read the paper
(Pentium 75 - ~17 minutes). Afterwards, I look at my screen to make sure
that it finished ok, then do 'mv /lib/modules/2.0.34
/lib/modules/orig.2.0.34'. Then 'make modules; make modules_install'
does pretty well what it claims to do. At this point you are finished,
so now you take it for a test drive. The kernel is in
/src/linux/arch/i386/boot (correct me if wrong), and called zImage. I
usually test it on a floppy first - take a blank and go 'cat zImage >
/dev/fd0'. Then leave the floppy in and reboot. Watch the startup. and
see how it goes. If it looks ok, then you want to install the new
kernel. Look at /etc/lilo.conf to see where it takes your kernel from
(if you use LILO that is - you most probably do). Either back up the old
one and put the new one in its place, or make /etc/lilo.conf point to
where you want the new one to be. After that, run lilo and *poof* we are
done.
Steve Tremblett
QNX Technical Support
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