Re: working alsa modules for kernel-image-2.4.19-k7??

["Jack O'Quin" <joq@io.com>]

(I am sending a copy of this reply to the debian-user list.  It'll
probably be useful for others.  That way, the information shows up in
web searches.  I hope alsa-modules-2.4.19-* binaries will be released
soon, so all this becomes moot.)

> "Jack O'Quin" <joq@io.com> wrote:
> 
>       >  I ended up downloading kernel-source-2.4.19, building that
>       >  (using kpkg), downloading alsa-source, building it with kpkg,
>       >  and installing the resulting images.  Takes some time and a bit
>       >  of fiddling, but not*terribly* difficult.  If you want to do
>       >  that, let me know.  I'll provide more details.

Lourens Steenkamp <palchen@ananzi.co.za> writes:
> 
> Thanks for the offer, I would be happy to receive a copy of your notes
> on this one as I am a Debian newbie and about to do this on one of my
> machines.

This is an edited version of my notes from back in early October.
Note that the ALSA version has changed since then.  But, this should
be approximately what you need to do.  You need kernel-package
installed to use the make-kpkg script.  There are a lot of fussy
details to get right, but it's really not *that* difficult.  :-)

As a starting point, I decided to use the exact configuration of my
working kernel-image from /boot/config-2.4.19-k7.  The "joq.1"
revision name is just my initials.  I use "sudo" to gain root access
on my system.  Some prefer "fakeroot", but this worked for me:

  # first, build a kernel like your current kernel-image
  apt-get -t testing install kernel-source-2.4.19
  cd /usr/src
  tar xvjf kernel-source-2.4.19.tar.bz2
  cd kernel-source-2.4.19
  mv .config .config.old
  cp /boot/config-2.4.19-k7 .config     # working kernel's .config
  make xconfig                          # no changes needed
  make-kpkg --rootcmd sudo clean
  make-kpkg --rootcmd sudo --initrd --revision=joq.1 kernel_image

  # now, build the ALSA drivers
  apt-get -t testing install alsa-source
  cd /usr/src
  tar xvzf alsa-driver.tar.gz           # unpack alsa-driver
  cd kernel-source-2.4.19               # compile from kernel directory
  sudo make-kpkg --revision=joq.1 modules_image

(Apparently, "--rootcmd sudo" does not work with the alsa-driver
modules sources.  That's why I compiled it all with sudo.)

This built two .deb files in /usr/src:

  kernel-image-2.4.19_joq.1_i386.deb
  alsa-modules-2.4.19_0.9.0rc3+0.2+p0+joq.1_i386.deb 

Install these using "dpkg -i", remove them with "dpkg -r" (or -P).

My alsa-modules package would not install, because it depended on
alsa-base (>= 0.9.0rc3-0.1), but 0.9+0beta12-3 was installed.  So, I
installed the required alsa-base from testing.  This is the coolest
thing about building .debs from source: dependency checking still
works.

Make sure LILO (or GRUB, if you prefer) is updated to handle the new
kernel and initrd images, and that there's a stanza to boot the old
kernel in case of trouble.  The kernel-image install will remind you
about this.

Then reboot and see what happens.

If all this works, you can experiment with customizing the kernel for
your system by changing .config and rebuilding again.  If you do,
increment the revision number.  Then, both sets of .deb's will play
together nicely.

> Debian tools are amazing, I do not know why/how I survived my time in
> rpm_dependency_hell!

Agreed.  I ran RedHat for years and upgrading was *always* a hassle.

Let me know if I've got this all fouled up...  :-)
-- 
  Jack O'Quin
  Austin, Texas, USA