Re: Help obtaining kernel module for video driver [savage.ko]
On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 18:34:57 -0400, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, Florian Kulzer wrote:
>
> >On Wed, Aug 16, 2006 at 04:29:08 -0400, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> >>I am running debian-testing on linux 2.6.8 on an IBM T23 laptop. This
> >>...
> >>...
> >>I searched the computer and savage.ko is nowhere to be found. What's the
> >>best way to obtain this module under debian? I have a full kernel source
> >>...
> >
> >I am on Sid with linux-source-2.6.17 and the savage DRM code is
> >included.
[...]
> >CONFIG_DRM_SAVAGE:
> >Choose this option if you have a Savage3D/4/SuperSavage/Pro/Twister
> >chipset. If M is selected the module will be called savage.
[...]
> Thanks for your reply. I decided to upgrade my kernel since it was old
> anyway. I used make-kpkg on the source tree that comes with the debian
> package linux-source-2.6.16 (My apt-get can't find a 2.6.17 version),
> which seemed to work. However, my resulting kernel was not bootable. I
> installed initrd-tools and ran:
>
> mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.16_10.00 2.6.16
>
> That made an initrd image. Then when I booted into it, I got many pages
> of the error that /lib/modules/2.6.16/modules.dep was not found, and a
> kernel panic. Only there is a modules.dep file. Here is a listing of the
> directory:
[ snip: the directory listing looked normal to me ]
> Googling doesn't help. I'm afraid I don't know what to do next.
First of all, there is one thing to keep in mind if you want to use
newer kernels on Sarge: You need a different version of udev if the
kernel version is greater than 2.6.12 (or thereabouts). This makes
upgrading to a newer kernel a bit nasty, since it is kind of a one-way
street. Before compiling yourself I would recommend to install a newer
kernel for your architecture from www.backports.org. This should take
care of the udev issue automatically because the backported kernels have
the necessary dependency fields. The hotplug package will be removed in
the course of this and it should be purged afterwards. The backported
kernel should already have the savage drm module which you need.
Your problem with your self-compiled kernel is probably an initrd issue.
The kernel package should normally take care of all that automatically
if you make sure you do the following:
1) After you have untarred the linux source, cd to its directory and run
either "make menuconfig" or "make oldconfig". This will import the
kernel configuration of the currently running kernel. (You could also
copy the config file manually from /boot/config-your.kernel.version
to .config in the linux source directory.)
2) "make-kpkg clean" to start from a clean slate.
3) "make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-custom1 --revision=00
kernel_image" will compile the kernel and build a .deb package in
/usr/src. You can of course choose your own name for "-custom1"and if
you compile more than once (with different configurations) you can
increment the --revision number.
4) Finally you can install the .deb of the freshly-compiled kernel with
"dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.16-custom1_00_xxxx.deb". ("xxxx" is the
identifier for your architecture.) This will automatically build the
initrd for you and will update grub (or lilo) so that you can select
the new kernel when you reboot. Your other installed kernels remain
available in the boot menu so that you can fall back on one of them
if there should be a problem with the new kernel.
Following steps 1) - 4) I never had to mess with the initrd, the module
dependencies or the bootloader myself; the new kernels always "just
worked". Once you have successfully compiled your own kernel with the
standard Debian configuration you can of course start to optimize the
settings: Remove unused modules to decrease compile time, select options
which improve the responsiveness, etc.
--
Regards,
Florian
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