[Tfug] Making an install set?

Tue Oct 10 08:48:12 MST 2006

Hello -
Yes, I though fedora 4 was old too.  I had a Fedora 5 and 4 which both
failed to compile the kernel source that we were given. - syntax errors ...
We were supplied with some driver source that is specific to the card.  I
haven't gotten a regular distribution to successfully install on the card -
it just
goes to a black screen after the first few screens of booting stuff.  But
the stuff we ere provided works OK (as does win98 which was on the old hard
disk that we were using to build the test box).

The readme with the supplied kernel source said to use something like gcc
2.95 or something.  Fedora 4 even had compatibility modules for almost that
version.  The compat things helped the compile get along further, but it was
still screen after screen of warnings and then a failed link.  (gcc4 had
syntax errors).  The gcc in Fedora 1 went through with about 5 warnings!

The "distribution" we have with the cpu card, doesn't have any package
manager (? yam or yast whatever), so I'm just using the few utilities it
supplied -- doesn't even have make.  When / if I go to a newer kernel, I'll
just take along it's utilities.  The final system will be on a flash ram, so
it won't have much in the way of utilities, which is why I'm kind of "cross"
compiling now.

I like the idea of using a regular distribution to learn.  I noticed the
"make oldconfig" in the various documents -- I'll remember to do that...

But for now, I don't want to spent time upgrading to newer kernels, I really
just want to be able to compile the supplied kernel, it's special drivers -
and specifically a driver that I need to write for an I/O card.  -- if not
for the driver, I wouldn't touch the kernel-- the driver will be a loadable
module -- I have examples/source of the manufacturer's driver code..  but
that's for later dumb questions....  I just figured I needed to know how to
compile and make an image with the kernel that I could install, before I
could go in and add another driver.

Thank you.\
Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: tfug-bounces at tfug.org [mailto:tfug-bounces at tfug.org]On Behalf Of Brian
Masur
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 10:55 PM
To: tfug at tfug.org
Subject: Re: [Tfug] Making an install set?

(not sure I'm still getting TFUG emails here, I unsubscribed via the
tfug.org web site and replied to the confirmation, hrmm...)

Isn't Fedora 1 a bit old?  IMHO, the easier it is to run a flavor of linux,
the less you learn and retain about linux.

Regarding compiling a kernel, you should be able to do this with any
distribution of linux.  Just download and decompress the kernel source into
/usr/src/ and read the /usr/src/linux-version/Documentation/Changes file for
a list of current minimal requirements.  Use your particular linux
distribution's package manager (or manually run through each program with a
--version or similar) to check which version of each requirement you have
installed.  The Changes file tells you which command to run for each
package.

You can copy the .config file to another box but make sure to change the
PROCESSOR FAMILY to meet the capabilities of that box or you might be
wasting the resources of that box.

If you are using a .config from an older kernel version with a newly
installed kernel source, first run make oldconfig and answer the questions
for what is new.  Then run make menuconfig and do a quick check to make sure
everything is configured for your needs.  Then run make && make
modules_install   ...  Then copy the new bzImage file where your system
looks for it (according to grub.conf or menu.lst or lilo.conf) such as in
/boot and update such configuration files as needed.  It's a good idea to
make a backup of your old kernel and have a separate entry for it in your
boot config like grub/lilo.conf...

As for vi and all the other 10,000 packages out there, you should be able to
use your package manager to update.  Every linux distribution out there,
including debian and gentoo, you can manually download kernel source, unpack
it, manually compile and install a kernel and have little effect on the rest
of the system.  Even back when I used to run debian I would never use
make-kpkg for kernel installation because I already knew how to manage the
kernel and its upgrades/etc.  Whenever you start using a new version of a
kernel (or any differently compiled kernel) you need to check to make sure
all of your modules are also recompiled to match the new kernel.  If you run
anything like proprietary nvidia or ati drivers those will need to be
recompiled.  Atheros/madwifi needs to be recompiled.  Modules for lm_sensors
hardware sensors, vmware modules, all those kinds of modules not included in
the kernel will need to be recompiled/reinstalled/reemerged etc. etc.

If you have to ask this kind of thing about the kernel, I recommend getting
a hold of as many distributions as possible and install them, with the focus
on rolling your own kernel in each distro and still having a completely
working installation afterward.  Maybe even try LFS for practice, although I
don't recommend LFS for any production environment.

GCC 4.1.1 is pretty much accepted lately, FYI.

>From: "Joe Blais" <joe.blais at pti-instruments.com>
>Reply-To: Tucson Free Unix Group <tfug at tfug.org>
>To: "Tfug" <tfug at tfug.org>
>Subject: [Tfug] Making an install set?
>Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 11:37:07 -0700
>
>Hello -
>
>Thank you all for the help building a kernel.  What actually worked, was
>going back to Fedora 1, which has gcc 3.3.2, and then doing the build on
>the
>kernel code we were supplied.  -- first I thought it wasn't working because
>I didn't see screens full of warnings -- the old gcc compiler worked on the
>old code - no errors...
>
>Now some new questions.  Now that I have the code compiling on my
>development box, how do I update the target box?  They are both i386 type
>machines.  How do I make an install set for instruments we build?  I was
>looking at the install CD we were given.  It has a boot folder (with an
>empty s2 folder, and boot.catalog, boot.img and stage2.img files) an
>INSTALL
>folder ( with instimage.tgz, ram.tgz ximage.tgz) some other folders
>including the source that I finally got building.  The target system has
>some utilities like vi, but it doesn't have a make or anything, so I feel I
>have to develop on another box.
>
>Do I need to somehow turn the linuxz file that was compiled from the
>source,
>into a boot.img file?
>
>I assume I can keep the boot folder on the CD, and what it contains, and
>just replace the tar files in the INSTALL folder.
>
>Do I do the final "make install" of the source on the development box,
>directing it to some new folders, and then just roll these up as
>replacement
>tar files for the CD?  I looked into the instimage.tgz file and much of it
>seemed like the familiar bin, lib, usr folders with utilities, vi,... all
>that kind of stuff.  The ram.tzg just had 3 zero sized file names. The
>ximage.tgz seems to have everything for the x windows stuff.
>
>-- the next thing -- upgrade.
>
>If the above process works, can I upgrade to newer kernels by starting with
>the latest Fedora, with it's source from kernel.org, on my development box,
>apply the .config settings from our old system, then build with the newest
>gcc ?  What about all the utilities like vi?
>
>Thanks
>Joe
>
>ps - as to the religious stuff, I'm glad we have been able to keep religion
>out of government (it's not out of politics).  If we did have a religion
>based government, then, based on the last flurry of messages, I think we'd
>be like the middle east, shooting each other instead of helping each other!
>
>
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Checked by AVG Free Edition.
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Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.0.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.7/434 - Release Date: 8/30/2006