Kernel for Debian Lenny on RaQ3

[ceelight]

Hi!

As I'm running my RaQ4 as Raqcop now for a while and have some more "blue beauties" around, I decided to install Debian Lenny on my RaQ3s. No problem so far as there is a really good HowTo ( http://www.timntina.com/debian-sarge-cobalt-install ). The only thing that I'd like to change is using a newer kernel. The newest kernel-patch I found is for 2.6.24.3 and I'd like to install 2.6.29.

Well, as newbie as I am I haven't patched any kernel before. So don't hit me for the next question: What do you think, would it be possible and successfull to compile a 2.6.29 kernel with a 2.6.24 patch?

Or could you maybe tell me your proceedings in patching a kernel for RaQ3?

Cheers
Cee

[Davesworld]

Any pre 2.6.25 patch will not work, Jeff Walter had to do a lot of work on the post 2.6.25 patch to get it to work since the kernel maintainers combined the 64 and 32 bit x86 source into one place, while at it he also came up with a fix to re-enable serial console output during kernel boot which was broken in the late 2.6.24 cycle. In my IPCop 2.0svn (1.9.4) test builds, I am running the 2.6.27 kernel and since Jeff who is rather busy has not released a 2.6.28 patch yet. I made one based on his work. Some things moved in the kernel after 2.6.27 but the functions remained the same so it was merely a matter of changing a few locations in the patch.

Simply getting the patch and patching the kernel is the beginning, it also helps to be familiar with the Cobalt section of the config as well as tailoring the kernel for a headless device, knowing what to embed and not embed. One big hint here is ide controllers, you only need three for a raq or qube and you're covered up through the XTR and they do need to be embedded. Additional controllers can be modularized if you think you'll ever add a controller. The ali15x3 (all 3000 series),  Serverworks (550 mainly), and hpt36x (the XTR's driver ruler has an hpt370). You can also enable both 3000 and 5000 series support in the Cobalt section of the config, it adds very little space and the rom kernels themselves do this, ie, the rom is the same for the 3000 series and the XTR and fits on a 1MB chip. I combine as well except the hpt36x driver for Raqcop so it will run on a 550 from the start as well as the 3000 series. I see no point in using the big cumbersome xtr for a firewall appliance.

I can come up with a patch easily enough for 2.6.29.

[ceelight]

Thanks Dave!

So, I'll have a look at the config and try to understand the proceedings.

I can come up with a patch easily enough for 2.6.29.

If you would have the time to do this, would be great! Thanks again!

[ceelight]

After booting from net: "Kernel too old". 

I think you're familiar with the installation process of Debian (debootstrap, nfsroot-x86, bfn etc.). I've done this before with my RaQ4 and it worked with Debian Etch. I've seen in the ipcop-devel list, that you had the same problem. Is there any hint you could give me to get the RaQ booting to a login prompt? I read something about /sbin/init?

I know this is the raqcop forum, but maybe you'll find the time to drop some lines.

Thanks.

[ceelight]

OK, it's the glibc thing which is probably in lenny also compiled with --enable-kernel=2.6.5 So my idea to get a clean lenny is first installing etch as this worked for the RaQ4 and upgrade to lenny. Or do you have another idea?

[Davesworld]

Debian is by far one of the easier ones to install via network with their tools. I made a patch that is still purely based on Jeff Walter's work. Starting in 2.6.28, some things moved in the kernel tree so I merely had to move things, the code is all still his modernization of old gcc cobalt code. His also has the e100 checksum patch built into one patch whereas with Raqcop 1.4.x I had to add a second e100 patch. I will post the patch in the extras folder. I'll compile it myself and test on something here first though.

[Davesworld]

Bump!

I don't know if you noticed or not since it's been a great while since you asked in this topic but I now have Debian 6 running on my XTR and also on a test Raq4 to ensure that my Debian packaged kernel .deb works on both the 3000 and 5000 series, it does. I also post rpm's for Centos or any rpm based distro that may need it. I packaged it so that the stock but useless on a Cobalt kernel can be uninstalled to clean thing up a bit.

I'm finding Debian to be a bit snappier and it runs well even on the slower 3000 series. I started with Lenny and was able to do a distro upgrade to 6.0 in place with ease. I find the debian package system to be much more useful and easy to clean packages out that no longer are needed.

I should mention that if you have a separate /boot partition on a Cobalt, only that partition has to be ext3 with the ext3 rom. / root can be anything you want provided that filesystem is in the kernel image. In my layout, I have /boot as ext3, / root as reiser (I included it in the kernel image as well for my debian and rpm packages) /var as reiser and my raid 5 /storage partition as XFS. The kernel image is larger with the extra filesystem support but it is well within the 1.8MB compressed limit for the rom to load. For a server kernel, flexibility for root filesystem support was my goal. There was a reiser rom floating around that someone made once but in any case, only the partition where the image resides has to match the rom. I believe that ext2 can still be used as well although I wouldn't want to.

I am using a dual Intel gigabit copper nic in this XTR and simply changed it in /udev to be eth0 and eth1. I have a second one of these nics running in 32 bit mode in the Raq4 I am testing Debian with and it seems to run fine in 32 bit half length pci mode.