Slackware: kernel confusion

Slackware: kernel confusion

[Zachary Kline]

Hiya,
    I know this might be a rather elementary question for Linux people to answer.  However, I've become aware through reading the LFS book that the kernel headers are a rather important thing.  Slackware ships with 2.4.33.3.  I'm pretty sure that the kernel headers are 2.4.33.3 as well.
    All that being said, I'd like to get Speakup support with a more recent kernel.  I know I can probably download, compile, etc. something like 2.6.20 or 2.6.21.  I know also that Slackware provides 2.6.17 in Extra.  My question is: does that 2.6.17 version already have Speakup included?  If not, should I download its source code from a Slackware package site and patch it in myself?  And what about those pesky headers?
Sorry for the barrage of questions.  I'm confedent once I figure out what exactly is happening I'll be good to go.
Thanks,
Zack.

Re: Slackware: kernel confusion

[ace]

My advice would be to grab the latest 2.6.21 kernel from www.kernel.org, 
patch Speakup into it, configure it, compile, and install.  Don't try 
anything 2.6.22 yet as it is still broken.

Here are the commands (or something close to what they would be) for doing 
this:
wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.21.5.tar.bz2

This will grab the kernel for you.  Switch to root and cp the file to 
/usr/src.  Then
tar xfv linux-2.6.21.5.tar.bz2
to untar it.

Get the checkout script from ftp.linux-speakup.org.  Place it in /usr/src 
and make it executable:
chmod +x checkout
make a symlink to the kernel source:
ln -s linux-2.6.21.5 linux
then run checkout.  Hit enter then give it the password of
please

After a very long time, the patch should succeed.  Switch to the kernel 
directory
cd linux
and read the README file.  Compiling the kernel can be done with the 
following general command set:

make mrproper
make menuconfig  # Menu driven program for selecting everything to put in 
kernel
make
make modules_install
cp -v arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage
cp -v System.map /boot/System.map

Remember to update lilo.conf and run the lilo command.

Good luck
Robby
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Zachary Kline" <Z_kline@hotmail.com>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 10:21 PM
Subject: Slackware: kernel confusion


> Hiya,
>    I know this might be a rather elementary question for Linux people to 
> answer.  However, I've become aware through reading the LFS book that the 
> kernel headers are a rather important thing.  Slackware ships with 
> 2.4.33.3.  I'm pretty sure that the kernel headers are 2.4.33.3 as well.
>    All that being said, I'd like to get Speakup support with a more recent 
> kernel.  I know I can probably download, compile, etc. something like 
> 2.6.20 or 2.6.21.  I know also that Slackware provides 2.6.17 in Extra. 
> My question is: does that 2.6.17 version already have Speakup included? 
> If not, should I download its source code from a Slackware package site 
> and patch it in myself?  And what about those pesky headers?
> Sorry for the barrage of questions.  I'm confedent once I figure out what 
> exactly is happening I'll be good to go.
> Thanks,
> Zack.
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> __________ NOD32 2353 (20070625) Information __________
>
> This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
> http://www.eset.com
>
> 

Re: Slackware: kernel confusion

[Zachary Kline]

Hiya,
    I'm not aware of NPTL or anything like that.  So I'm going to assume I 
don't need the headers package, nor the modules for that matter since I'll 
be custom compiling anyway.
Is this accurate?
Thanks,
Zack.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Sutherland" <doug@proficio.ca>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: Slackware: kernel confusion


> Zach,
>
> Slackware 11 does have 2.6.17 kernel, the source, headers, module
> and kernel are available here:
>
> http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/slackware/slackware-11.0/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/
>
> Please note the warning about headers
> http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/slackware/slackware-11.0/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/kernel-headers.WARNING
>
> This kernel is not a speakup kernel, but it's easy to patch it for
> speakup. If you want the 2.6.x kernel headers, then grab them
> from the above, you could get the source for 2.6.21 instead
> from kernel.org and patch that for speakup. Follow the
> speakup install instructions, they are not difficult.
>
>  -- Doug
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

Re: Slackware: kernel confusion

[Doug Sutherland]

Zach,

Slackware 11 does have 2.6.17 kernel, the source, headers, module
and kernel are available here:

http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/slackware/slackware-11.0/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/

Please note the warning about headers
http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/slackware/slackware-11.0/extra/linux-2.6.17.13/kernel-headers.WARNING

This kernel is not a speakup kernel, but it's easy to patch it for
speakup. If you want the 2.6.x kernel headers, then grab them
from the above, you could get the source for 2.6.21 instead
from kernel.org and patch that for speakup. Follow the
speakup install instructions, they are not difficult.

  -- Doug

Re: Slackware: kernel confusion

[Doug Sutherland]

Yea, listen to patrick, "unless you have a particular reason" to install
headers then it's better to not do so. The glibc is the crux of all of 
this toolchain, and the same reason why that old viavoice became 
a nightmare to support. The distro folks like patrick play with gcc,
glibc, and binutils combination until they find a stable combination
to build the entire system out of. The kernel headers, as he states 
in his warning, it's dangerous to use headers newer than the glibc
version on your system. You can still build the 2.6.x kernel. There
are some situations where stuff will not build, which is why he has
the headers on the site, but don't change headers as a default 
starting point, only as a last resort. And yes, you don't need the 
modules, in fact you don't need anything from there. Patrick uses
ONLY unmodified kernels anyways, so if you want the latest 
that still works with speakup, grab the last of the 2.21.x from 
kernel.org. Or be like us old folks who prefer the stable 
"trailing edge". I have not found a need for 2.6.x yet, so using
Patrick's similar logic, I will do so when I have a reason to. 
I used to chase the leading edge kernels but found that it was 
generally a waste of time in the large scheme of things.

  -- Doug

Re: Slackware: kernel confusion

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah, I'm thinking of maintaining both the latest 2.4 and 2.6
kernels.  I have a Cisco VPN client that works OK with a 2.4 kernel
but as soon as I throw it on a 2.6 kernel, I keep getting miss-matched
kernel versions or some such; I thought it was compiled to work with
2.6 but here we go with closed source again <yuck!>.

On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 11:21:03PM -0500, Doug Sutherland wrote:
> Yea, listen to patrick, "unless you have a particular reason" to install
> headers then it's better to not do so. The glibc is the crux of all of 
> this toolchain, and the same reason why that old viavoice became 
> a nightmare to support. The distro folks like patrick play with gcc,
> glibc, and binutils combination until they find a stable combination
> to build the entire system out of. The kernel headers, as he states 
> in his warning, it's dangerous to use headers newer than the glibc
> version on your system. You can still build the 2.6.x kernel. There
> are some situations where stuff will not build, which is why he has
> the headers on the site, but don't change headers as a default 
> starting point, only as a last resort. And yes, you don't need the 
> modules, in fact you don't need anything from there. Patrick uses
> ONLY unmodified kernels anyways, so if you want the latest 
> that still works with speakup, grab the last of the 2.21.x from 
> kernel.org. Or be like us old folks who prefer the stable 
> "trailing edge". I have not found a need for 2.6.x yet, so using
> Patrick's similar logic, I will do so when I have a reason to. 
> I used to chase the leading edge kernels but found that it was 
> generally a waste of time in the large scheme of things.
> 
>   -- Doug
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
HolmesGrown Solutions
The best solutions for the best price!
http://holmesgrown.ld.net/

Re: Slackware: kernel confusion

[Ralph W. Reid]

I notice that an 'openvpn' package is in Slackware-current (soon to be
Slackware 12.0).  Maybe this package will work with your Cisco
equipment?

As an extra note, the Speakup modified kernel in slackware-current is
version 2.6.21.5--looks like Slackware is about to move on to 2.6.x
kernels completely.

Have a great dday.

On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 02:20:07PM -0700, Steve Holmes wrote:
> Yeah, I'm thinking of maintaining both the latest 2.4 and 2.6
> kernels.  I have a Cisco VPN client that works OK with a 2.4 kernel
> but as soon as I throw it on a 2.6 kernel, I keep getting miss-matched
> kernel versions or some such; I thought it was compiled to work with
> 2.6 but here we go with closed source again <yuck!>.
> 
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 11:21:03PM -0500, Doug Sutherland wrote:
> > Yea, listen to patrick, "unless you have a particular reason" to install
> > headers then it's better to not do so. The glibc is the crux of all of 
> > this toolchain, and the same reason why that old viavoice became 
> > a nightmare to support. The distro folks like patrick play with gcc,
> > glibc, and binutils combination until they find a stable combination
> > to build the entire system out of. The kernel headers, as he states 
> > in his warning, it's dangerous to use headers newer than the glibc
> > version on your system. You can still build the 2.6.x kernel. There
> > are some situations where stuff will not build, which is why he has
> > the headers on the site, but don't change headers as a default 
> > starting point, only as a last resort. And yes, you don't need the 
> > modules, in fact you don't need anything from there. Patrick uses
> > ONLY unmodified kernels anyways, so if you want the latest 
> > that still works with speakup, grab the last of the 2.21.x from 
> > kernel.org. Or be like us old folks who prefer the stable 
> > "trailing edge". I have not found a need for 2.6.x yet, so using
> > Patrick's similar logic, I will do so when I have a reason to. 
> > I used to chase the leading edge kernels but found that it was 
> > generally a waste of time in the large scheme of things.
> > 
> >   -- Doug
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> -- 
> HolmesGrown Solutions
> The best solutions for the best price!
> http://holmesgrown.ld.net/

-- 
Ralph.  N6BNO.  Wisdom comes from central processing, not from I/O.
rreid@sunset.net  http://personalweb.sunset.net/~rreid
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