KErnel Upgrade = missing devices?

[katsushiro]

Hey all.. spent most of the weekend trying to upgrade my 2.4.22-xfs kernel from a Knoppix 3.3 HD install to the latest and greatest 2.6.0-test9, just to test it out. It took some doing, lookign through the forums for ideas, but I finally did it. However, when booting with the new 2.6 kernel, i lose all my devices. No sound card, no video card, and no network card. Here's what I did, did I miss something?


1. d/l the kernel source (linux-2.6.0-test9.tar.gz)
2. Extracted it into my home dir.
3. Logged out and then logged in as root.
4. Copied src tree to /usr/src, i.e. (/usr/src/linux-2.6.0-test9)
5. Deleted old symlink to /usr/src/linux
6. Made new one ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.0-test9 /usr/src/linux
7. cd /usr/src/linux; cp ../linux-2.4.22-xfs/.config .config
8. make xconfig - I enabled kernel preemption, ALSA, a couple of other things that looked interesting,and pointed it to my specific CPU (An Athlon XP)
9. make dep (told me this step wasn't neccesry); make clean
10. make bzImage
11. make modules
12. make modules_install
13. mv /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.6.0-test9
14. mv /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.0-test9
15. ln -sf /boot/System.map-2.6.0-test9 /boot/System.map
16. add image to lilo.conf
19. Reboot

There were a couple of hitches. I had to comment out the 'initrd=' line in my lilo.conf for the 2.6.0 kernel, otherwise it would give me a kernel panic and stop booting, saying something about being unable to mount the files system on hda1. I also had to move the 'vga=' line to within the menu choice for the old 2.4.22-xfs kernel, so I could see the messages that 2.6.0 posted up when booting, and had to uncomment the 'prompt' line so I would get a chance to switch between them if somehting went wrong.

So anyway, allt hat is done and when I choose the 2.6.0 kernel, it boots up the system (without the initrd.gz), but then I can't use my USB mouse, no sound card, and no network. This, of course, isn't good. I tried going into /usr/src/linux and typing 'mkinitrd -o initrd2.6.gz', and it created a file which I then moved to /boot/ and pointed my lilo.conf to it, but I get the same kernel panic again when I try to boot up using it.

So, anyone got any ideas? Those of you who have succesfully upgraded to 2.6.0-test9, what am I missing or doing wrong? Did you have these problems when you upgraded too?

[Stephen]

You could try starting with my working config which you can get here (http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/scormier) copying the old .config from 2.4.22 is a nightmare as you have found out. It is set up for an athlon the sound is set for both alsa and oss you will be able to get a framebuffer so you can us the vga= line in the lilo.conf you should take a look around and use your setup for your system you do not say what kind or hardware you have so I can't advise further on that. Also the kernel config has support for the ext2,ext3,and reiserfs built in there is no need for an initrd and the important option to get the framebuffer is the CONFIG_FB_VGA16=y not being set it screws up the framebuffer just use the VESA option that is already set. For USB you may want to trun off the verbose debuging I have turned on in a failed effort to try to get it to show my USB UPS cable connection in the usbview in the Infocenter in KDE it gets detected at boot but will not show up.

You should install the kernel-package and fakeroot packages and compile the kernel the Debian way and save yourself the extra steps you are doing with this you would to compile:


cd /usr/src/linux
make [menuconfig,xconfig,config]
fakeroot make-kpkg clean
fakeroot make-kpkg --append-to-version=date_of_compile kernel_image modules_image kernel_headers
cd /usr/src
dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.0-test9.date_of_compile_10.00.Custom_i386.deb kernel-headers-2.6.0-test9.date_of_compile_10.00.Custom_i386.deb


As you can see this method gives you Debian packages that you can (un)install with dpkg it makes it easier manage the new kernels. A guide (http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/tutorials/kernel-pkg/index-kernel-pkg.html) to creating custom kernel packages with the Debian tools.

[katsushiro]

Thanks a lot for the quick response.. I'll try that config and the suggestions you gave, and I'll let you know how it works out. The hardware is a SB Live! sound card, a sort of BrandX 10/100 network card (had it laying around work so I snagged it), and an equally BrandX USB mouse that's always worked for me before, but Linux and Windows seem pretty good about recognizing and using it without the need for additional drivers.

Anyway, once I've done what you suggestted I'll pop on here and let you know how it went.. thanks again!

[Stephen]

Thanks a lot for the quick response.. I'll try that config and the suggestions you gave, and I'll let you know how it works out. The hardware is a SB Live! sound card, a sort of BrandX 10/100 network card (had it laying around work so I snagged it), and an equally BrandX USB mouse that's always worked for me before, but Linux and Windows seem pretty good about recognizing and using it without the need for additional drivers.

Anyway, once I've done what you suggestted I'll pop on here and let you know how it went.. thanks again!

You should have no problems with the sound then that's the card I have for the network card just go into the 10/100 netcard section and compile all the options as modules it is only setup for a tulip module not sure about the usb the UPS is the only device I have.

[katsushiro]

Well, it worked, almost perfectly.. I still haven't been able to get my USB mouse to work, but I've futzed it for the moment with a USB-to-PS2 adapter and it's working fne that way.. I'll figure out what exactly I need to enable or disable for it later.. but the sound is up and working once more, and as witnessed by this post, my network card's working again.. turns out it was a Realtek card.. and now that I have Net access again under the new kernel, I can actualy keep hunting for reason why the mouse seems to be dead on USB mode. Many thanks for the .config, that seems to have helped immensely. Now I gotta try out all the other stuff (my usual applications, the CD-RW, a couple games..) to make sure everything is working fine with the new kernel.. and maybe it's my imagination, but the dekstop seems a tad more responsive with 2.6.0-test9.. maybe it's that 'preemptible kernel' stuff. Thanks again!

[Stephen]

Well, it worked, almost perfectly.. I still haven't been able to get my USB mouse to work, but I've futzed it for the moment with a USB-to-PS2 adapter and it's working fne that way.. I'll figure out what exactly I need to enable or disable for it later.. but the sound is up and working once more, and as witnessed by this post, my network card's working again.. turns out it was a Realtek card.. and now that I have Net access again under the new kernel, I can actualy keep hunting for reason why the mouse seems to be dead on USB mode. Many thanks for the .config, that seems to have helped immensely. Now I gotta try out all the other stuff (my usual applications, the CD-RW, a couple games..) to make sure everything is working fine with the new kernel.. and maybe it's my imagination, but the dekstop seems a tad more responsive with 2.6.0-test9.. maybe it's that 'preemptible kernel' stuff. Thanks again!

The cdrw should work as well I have it setup for that and it works for mine you just need the normal hd?=ide-scsi in the append line in the lilo.conf replace the ? with the drive letter for it. Good luck on the usb I've recompiled so many times trying to get my UPS to show up it's not funny if you get it figured out let me know how you did it, I think it has something to do with how the devices are detected with the new modules-init setup and yes the desktop really is really snappy with the 2.6 kernel.


Almost forgot in the config it is setup as a module for the udf packet writing for burners I have not tried to get it going yet but you might want to check into it.

[katsushiro]

OK, just a quick note, I got the USB mouse to work.. I just had to do a

sudo modprobe uhci_hcd
And it started working again.

I've read on a couple of discussions that it may be related to some bug in the ACPI modules, and that for some people, the mouse will stop working every now and then for no apparent reason and won't start again until they modprobe it to life once more. These discussions were talking about pre-test9 kernels, so that may have been fixed.. I'll let you know if it happens to me.

Have you tried modprobing around your usb devices to see if maybe that perks your UPS thing to life/ Worked for me with the mouse, at least, no need for additional recompiles, even.

Now that I've gotten the mouse working once more, everything else seems to be going pretty smoothly with 2.6.0-test9. I've run into a few bugs bringing up some windows programs under WINE that seemed to run pretty flawlessly before, but those are minor concerns, none of my WINE programs are critical. Haven't tried out the CD burner yet, I'm downloading the latest Knoppix ISO and will burn it once it finishes, I figure burning a bootable image is a fair test of wether the burner works fine with the new kernel.