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GRAFFITI -- December 15 thru December 21, 2003>> Link to the Current Week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.. |
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December 22, 2003 - Updates at 0730
Good morning. A busy day yesterday. We got the shopping done, then I killed the power again, to right the hot-neutral orientation on two of the sockets I'd done the day before. The I tore into the upper section of the house: moving furniture, fumbling around in the attic and drilling holes - all to get cable and networking run from my office to Marcia's. It took a couple of hours, that did. And the run of plenum CAT5 that I had was all of 8" too long. Whew. The other good news was that in rooting around I found not only three spare keystone jacks, but matching wallplates, so the installation looks really quite good. The cleaning up took another hour or so. Then I got busy writing the micro-HOWTO for the latest kernel.
So you've seen the news. The new 2.6.0 Linux kernel is freshly out, and you're wondering if it's time for you to bake a kernel of your own, or if you should wait for your distribution to put the new kernel into play for you. I say, build it yourself. Here's how:
Yeah, I know it's a pain to have to read docs, but the effort usually pays off. This is especially true as you venture into building kernels. There's a couple of important files to look at once you've fetched down a kernel to work with. One note - much of the process of installing a kernel is done with root privileges. I tend to su to root right after downloading the kernel.
The easiest place to get a kernel is from Kernel.Org. On that page, you'll see a line that looks like this:
The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is: 2.6.0 2003-12-18 03:04 UTC F V C Changelog
A number of the items on that line are links to other places or files in the Kernel.Org site. The ones that are most interesting are the "F", which is a link to a 'F'ull bzipped tarball of the current kernel tree. If you haven't been tracking kernel sources, then you'll want to start there. The Changelog link leads you to a file that lists the comments related to fixes between the last version of the kernel and this one. This is important if you're tracking a particular bug or feature. Finally, you should go to the actual archive and pick up the GnuPG signature for the tarball you've selected. Then check the signature:
goldfinger distfiles # ls linux-2.6*
linux-2.6.0-test10.tar.bz2 linux-2.6.0-test9.tar.bz2 linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2.sign
linux-2.6.0-test11.tar.bz2 linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2
goldfinger distfiles # wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2.sign
. . .
100%[====================================>] 248 --.--K/s
goldfinger distfiles # gpg --verify linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2.sign
gpg: Signature made Wed Dec 17 22:52:55 2003 EST using DSA key ID 517D0F0E
gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found
goldfinger distfiles # gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys 0x517D0F0E
gpg: keyring `/root/.gnupg/secring.gpg' created
gpgkeys: WARNING: this is an *experimental* HKP interface!
gpg: /root/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key 517D0F0E: public key "Linux Kernel Archives Verification Key " imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1
goldfinger distfiles # gpg --verify linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2.sign
gpg: Signature made Wed Dec 17 22:52:55 2003 EST using DSA key ID 517D0F0E
gpg: Good signature from "Linux Kernel Archives Verification Key "
gpg: checking the trustdb
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: C75D C40A 11D7 AF88 9981 ED5B C86B A06A 517D 0F0E
Following directions at the site, I first downloaded, then checked the signature. Finding that I don't currently have the Kernel signing key in my keyring, I then imported the key from a repository and recheck the signature. It's good. This means that the tarball hasn't been tampered with since being signed. Observe that there's no trust path. If I *really* needed to be sure, I could get into the right set of trust relationships with people that have trust relationships leading back to the kernel signing key. But it's enough for my taste that the signature is good.
Now unpack the tree and start reading. You might use this set of commands:
goldfinger ~ # cd /usr/src
goldfinger src # tar jxvf <path-to>/linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2
. . .
goldfinger src # ln -sf linux-2.6.0 linux
That last command creates a symbolic link from the head of the actual kernel code tree you unpacked to one just called "linux". A number of programs, when built, expect to find sources for the currently running kernel in the /usr/src/linux location. Now change directories into linux/Documentation, and read the file named "Changes". It lists the software versions necessary to run the 2.6 kernels, along with instructions on how to determine which versions you have, and where to get them if you need to upgrade. This can be a long, tedius path, but you'll find that if you're on a fairly recent distribution you should be mostly okay. Here's the list, though, along with the commands necessary to determine the version you have on your system:
o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
o Gnu make 3.78 # make --version
o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
o e2fsprogs 1.29 # tune2fs
o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep reiserfsprogs
o xfsprogs 2.1.0 # xfs_db -V
o pcmcia-cs 3.1.21 # cardmgr -V
o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
o procps 3.1.13 # ps --version
o oprofile 0.5.3 # oprofiled --version
As the Changes document notes, you don't necessarily need all of these - if you're not using JFS or have PCMCIA hardware, then you won't need the supporting utilities for those, right? Now let's build a kernel.
There are changes in the way kernels are built - you no longer need to type make dep following the kernel configuration process. Here's the quick version:
goldfinger linux # make menuconfig
goldfinger linux # make bzImage
goldfinger linux # make modules modules_install #needed if you're using modules#
goldfinger linux # cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.0
goldfinger linux # cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.0
goldfinger linux # vim /boot/grub/menu.lst #edit in a new stanza for the new kernel#
goldfinger linux # sync ; sync ; sync ; reboot
That's it, really. There's more to it, of course. Mostly the work is in making sure that you include the bits of kernel that you need to run your system. When I can (for servers generally, not for the desktop) I tend to build kernels that don't have loadable module support, as it makes a box that much harder to hack. So I keep close track of what my hardware and filesystem requirements are, and build those right into the kernel. This is going to get easier for the desktop systems, with ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) merged into the 2.6 tree.
One thing that you need to know is what's standard in the kernel, and what you need to build in (or build as modules, if that's your taste). A great way to determine that is to use a CD-based distribution like Knoppix. Once you have it booted, type "lsmod" in a terminal, and it'll tell you which modules it loaded to make your system run right. Knoppix has great hardware detection, and is a good tool for many purposes besides this one, which is rather like using a howitzer to kill mosquitos. Fun, but overkill.
There's a faster configuration option if you've been building your own kernels all along - make oldconfig. First copy the .config file over from the prior kernel tree into the root of the new tree, then replace make menuconfig with make oldconfig. The script will set all of your kernel configuration options the same as the prior kernel, and only ask you about stuff that's new or changed. From minor version to minor version, this is a great tool, and works well in the 2.6-test series, too. But there's far too much change between 2.4 and 2.6 to do this - if you're attempting a major upgrade, then use make menuconfig and look at what's available, familiarize yourself with the new options, and make your choices.
That's it in a nutshell, friends. Play with Linux, Learn with Linux, Work with Linux - the path to enlightenment, or at least a strong sense of accomplishment.
From: David Thorarinsson Subject: Kernel 2.6.0 Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 00:37:39 +0100 Hi Brian,I just read your monday post on the 2.6 kernel. I got one suggestion that I didn't see mentioned in your post: You need to create a directory called /sys for kernel 2.6.0. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year! /David T.
Thanks, and you're right, I did leave that out. I've backposted it to the Monday page as well, so that anyone can see it there.
Now to work with me. I've a fairly long week ahead, with only Christmas Day off, and most of the rest of the company off for most of the week after today. There's catching up to do, and tasks to take over for others, so I need to get going. Have a great day, and Happy Winter!
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December 23, 2003 - Updates at 0645
Good morning. I received yesterday, by email, my yule greeting from our friend Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. Nathan knows more about what's going on at Intel and AMD than any other 17 people I know put together. And he's pretty good at finding these off-beat holiday writeups, too...
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
in Legalese
(Author unknown)Whereas, on or about the night prior to Christmas, there did occur at a certain improved piece of real property (hereinafter "the house") a general lack of stirring by all creatures therein, including, but not limited to, a mouse.
A variety of foot apparel, e.g., stocking, socks, etc., had been affixed by and around the chimney in said House in the hope and/or belief that St. Nick a/k/a/ St. Nicholas a/k/a/ Santa Claus (hereinafter "Claus") would arrive at sometime thereafter. The minor residents, i.e. the children, of the aforementioned House were located in their individual beds and were engaged in nocturnal hallucinations, i.e. dreams, wherein visions of confectionery treats, including, but not limited to, candies, nuts and/or sugar plums, did dance, cavort and otherwise appear in said dreams.
Whereupon the party of the first part (sometimes hereinafter referred to as ("I"), being the joint-owner in fee simple of the House with the party of the second part (hereinafter "Mamma"), and said Mamma had retired for a sustained period of sleep. (At such time, the parties were clad in various forms of headgear, e.g., kerchief and cap.
Suddenly, and without prior notice or warning, there did occur upon the unimproved real property adjacent and appurtenant to said House, i.e., the lawn, a certain disruption of unknown nature, cause and/or circumstance. The party of the first part did immediately rush to a window in the House to investigate the cause of such disturbance.
At that time, the party of the first part did observe, with some degree of wonder and/or disbelief, a miniature sleigh (hereinafter "the Vehicle") being pulled and/or drawn very rapidly through the air by approximately eight (8) reindeer. The driver of the Vehicle appeared to be, and in fact was, the previously referenced Claus.
Said Claus was providing specific direction, instruction and guidance to the approximately eight (8) reindeer and specifically identified the animal co-conspirators by name: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen (hereinafter "the Deer"). (Upon information and belief, it is further asserted that an additional co-conspirator named "Rudolph" may have been involved.)
The party of the first part witnessed Claus, the Vehicle and the Deer intentionally and willfully trespass upon the roofs of several residences located adjacent to and in the vicinity of the House, and noted that the Vehicle was heavily laden with packages, toys and other items of unknown origin or nature. Suddenly, without prior invitation or permission, either express or implied, the Vehicle arrived at the House, and Claus entered said House via the chimney.
Said Claus was clad in a red fur suit, which was partially covered with residue from the chimney, and he carried a large sack containing a portion of the aforementioned packages, toys, and other unknown items. He was smoking what appeared to be tobacco in a small pipe in blatant violation of local ordinances and health regulations.
Claus did not speak, but immediately began to fill the stocking of the minor children, which hung adjacent to the chimney, with toys and other small gifts. (Said items constituting transfers to minors of present property under 26 U.S.C. 2503(c)).
Upon completion of such task, Claus touched the side of his nose and flew, rose and/or ascended up the chimney of the House to the roof here the Vehicle and Deer waited and/or served as "lookouts." Claus immediately departed for an unknown destination.
However, prior to the departure of the Vehicle, Deer and Claus from said House, the party of the first part did hear Claus state and/or exclaim: "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!" Or words to that effect.
It is also alleged that Darl McBride has had David Boies (allegedly a lawyer) draw up DMCA violation papers on Santa, under the premise that anyone who can afford to give away that many presents each year must be using an open and (potentially formerly) free operating system. The DMCA letter is a warning shot across the sleigh's bow that use of Linux for any purpose when SCO hasn't been paid, is likely to be infringing. Me, I just think that McBride is getting two lumps of coal in his stocking. I hope someone else uses that stocking (coal in...) to whack him across the back of the head -- maybe that'll bring the maroon to his senses.
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December 24, 2003 - Updates at 0835
Good morning... more or less. I'm upright and at work. Middle of the night, one of the sensors in the alarm system lost it's mind, and so we were up answering the phone, reciting the code phrase, checking the perimeter, swapping batteries. All in all, not much fun, and I'm a bit whacked this morning. So I'll just give you some items from the mailbag on this day before Christmas:
From: David Thorarinsson Subject: Kernel 2.6.0 Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 00:37:39 +0100 Hi Brian,I just read your monday post on the 2.6 kernel. I got one suggestion that I didn't see mentioned in your post: You need to create a directory called /sys for kernel 2.6.0. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year! /David T.
Thanks, and you're right, I did leave that out. I've backposted it to the Monday page as well, so that anyone can see it there.
