kernel

I already blogged about this a while ago – but today, I finally migrated my client to 2.6.22 (2.6.22-gentoo-r5, that is, to be exact).

And what shall I say – everything worked flawlessly! atl1 is now integrated in the kernel, as well as Intel’s coretemp module and the Winbond sensor chip. One reboot in verbose mode to make sure all modules were loaded (make sure to run “module-rebuild rebuild” before the reboot…), and here we are – finally, no manual tweaking around when upgrading the kernel!

One sidenote: The module snd-hda-codec does not exist any more – it has been integrated into snd-hda-intel. Wohoo!

Whew, that was quick! Just some days (ok, weeks) after my last post regarding upgrading the new kernel (I considered it, but did not do it, in the end…), kernel 2.6.22 is in portage! With sensors support! coretemp support! attansic L1 NIC support! Horray! Upgrade will probably be performed during the weekend – maybe even earlier…

After Kernel 2.6.21 is finally stable in portage, it’s time to decide whether to upgrade now or whether to wait until 2.6.22. I have to admit I completely forgot everything I have done in order to get all the sensors and stuff up and running (thank God for my blog entry!), so I had a look at the Asus P5B-E Gentoo wiki page I created. Someone altered it in the meantime – apparently, I only need the coretemp patches, not the Winbond patches any more…

Here’s some more stuff I have found – I will consider updating this weekend…

Today’s goal is to install the server so that it can boot. This includes configuring the use flags, configuring the kernel, set up /etc/fstab and install grub.

Let’s start with chrooting – according to chapter 6 of the gentoo handbook. We mount proc and dev and chroot. Then, we sync and update portage. Now comes the USE flag definition – this will follow as soon as I can copy / paste to the blog. Now, we add these lines to /etc/locale.gen:
de_CH.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
… and run locale-gen.

Now, it’s finally time to emerge the kernel – gentoo-sources, and then configure it. Also, we emerge the following packages: reiserfsprogs, lvm2, sudo and grub.

Kernel-Configuration
As usual, I list only what definitively needs to be there – I also turned off stuff, but this is according to the needs. I make sure that everything mentioned in chapter 7 of the Gentoo Handbook and everything mentioned in the LVM doc is turned on. Here’s the list:
Processor type and features --->
Subarchitecture Type (PC-compatible)
Processor family: (Pentium-4)
(2) Maximum numbers of CPU supportedPower Management Support --->
CPU Frequency Scaling --->
<M> Intel Pentium 4 Clock Modulation
[*] PCI Express supportDevice drivers --->
Plug and Play Support --->
[*] Plug and Play support

Multi-device support (RAID and LVM) --->
[*] Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM)
<M> Device mapper supportSound -->
[ ] Sound cart support

File systems —>
CD-ROM/DVD filesystems —>
[*] MS Joliet CDROM extension
DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems —>
(850) Default codepage for FAT
Native Language support —>
<*> Codepage 850

BTW: Don’t forget to set the timezone…. Then, we make sure that dm-mod is loaded automatically (by adding dm-mod to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6)

Finally, let’s create /etc/fstab:
/dev/hda1 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/vgroup/usr /usr reiserfs notail 0 2
/dev/vgroup/opt /opt reiserfs notail 0 2
/dev/vgroup/var /var reiserfs notail 0 2
/dev/vgroup/tmp /tmp reiserfs notail 0 2
/dev/vgroup/home /home reiserfs notail 0 2
/dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0

Now, we configure /etc/conf.d/hostname and /etc/conf.d/net. Then, we set the root password, add a user, adjust rc.conf, define the keymap and the clock and configure grub; this is all explained in detail in chapter 8 and the following ones of the handbook.
Now, we reboot – voila!!

I missed to install some of my favourite programs – which I did today.
First, a Java application called tvbrowser; it is masked ~x86, and a lot of its dependencies are too; the following lines were added to /etc/portage/package.keywords:
media-tv/tvbrowser ~x86
dev-java/jgoodies-forms ~x86
dev-java/l2fprod-common ~x86
dev-java/jreleaseinfo ~x86
dev-java/skinlf ~x86
Also, I had to create a menu-entry myself – it did not do so automatically. Lucky enough, there was an icon in /usr/share/tvbrowser/img…

Now, my two dearest google apps: Google Earth (stable in the meantime!) and Picasa – the latter still masked, so I added
media-gfx/picasa ~x86
to package.keywords.
Then, I emerged kile and audacious, as well as the nice sys-utility module-rebuild.

Finally, I installed conky; as expected, the whole sensor stuff is not working (fan speed, temperatures etc.). But here is a nice .conkyrc I am using at the moment:
background no
use_xft yes
xftfont Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:size=9
xftalpha 0.8
update_interval 2.0
total_run_times 0
own_window no
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_colour hotpink
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 280 5
draw_shades yes
draw_outline no
draw_borders yes
draw_graph_borders yes
stippled_borders 1
border_margin 4
border_width 1
default_color white
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color black
alignment top_right
gap_x 8
gap_y 45
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 2
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer no
TEXT
$nodename (${addr eth0}) - $sysname $kernel
$stippled_hr
Uptime ${alignr}$uptime
Last sync ${alignr} ${execi 180 cat /var/cache/edb/dep/timestamp.chk}
$stippled_hr
Last packages emerged:
${execi 50 qlop -lC | tail -n 5 | sed 's/.*>>>\ //'}
$stippled_hr
${color #cc2222}CPU / Processes$color
$cpu% ${alignr}${cpubar 10, 300}
${offset 10}Name PID CPU% MEM%
${offset 10}------------------------------------
${offset 10}${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
${offset 10}${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
${offset 10}${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
${offset 10}${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
$stippled_hr
${color #cc2222}RAM / swap$color
RAM Utilisation ${alignr}$mem of $memmax
$memperc% ${alignr}${membar 10,300}
Swap Utilisation ${alignr}$swap of $swapmax
$swapperc% ${alignr}${swapbar 10,300}
$color$stippled_hr
${color #cc2222}Networking$color
${offset 10}Down: ${downspeed eth0} k/s ${offset 80} Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${offset 10}${downspeedgraph eth0 32,150 ff0000 0000ff} ${upspeedgraph eth0 32,150 0000ff ff0000}
$stippled_hr
${color #cc2222}File systems:$color
/ ${fs_free_perc /}% ${offset 5}${fs_bar 10,150 /}
/home ${fs_free_perc /home}% ${offset 5}${fs_bar 10,150 /home}
/usr/portage ${fs_free_perc /usr/portage}% ${offset 5}${fs_bar 10,150 /usr/portage}
/usr/portage/distfiles ${fs_free_perc /usr/portage/distfiles}% ${offset 5}${fs_bar 10,150 /usr/portage/distfiles}
Harddisk-Temperature:${alignr}${hddtemp /dev/sda}

After syncing the portage tree, I noticed that kernel-2.16.20-r6 is available!
So, I did a “make oldconfig”; first question I was unsure is
Create deprecated sysfs files (SYSFS_DEPRECATED) [Y/n/?] (NEW)
After googling and chatting a little, I said “no”.
Next is “Architecture” – there is an option for Core 2 Duo now, I selected it. The rest is default.

atl1 (the attansic network driver module) is still not in the kernel. So I downloaded the version for 2.16.20 from their Sourceforge project site. I made the kernel with
make, make modules_install and make install, then adapted /boot/grub/grub.conf and rebuilt all modules, including the atl1 one. After a reboot – we’re there!