Kernel 5.7

[xeno74]

Partman hangs with error Cannot load modules.

Continue without modules doesn't work with new installer. But you help me - I put the modules to initrg.gz only (which is not works). I will try add them to .iso also.

Hi SailorMH,

We always compile the most things in the kernel so we don't have many modules in the kernel modules directory. It could be that Debian needs the LVM and RAID support (CONFIG_MD and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DM/dm-mod) as modules. We compiled these in the kernel directly. CONFIG_DM_RAID and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_MD aren't set. Have you seen which modules are missing? I could compile them for the next kernel release.

Thanks,
Christian

[sailorMH]

Hi SailorMH,

We always compile the most things in the kernel so we don't have many modules in the kernel modules directory. It could be that Debian needs the LVM and RAID support (CONFIG_MD and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DM/dm-mod) as modules. We compiled these in the kernel directly. CONFIG_DM_RAID and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_MD aren't set. Have you seen which modules are missing? I could compile them for the next kernel release.

Thanks,
Christian

I will save all logs and try to find which is missing. I also checked the install .iso - modules here stored in .udeb package.

[sailorMH]

Tested 5.7-rc5 with
old MintPPC+Debian8 and Fedora
all works, thanks! I will post pictures later.

[xeno74]

Tested 5.7-rc5 with
old MintPPC+Debian8 and Fedora
all works, thanks! I will post pictures later.

Many thanks for testing!

[xeno74]

Hi All,

Here is the RC5-2 of kernel 5.7 for testing.

New:

• X5000 and X1000: 802.1d Ethernet Bridging (CONFIG_BRIDGE)
• X5000 and X1000: Device mapper support (BLK_DEV_DM) as module (dm-mod)
• X5000 and X1000: RAID support (BLK_DEV_MD) as module (md-mod)
• X5000 and X1000: RAID 1/4/5/6/10 target (DM_RAID) as modules
• X5000 and X1000: Crypt target support (DM_CRYPT) as module
• X5000 and X1000: Snapshot target (DM_SNAPSHOT) as module

Download: linux-image-5.7-rc5-2-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Screenshot of ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 PowerPC with using the new 802.1d ethernet bridge:



@SailorMH
Please test this kernel with the latest Debian 10 NETINST isos. I think Partman looks for the RAID and LVM kernel modules.

@All
Please test the kernels.

Thanks,
Christian

[Hypex]

Continue without modules doesn't work with new installer. But you help me - I put the modules to initrg.gz only (which is not works). I will try add them to .iso also.

So you were able to modify and rebuild the initrd.gz okay? If it's of any help, I needed to use the following list of modules, when I built the last XE Jessie installer.

Code: Select all

ide-pci-generic
ide-cd_mod
via82cxxx
raid1
sd_mod
scsi_mod
libata
ata_generic
pata_sil
pata_sil680
pata_via
sata_sil
sata_via
dm-mod
cdrom
isofs
crc-t10dif
mbcache
jbd
jbd2
affs
ext2
ext3
ext4
3c59x
pcspkr
drm
drm_kms_helper
ttm
radeon

[Hypex]

Hi All,

Here is the RC5-2 of kernel 5.7 for testing.

Hello. Just out of interest. How are you building these kernels? How long does it take? Cross compilation on fast PC?

I tried to compile an XE kernel a number of years back on my X1000, I don't know how, but I distinctly remember it taking only 15 minutes. Now however, I downloaded a 3.10 kernel source with XE patches, attempted to compile only the modules, and it's being doing it almost two hours! I first tried compiling on Fienix but it was too modern for the old kernel. I got it working for two hours and then it broke. So then switched to my old Ubuntu install where it works perfectly fine. Until the error I just saw now. LOL.

At this rate I will need to setup a cross compiler on my laptop.

[xeno74]

Hello. Just out of interest. How are you building these kernels? How long does it take? Cross compilation on fast PC?

Yes, that's correct. It takes about 10 minutes to compile a kernel. I use ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS x86_64 (GCC 7.4.0) for cross compiling.

Cross compiling instructions:

System requirements: Ubuntu 14.04 x86 or higher

1. Install the toolchain with the following commands:
   

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   sudo apt-get install gcc-powerpc-linux-gnu

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   sudo apt-get install build-essential

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   sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev

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   sudo apt-get install u-boot-tools

2. Compile a kernel for the X1000 (-j4 = Compiling with 4 threads):
   

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   make CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc oldconfig

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   make -j4 CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc vmlinux

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   make -j4 CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc zImage

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   gzip -9 vmlinux.strip

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   mv vmlinux.strip.gz zImage

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   make -j4 CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc modules

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   # make CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc modules_install

3. Compile a kernel for the X5000 (-j4 = Compiling with 4 threads):
   

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   make CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc oldconfig

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   make -j4 CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc uImage

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   make -j4 CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc modules

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   # make CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- ARCH=powerpc modules_install

[sailorMH]

So you were able to modify and rebuild the initrd.gz okay? If it's of any help, I needed to use the following list of modules, when I built the last XE Jessie installer.

I didn't rebuild initrd.gz from scratch. But i modify it - I simply added modules from Xeno's 5.5.11 kernel to original initrg.gz: /lib/modules/5.5.11_A-EON_X1000_Nemo/*
But it is not works. Next step which I want to try - modify original netinst.iso and add here: /pool-ppc64/main/l/linux right modules in udeb format

to rebuild whole installer is more complex for me, and I need some hint or wiki link how to do it.

[Hypex]

Yes, that's correct. It takes about 10 minutes to compile a kernel. I use ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS x86_64 (GCC 7.4.0) for cross compiling.

Thanks very much for the guide. I'm relieved I don't have to compile a ppc gcc like for OS4. The most powerful machine I have is an i5 laptop so I don't know about that ten minutes here. However it can generally be very spiffy. An i5-8250U IIRC with four cores and dual threads.