New kernels

[xeno74]

Hi All,

I released the alpha4 of kernel 6.11 for the X1000 and X5000 today.

Download and further information: github.com

Alternative download link: linux-image-6.11-alpha4-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Please test the kernels because of the PowerPC MM updates.

Thanks,
Christian

[musa]

Hi
debian trixie/sid 64 running with vmlinux-6.10_a4

good night

[xeno74]

Hi
debian trixie/sid 64 running with vmlinux-6.10_a4

good night

Thank you for testing the alpha4!

[Hypex]

Strange, that it doesn't boot because it boots on Musa's X1000.

Thank you for testing.

It is. It could be my loader. If something has changed in the boot strap code that blocks it. I can also try booting it manually. But gzipped it's just over 16MB. So will likely fail from FFS. I tested with debug over serial. Just as dead. No output. Can't tell if it's crashed or in some kind of boot loop.

These kernels are getting bigger. IIRC the early ones were around 30MB unpacked.

In the meantime I can test the alpha4.

[xeno74]

Hi All,

Here is the alpha5 of kernel 6.11 for the X1000 and X5000.

Download and further information: github.com

Alternative download link: linux-image-6.11-alpha5-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Please test the kernels.

Thanks,
Christian

[Hypex]

So I was able to boot the alpha 3 kernel from an FFS volume directly in CFE. It loaded fine and launched it. Unfortunately it ended up in a kernel panic because my boot args are obsolete.

This pretty much confirms my suspicions. Some change between alpha 2 and 3 has broken my boot loader. Perhaps I need to git bisect this my self now.

My loader can't boot alpha 4 and I suspect won't boot alpha 5 either. We thought the last kernel would be a show stopper. That was fixed but now this next one will be a showstopper for me.

As a side note, it's exactly the same result I got from running an experimental LSB kernel. Kernel launches and does its OF printout. Then stops dead. Unfortunately I don't know how CFE or the OF inside CFE launches a binary. So I wrote my own ASM code to do it based on some IBM code I read. It tried to do what the common CFE line does and disable interrupts. I don't know if there is any other PPC port of CFE to work off. So I don't know how to tackle it. But, it might even be easier than I thought, and simply involve just jumping to the kernel code after relocating it.

EDIT: Alpha 5 works again and is back on track!

[musa]

Hi
Debian trixie/sid running with vmlinux-6.11_a5

Have a nice day

[xeno74]

EDIT: Alpha 5 works again and is back on track!

Great, that it works again with your boot loader. Thank you for your explanation about the booting issue with your boot loader.

Hi
Debian trixie/sid running with vmlinux-6.11_a5

Have a nice day

I am happy that it works. Thanks a lot for testing!

Have a nice day too.

[xeno74]

The kernel 6.11.0-alpha5 has a new NTFS3 driver by Paragon Software.

I successfully tested the new NTFS3 driver from the kernel 6.11.0-alpha5 today.

[Hypex]

Great, that it works again with your boot loader. Thank you for your explanation about the booting issue with your boot loader.

Cool. I plan to rework it in future. I could extend it to load directly as well to avoid oversize bugs loading from FFS.