Arch Linux

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

Hi all,

please excuse my stupid questions: If I compile a custom kernel like above with madwifi-hal included, will I have to uninstall the copy of madwifi-hal that I have already installed? Or do I have to keep that to work with the stock kernel, if I should ever switch back?

You can remove the madwifi-hal package before installing that one and after you'll still have the madwifi driver.

Please notice that I didn't change the pkgbuild and you can put that config in Andy's kernel for example, although you won't get the coretemp.c patch (which still doesn't work for me).

thomasd

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 114

Re: Acer Aspire One

An here's the binary package. ftp://ftp.netvisao.pt/kernel26-one-2.6. … pkg.tar.gz

Login is required, no anonymous FTP access...

It is a replace to the kernel26 package as for the madwifi-hal from Andy. It's the same PKGBUILD as carlocci's with some modifications on the Kconfig.

I still don't understand these custom kernel things. You say this replaces the kernel26 package. But can't I edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and then choose the kernel at boot time? And if yes, the kernel26 package should be kept and not replaced, right?

Sorry again for my ignorance.

AndyRTR

Developer

From: Magdeburg/Germany

Registered: 2005-10-07

Posts: 1,642

Re: Acer Aspire One

You can install my kernel pkg along the stock kernel and switch on every boot. Look at the PKGBUILD to see what it includes and provides/conflicts/replaces.

Maybe we can collect here or somewhere else what has to be added to my kernel pkg. I can build easely more than one kernel per day using my Quaddie

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

Sorry for the bad URL, here's the correct one: http://clientes.netvisao.pt/gtknight/ke … pkg.tar.gz

I agree Andy, if you have a spare time to look at my Kconfig and see what can be merged with yours so we can have a proper kernel26 substitute package. I'll also take a look at both Kconfig today and see what can be improved from both ideas.

thomasd: You can have the carlocci's kernel with kernel26 from arch but the madwifi-hal package will conflict

thomasd

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 114

Re: Acer Aspire One

Thanks for the clarification.

Maybe we can collect here or somewhere else what has to be added to my kernel pkg. I can build easely more than one kernel per day using my Quaddie

Maybe it is a good idea to have it on AUR with one maintainer (AndyRTR with his Quaddie is the obvious choice ). Then an "official", latest version would always be available. If someone has improvements to the CONFIG file, she/he may post a diff of the CONFIG with remarks what is improved by that. This may then be implemented by the maintainer. Maybe a new forum thread could be opened for these custom kernel specific things.

Just my idea.

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

Maybe it is a good idea to have it on AUR with one maintainer (AndyRTR with his Quaddie is the obvious choice ). Then an "official", latest version would always be available. If someone has improvements to the CONFIG file, she/he may post a diff of the CONFIG with remarks what is improved by that. This may then be implemented by the maintainer. Maybe a new forum thread could be opened for these custom kernel specific things.

I agree.

On another note.

I think the wiki is getting a bit confusing regarding filesystem and mount options. I could see various definitions on how to setup partitions and this could become confusing. IMHO housekeeping is in order

thomasd

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 114

Re: Acer Aspire One

I think the wiki is getting a bit confusing regarding filesystem and mount options. I could see various definitions on how to setup partitions and this could become confusing. IMHO housekeeping is in order

I agree on that. With the latest custom kernel (no corruption problems on resume) it should be no problem to have the SD-card ext2 formatted, right? The mount options for vfat could then be deleted.

Maybe we should stick to one recommended scheme (ext2 for SSD and SD-card) and post an example fstab for this. As side remarks, other options (like JFS for the SSD with the journal on the SD-card) could be mentioned.

In the end, the wiki should read as a walkthrough for someone installing the first time on the One. My opinion.

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

I'm on it

thomasd

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 114

Re: Acer Aspire One

I'm on it

You listed /var/cache/pacman/pkg to be mounted as tmpfs. I think this is in general no good idea when installing large packages like openoffice. I moved this to tuning tips.

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

I'm on it

You listed /var/cache/pacman/pkg to be mounted as tmpfs. I think this is in general no good idea when installing large packages like openoffice. I moved this to tuning tips.

IMO this is the best approach to the download -> install were you get much read->write that is greatly improved by caching stuff in memory.
But I concur that it can be consider as tunning and not default.

carlocci

Member

From: Padova - Italy

Registered: 2008-02-12

Posts: 368

Re: Acer Aspire One

You can install my kernel pkg along the stock kernel and switch on every boot. Look at the PKGBUILD to see what it includes and provides/conflicts/replaces.

Maybe we can collect here or somewhere else what has to be added to my kernel pkg. I can build easely more than one kernel per day using my Quaddie

That's perfect!
Here are my suggestions to your kernel26-one package (that is, the first one you posted; in case you built other versions I'm unaware of):
_compile uvcvideo as a module for the webcam (it is missing in your kernel26-one package)
_apply the coretemp.c.patch from the kernel bugzilla in order to read the temperature of the cpu via lm_sensors
_disable CONFIG_IRQBALANCE
_build both vesafb and intelfb in the kernel image (hoping intelfb works, can be discarded at a later time)
_the jmb38x_d3e.sh script file needs pci-e hotplug support in order to poll the right card reader (whatever the hell it means, I still haven't investigated the matter)
_enable CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ: it might be useful with browsers and the flash plugin memory leaks.
_CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_LOAD=y
_CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD=y
_kernel headers in /usr/src/kernelname with the correct link in /lib/modules/kernelname/build (just see the kernel26 or my kernel26-one PKGBUILD) for additional modules building.
_separate the madwifi driver from the kernel PKGBUILD. I made one, as it is really a matter of minutes.
_does anyone really need dallas?
_bluetooth/irDa modules
_something **VERY** important I probably forgot

Also, I think we should add everything as a module as much as possible, keeping in vmlinuz only the bare minimum in order to boot without initrd, that is ext2 AFAIK, even if I must admit I would love to include dm-crypt and friends to the kernel and encrypt the whole filesystem, which should be cpu-friendly being the SSD so slow.

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

I think the opposite of "keep in modules" is possibly better. Because:

* You know the hardware you're going to run this so configure the Kconfig should be straightforward
* Less time to udev test hardware and load modules
* No initrd need

Things like, bluetooth, and external HW support are the ones that should be kept in modules to be loaded on need.

Regarding the extra settings in the kernel I concur with all. Andy, please review mine. I think it's quite complete for laptop HW, further module settings should be enabled for external device on need (ex: DVB, USB radio, USB missile launcher,...)

how_gauche

Member

Registered: 2008-09-05

Posts: 7

Re: Acer Aspire One

Is anyone else getting extreme I/O starvation issues when using Firefox and doing *anything* that touches the SSD in the background? The system becomes so unusable that I have to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace the X server.

Edited to say that I've tried various options for the "elevator" kernel setting, all to no avail.

Last edited by how_gauche (2008-09-08 14:28:38)

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

Is anyone else getting extreme I/O starvation issues when using Firefox and doing *anything* that touches the SSD in the background? The system becomes so unusable that I have to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace the X server.

Edited to say that I've tried various options for the "elevator" kernel setting, all to no avail.

Yes I do experience those issues. Did you tried the teaks for firefox in the WIKI tunning tips?

EDIT:
Regarding the issue of Kconfig. I'm thinking that defaulting the elevator to noop in kernel might not be the best approach. Yesterday night I was copying some stuff to my external HD and seen a trully slow I/O. This was ofcourse because of the noop being unhealthy to normal HDD.
My solution is to add specific governors to drives in /etc/rc.local to specify that only sda1 and mmcblkXpY should use noop otherwise default to CFQ. Although this will raise boot time as the default is enabled to CFQ until rc.local is achieved.

Last edited by gothicknight (2008-09-08 14:43:21)

thomasd

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 114

Re: Acer Aspire One

IMO this is the best approach to the download -> install were you get much read->write that is greatly improved by caching stuff in memory.
But I concur that it can be consider as tunning and not default.

I agree that this is useful for most users. But it can make problems for some and should therefore be handled as an optional improvement in my opinion.

Imagine someone running KDE (which uses much memory by definition) and then tries to install openoffice and some other programs at the same time, such that pacman has to download a few hundred MBytes. The RAM is then full for the rest of the session.

Determination

Member

From: Southern California

Registered: 2008-07-24

Posts: 27

Re: Acer Aspire One

I know it's annoying, but anyone have an update for any clues with regards to an unsuccessful suspend? I took a look at some scripting on the default Linpus installation, and from what I can gather, they use HAL to suspend? Does that make sense?

Below is my pm-suspend.log from an unsuccessful attempt:

Initial commandline parameters: --quirk-dpms-on
--quirk-dpms-suspend
--quirk-vbe-post
--quirk-s3-mode
Sat Sep  6 18:27:36 PDT 2008: Running hooks for suspend.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/00clear suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/01grub suspend: not applicable.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/05led suspend: not applicable.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/10NetworkManager suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/11netcfg suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/49bluetooth suspend: not applicable.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/50modules suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/55battery suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/65alsa suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/90clock suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/94cpufreq suspend: success.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/95led suspend: not applicable.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/98smart-kernel-video suspend: not applicable.
/usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99video suspend: kernel.acpi_video_flags = 2
success.
/etc/pm/sleep.d/sleepscript.sh suspend: Unloading "ath_pci"
Unloading "wlan_scan_sta"
Unloading "ath_rate_sample"
Unloading "wlan"
Unloading "ath_hal"
success.
Sat Sep  6 18:27:41 PDT 2008: performing suspend

running in /etc/pm/sleep.d/sleepscript.sh:

#!/bin/bash

case $1 in
    suspend)
        /sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
        /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 down
        /usr/bin/madwifi-unload
        ;;
    thaw)
        /sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
        /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 down
        /usr/bin/madwifi-unload
        /sbin/modprobe ath_pci
        /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 up
        /sbin/ifconfig ath0 up
        ;;
    resume)
        /sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
        /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 down
        /usr/bin/madwifi-unload
        /sbin/modprobe ath_pci
        /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 up
        /sbin/ifconfig ath0 up
        ;;
    *)
        ;;
esac

disabling modules via /etc/pm/config.d/modules:

SUSPEND_MODULES="ath_pci ath_hal"

besides these files, and my rc.conf I posted earlier, are there other files that could give me some other clues? Would a fresh installation of Arch be benefical (I guess I could have screwed something up when installing).  but it seems old that I would have issues when others in this thread are not on the same hardware.

vegai

Developer/TU

Registered: 2004-05-19

Posts: 41

Website

Re: Acer Aspire One

_something **VERY** important I probably forgot

Was MMC_DEBUG already disabled?

Last edited by vegai (2008-09-09 05:31:54)

zzats

Member

Registered: 2008-09-09

Posts: 6

Re: Acer Aspire One

Incredible! Both versions of the kernel are damn quick in boot, battery life is increased by an approximate of 20%.

And yes, MMC_UNSAFE_RESUME fixes the SD-corruption. Good work guys.

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

zzats, which kernel are you testing with?

Biwano

Member

Registered: 2008-08-15

Posts: 2

Re: Acer Aspire One

Hi fellows

I have been  tweaking arch a little bit on the aspire one and followed the early wiki.

To speed up bootup I did a  hwdetect -show-modules-order
Put the result in MODULES() of /etc/rc.conf and disabled MOD_AUTOLOAD
The Card readers no longer works

I tested the followings :
  - the jmb38x_ms module is loaded at startup
  - there is no message about this module in dmesg
  - the /dev/mmblk0 device does not exist
  - when I try a modprobe -r jmb38x_ms it hangs and if after that I try to soft halt or reboot the computer arch says /dev/sda is corrupted...

any Idea?

BTW i am a newb...

If I may add, when I have card in the left reader at bootup and I have MOD_AUTOLOAD=1. The card is detected but X is very slow to start

Last edited by Biwano (2008-09-10 00:46:29)

zzats

Member

Registered: 2008-09-09

Posts: 6

Re: Acer Aspire One

zzats, which kernel are you testing with?

Yours..

Only some suggestions have arosen. Sound doesn't work after suspend, so I assume the snd_hda_intel should be built as a module (or perharps passing the alsa options to kernel, is it possible?).

Is anyone else finding the wlan oddly dodgy?

Last edited by zzats (2008-09-09 21:57:55)

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

I must admit I don't understand much about suspend/resume workflow, but doesn't it should work for both modular or in-kernel LKMs?

AFAIK you can pass any module parameter to the kernel's command line using something like this as an example:

modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1
or passing into GRUB kernel's command line:
usbcore.blinkenlights=1

thomasd

Member

Registered: 2008-08-11

Posts: 114

Re: Acer Aspire One

I must admit I don't understand much about suspend/resume workflow, but doesn't it should work for both modular or in-kernel LKMs?

AFAIK you can pass any module parameter to the kernel's command line using something like this as an example:

modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1
or passing into GRUB kernel's command line:
usbcore.blinkenlights=1

But what if a module needs to be unloaded and reloaded after resume (as reported above for ath_pci), does that work with everything in-kernel compiled?

gothicknight

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2006-04-08

Posts: 219

Re: Acer Aspire One

The same happens to me in madwifi, the module has to be reloaded. It has some logic behind that, although this "should?" work under in-kernel modules.

But there's no big deal, I'll recompile the kernel with sound as module.

Edit: Updated the kernel version to 2.6.26.5
Link to the new kernel http://clientes.netvisao.pt/gtknight/ke … pkg.tar.gz
and the Kconfig used http://clientes.netvisao.pt/gtknight/Kconfig

Last edited by gothicknight (2008-09-10 13:00:25)

ichbinesderelch

Member

Registered: 2008-01-17

Posts: 203

Re: Acer Aspire One

how about the cpufreq modules? howto compile the cpufreq modules for the kernelone?

is it also possible to enable CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL for more detailed powertop infos?