so im running the zen kernel

ssl6 · 2008-09-07 02:38:33

so i found out about the zen kernel the other day when i saw a post about another version of it on AUR

so i ran the pkgbuild for the vanilla zen kernel

i will say, i think thats the most in depth thing i've done so far under linux, i did alot of finger crossing. didn't know i was going to have to modify my grub list manually, and had issies with the nvidia modules thats now resolved,

i think my laptop feels a little more responsive, im not really sure, could just be in my head.

anyway, thought id share

edit// well, i thought everything was working, but my cpu frequency scalin isnt working

Last edited by ssl6 (2008-09-07 02:53:54)

methuselah · 2008-09-07 03:02:58

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:04:28)

ssl6 · 2008-09-07 13:27:29

well, i just used zen-git from aur

im guessing the screen i was brought to with a thousand submenus probably was something i needed to go through? maybe the frequency scaling options would have been there somewhere? i didn't know what half the stuff was though

edit// im rebuilding it right now, went through some of th eoptions, found one to change cpu type, so i changed it to a pentium m, and changed a few other things, took out some wireless drivers that i don't need, slimmed it down as much as i knew was safe. we'll see how it goes

Last edited by ssl6 (2008-09-07 14:30:48)

methuselah · 2008-09-07 20:32:30

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:04:43)

ssl6 · 2008-09-07 21:19:47

well, i'm definitely having issues with frequency scaling.

i tried changing teh cpu type, and it built, but i messed something else up and had no wireless. so now i've done it again but wireless is working. but no frequency scaling

to makeit worse, if i do cpufreq-info, it gives me the wrong info, and my max speed right now is 1.4ghz, when it should be 1.86, im thinking, just trying to rough guess the numbers, but i think its picking up the wrong FSB speed

ssl6 · 2008-09-08 22:50:56

well, i had to boot back in with my regular arch kernel, and after some wiki reading i extracted my config. and think i found my issue, probly not, but i had chosen pentium m, and in my arch config it was using m686 or something like that, which in the zen configuration showed up as pentium pro, so im crossing fingers right now while it compiles again

Demon · 2008-09-08 23:31:26

Hi all!

I have also successfuly built and installed 2.6.27-rc5-zen2 kernel, but my problem is that (after it works great for first 4-5 minutes) everything on x server starts to hang, and after my whole desktop becomes unusable only solution is ctrl+alt+backspace to restart the x server.

Anyone familiar with this?

methuselah · 2008-09-09 00:53:01

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:05:03)

ssl6 · 2008-09-09 12:32:55

is there a guide i can follow to do that? i mean build the arch kernel with teh zen2 patchset?

because im absolutely loving teh zen kernel, aside from running the wrong cpu speed, it feels so much more responsive, and i havent noticed and issue with anything, no slow downs anywhere at all. its jsut sweet.

but if patching the arch kernel with teh zen2 patch will do just as much for me, but leave me with teh right cpu speed, i can definitely live with that

methuselah · 2008-09-09 13:32:18

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:05:18)

Wintershade · 2008-10-10 07:29:21

methuselah wrote:

Just click through each menu option and section and choose the settings for your computer.

Why not just extract the .config file from /proc/config.gz and run "make oldconfig"?
Sure, there will be a few options to configure afterwards, but much simpler than clicking through the whole menuconfig.

ssl6 wrote:

and think i found my issue, probly not, but i had chosen pentium m, and in my arch config it was using m686 or something like that

What's wrong with pentium-m? I've been using it on stock Arch kernel, vanilla kernel, Gentoo kernel and RT kernel for a few years now, it works like a charm

methuselah · 2008-10-10 10:10:12

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:05:35)

iphitus · 2008-10-10 11:14:52

oldconfig is useful for updating a config from an older kernel version, eg 2.6.26->2.6.27. It'll only ask the new/changed options in the new kernel you have and it usually isn't very many. Beats going through menuconfig and checking every menu to see what's changed...

Wintershade · 2008-10-10 16:27:47

That's one thing, and another is that once you run make oldconfig, you can still fine tune it to suit your needs via menuconfig.

methuselah · 2008-10-10 17:00:39

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:05:51)

Wintershade · 2008-10-11 08:26:52

It is different, because different kernel versions use different .config files. make oldconfig is used, among other, to overcome this - the old .config file is read, and according to it the new .config file is generated. This is mostly important for different kernel versions (e.g. kernel 2.6.24 .config being used to configure kernel 2.6.25) or different kernel patchsets (e.g. stock kernel .config being used to configure the kernel-rt). However, this is in most cases just to stay on the safe side - sometimes the old or different .config breaks the compile, and often it leaves new features disabled (or at their "defaults" at best).

I believe all you have to do now - just to stay on the safe side - is run the "make oldconfig" before you run the "make menuconfig":

  if [ "$CARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
    cat ../config.x86_64 >./.config
  else
    cat ../config >./.config
  fi
  # build the full kernel version to use in pathnames
  . ./.config
  ### next line is only needed for rc kernels
  #_kernver="2.6.25${CONFIG_LOCALVERSION}"
  _kernver="${_basekernel}${_patchset}"
  # load configuration
  make oldconfig
  make menuconfig
  # build!

ssl6 · 2008-11-24 00:38:03

where would i place that in the pkgbuild?

im just thinking of toying with it again, and the looking at the pkgbuild, its way beyond me

methuselah · 2008-11-24 23:54:37

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:06:10)

jacko · 2008-11-25 00:54:29

if [ "$CARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
    cat ../config.x86_64 >./.config
  else
    cat ../config >./.config
  fi
Doesn't this add the last settings into the new "make menuconfig" options, while still having all the newest patched parts and losing anything that has been changed or dropped out of the new kernel and patch

Not exactly, cat displays the file config.* in the previous directory, indicated by the ../
then it redirects the output, indicated by the >
to the current working directory, indicated by the ./, into a file called .config.
It's this file that is used by make menuconfig. This piece of code is just redirecting the right config file for your cpu architecture to the src/ build directory used by makepkg during compilation.

PKGBUILDS are simple bash scripts, all the magic is done in the build {} function. Reading a simple tutorial on bash syntax would help. http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO-3.html <-- READ

Last edited by jacko (2008-11-25 01:01:56)

jacko · 2008-11-25 01:01:08

in fact if you removed this piece of code all together you would be presented with a pure vanilla config provided by the kernel maintainers. Leaving it will make sure the arch configs are used depending on the specific architecture of the host OS you are using.

The above cmd overwrites the .config file provided by the kernel developers.

methuselah · 2008-11-25 01:43:54

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:06:27)

methuselah · 2008-11-25 01:49:41

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:06:41)

jacko · 2008-11-25 07:24:10

You are saying that if I did not include my own .config, or the Arch stock .config files, and if I removed that piece of code.... that a .config would be used from kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.27.tar.bz2 ????

exactly. the stock kernel source must have a .config file itself. The vanilla and arch .config files for kernel compilation are close to being the same. There are only a few changes, IA32 emulation being one of those changes.

Anyway, my question was basically if the "make oldconfig" command is necessary in a PKGBUILD that is already loading the settings that I want into the new "make menuconfig" from the .config file that I wanted to use?

It's not necessary, all the PKGBUILDS I use copy the config.* from the PKGBUILD directory to the PKGBUILD/src/ as a .config file for compilation. Once make menuconfig is run, on exit, it will save the new .config changes(the new changes you make) to a config.saved.* file in your PKGBUILD/

By now you should see the picture, it's nothing more then a loop that is constantly updating the config.* file to keep track of your new changes for each new kernel release.

make oldconfig cmd only works from the PKGBUILD/src/ . This directory is NOT the place to be saving your work, the PKGUILD/src/ directory is only there to organize the files needed to compile the source, once compilation is done the src/ could and should be deleted. If you was to run makepkg again without telling makepkg to not extract the sources. Then makepkg would overwrite the src/ directory on the next build. Effectively deleting your `make oldconfig` file that you created.

I recommend that you read the man pages for makepkg. Makepkg is a wrapper for compiling packages the old fashioned, manual way. Anything you can do while manually compiling source outside of makepkg you can do inside of makepkg.

an example for you to try, get a clean directory with only a PKGUILD inside of it, now run makepkg -o, Now goto that PKGBUILD directory and notice that there is a new directory called src/. Enter the src/ directory and delete some important files. Now go back down one directory, back into the main PKGBUILD directory again and this time run just makepkg -e, what happens?. Now just try makepkg. What happens and why?

Last edited by jacko (2008-11-25 07:50:50)

jacko · 2008-11-25 07:49:11

msg "Loading configuration..."
if [ -e $startdir/config.local ]; then
msg2 "Using custom kernel config (config.local)..."
cat $startdir/config.local > .config
elif [ -e $startdir/config.saved.$CARCH ]; then
msg2 "Using saved kernel config (config.saved.$CARCH)..."
cat $startdir/config.saved.$CARCH > .config
elif [ "$CARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
cat ../config.x86_64 > .config
elif [ "$CARCH" = "i686" ]; then
cat ../config.i686 > .config
else
error "Unsupported architecture: $CARCH"
return 1
fi

...

if [ "$_save_config" = "1" ]; then
msg "Saving configuration..."
msg2 "Saving src/$_gitname/.config as config.saved.$CARCH"
cp .config $startdir/config.saved.$CARCH

Here is the code from the kernel26zen-git PKGBUILD that does what I described above. It loads your old config if available or else loads the standard config.* for your architecture, else it fails and tells you why.

Then, after you run make menuconfig, on exit if save config is true, then cp ./.config to ../config.saved.*

methuselah · 2008-11-25 18:43:46

edited.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-01-14 00:06:56)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-07 02:38:33

so im running the zen kernel

#2 2008-09-07 03:02:58

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#3 2008-09-07 13:27:29

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#4 2008-09-07 20:32:30

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#5 2008-09-07 21:19:47

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#6 2008-09-08 22:50:56

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#7 2008-09-08 23:31:26

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#8 2008-09-09 00:53:01

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#9 2008-09-09 12:32:55

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#10 2008-09-09 13:32:18

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#11 2008-10-10 07:29:21

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#12 2008-10-10 10:10:12

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#13 2008-10-10 11:14:52

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#14 2008-10-10 16:27:47

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#15 2008-10-10 17:00:39

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#16 2008-10-11 08:26:52

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#17 2008-11-24 00:38:03

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#18 2008-11-24 23:54:37

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#19 2008-11-25 00:54:29

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#20 2008-11-25 01:01:08

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#21 2008-11-25 01:43:54

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#22 2008-11-25 01:49:41

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#23 2008-11-25 07:24:10

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#24 2008-11-25 07:49:11

Re: so im running the zen kernel

#25 2008-11-25 18:43:46

Re: so im running the zen kernel

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