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[JoeMac]

Thanks moocapiean.  I gave that a try first thing.  The installation modified too many configuration files for me to get back where I started from.  In the end, I went back to the compressed file that I saved since it gave me a very useable system.  It was much quicker intalling applications the second time   I learn something new every time I do this, so it wasn't the complete waste of time I initially thought it would be.  For instance, I used "aptitude" for some of the installations this time.  It's all good now    I can use sugar for ebook reading for now. Next time I muck about with keybindings, I will try doing the modifications manually so I can undo it if necessary.  right now, I like the way everything is running. This forum is a goldmine for beginners like me.

[gennaker]

Running ubuntu-7.10 from a 1gb SD card (about 100mb free space left) with XFCE4 using Moocapiean's 'compressed file build'.

NTFS and Truecrypt are two functions I rely heavily upon for a 160gb usb harddrive. So I am trying to come up with a way to get fuse working. I don't have any experience with linux kernel compiles yet.

Is fuse absolutely necessary for NTFS and truecrypt support? If so, has anyone successfully compiled fuse for OLPC? I found this page http://grumbel.blogspot.com/2008/02/olpc-making-fuse-work.html but was unable to get things working. Any ideas? Thx.

Code:

    uname -a
    Linux OLPC 2.6.22-20071121.7.olpc.af3dd731d18bc39 #1 PREEMPT Wed Nov 21 00:39:06 EST 2007 i586 GNU/Linux

[moocapiean]

gennaker:
I haven't tried getting fuse to work on my Ubuntu install on my XO, but on my regular laptop, I used the fuse package available from Ubuntu.  Have you tried that?

It probably uses a kernel module, which means you'll have to compile it from the source I posted earlier.  You should be able to find the fuse kernel module under
File Systems -> File System in Userspace support
in the kernel menu.

[moocapiean]

In my post on how to install the kernel, its modules, and the source code, I briefly touched on how to configure your kernel if you wanted new modules.  I figured, if you're trying to install a module, you were probably following a tutorial online specifically for your needs.

Unfortunately, at least some of those tutorials assume your distro (Ubuntu in our case) will include the modules in their repositories, so they don't cover compiling your kernel for a new module.  While I can't give generic instructions for where to go in your kernel for specific modules, I will give a few general tips:

1. Getting to your kernel config menu
I briefly touched on this in my earlier post, but I'll try to go into more details here.  To configure your kernel, you'll need to be in the kernel source code's directory.  Assuming you installed the source to your XO's drive where I suggested:
cd /usr/src/olpc-kernel

Once there, open the config menu and start selecting or deselecting (if you're feeling adventurous) various features.  See below for selecting features.  This will open the menu:
make menuconfig
Once you're done making changes, you can exit the menu (being sure to save any changes you made).

The first time you run that command, you may get some errors, saying that things are missing.  If that's the case, run:
apt-get install build-essential libncurses-dev
This should install the missing files that you'll need to create the menu.  You only need to run this if you get the error.

The configuration is stored in the .config file (there's a '.' at the start of the name).  If you want to backup the configuration, copy that file to a new location, for example:
cp .config /home/olpc/kernel-config-origin

At this point, instead of rewriting what I had written before, I'll just refer you back to my original instructions, starting at "Now, you're ready to compile".

2. Selecting Features
a. There are a lot of options in the kernel.  I'd suggest just wandering around for awhile to get familiar with where things are.  Otherwise, you may end up searching the Networking menu for your wireless card driver when it's probably hiding under Device Drivers -> Network device support.

Instructions on moving around in the menus is at the top of the menu screen.

Another thing, the name of the module isn't in the menu, you have to check the Help to see the name of the module.

b. Most distros take care of compiling for you, but Gentoo is one of the few distros that expects you to compile your programs.  Not surprisingly, their documentation tends to be some of the best...at least it was when I was learning how to use Linux.  So, if you're trying to figure out how to enable a feature in the kernel, instead of just searching for enabling that feature in Ubuntu, it might be useful to search Gentoo too.

Some nice Gentoo resources are:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kernel-config.xml

That second link looks like an introduction to configuring your kernel, so it might be worth reading while the first link is more for searching when you're trying to figure out were your module is.

The Gentoo community's fairly nice, but since we're using a different distro, it's probably best to ask here instead of on their forums.

c. Let's say you know the name of the module you need, but can't find it in the menu.  Try opening up the .config file and searching for the module name.  For example, let's say you're looking to enable the visor module.  After searching for awhile, you just can't find it.  Close out of the menu and search the .config file:
grep -i 'visor' .config
It should return with something like:

Code:

# CONFIG_SYS_HYPERVISOR is not set
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_VISOR=m

You can see that it returned two results.  The second one looks more like what we want.  Actually, in my example, it's already set to compile as a module.  The first one, however, is set to not compile at all.  It's commented out; that's what the '#' means at the start of the line.  While it's possible to manually change the setting, it's better to do that in the menu.

So why bother going through this if I suggest using the menu? Well, by using the menu, it'll take care of enabling any dependencies visor may have.  If we did this manually, that might not happen.

We now have an idea of where it is in the menu.  It looks like visor is under the USB settings, specifically for serial drivers.  The USB settings aren't in the main menu, so where are they?  Remember when I said that it's good to wander around the menu for awhile?  This is a time when it comes in handy .  So, to get to visor, it's:

Code:

Device Drivers -> USB support -> USB Serial Converter support -> USB Handspring Visor / Palm m50x / Sony Clie Driver

Sometimes that won't work.  My original example used hci_usb, but couldn't find it, so I ended up using visor.  Oh well, it ended up reminding me to say this .

d. If all else fails, feel free to ask!

[vblackaby]

The "fackroot make-kpkg" command i had posted, never worked for me.  It would build, but i would get kernel_panics... i think because those instructions were missing the "ARCH=i386" command, but  Moocapiean's directions worked almost flawlessly...

In the part where he says:

zcat /boot/olpcrd.img | cpio -i
rm -r lib/modules
cp -r /lib/modules lib/
find . -print | cpio -H newc -o | gzip -9 > /boot/olpcrd-2.6.22-personal_version.img

In MY case.. lol ... i had more than one (3) directories inside /lib/modules.  One from the Current Build, One from my New Build, and one from a failed attempt.  So... when I copied over, it copied ALL of them... and I ended up with a 400 mb  initrd file. 

I was able to go back and remove (from the initrd directory, not the /lib/modules) the other builds, and got a normal initrd file & it installed fine.

I also achieved my original goal, my modem now works. 


Victoria

[vblackaby]

Quick Question... in the instuctions ofr the kernel

After extracting the .deb

/media/OLPCRoot/usr/src/olpc-kernel directory are the following files:

Code:

Config.mk
COPYING.modules
find-provides
genkey
kabitool
kernel_2.6.22-20071231.2.olpc.83e0631da83a269_i386.deb
kernel-olpc-custom.config
linux-2.6.22
merge.pl
olpc-2.6.spec
olpc-2.6.tar.bz2
usr

If I move into the linux-2.6.22 directory... none of the files will be used, like

merge.pl, kernel-olpc-custom.config, or olpc-2.6.spec

What are those files for?

[moocapiean]

In MY case.. lol ... i had more than one (3) directories inside /lib/modules.  One from the Current Build, One from my New Build, and one from a failed attempt.  So... when I copied over, it copied ALL of them... and I ended up with a 400 mb  initrd file. 

Hmm, I should probably have said somewhere in the instructions that you don't need to rebuild the initrd file every time you add a new module.  The initrd is only used for booting up, so only modules you need when booting having to be in there, the rest can just sit in /lib/modules somewhere.  So I guess it's ok to just use the initrd file I provided, unless you decide to try a new kernel version.  Oh well, at least you got some experience!

If I move into the linux-2.6.22 directory... none of the files will be used, like

merge.pl, kernel-olpc-custom.config, or olpc-2.6.spec

What are those files for?

I'm not sure.  My guess is that the kernel-olpc-custom.config file is used when you run make ARCH=i386 olpc_defconfig, but a quick search through the Makefile shows that that isn't the case.

It appears that some of the files could be for the RPM or deb package managers, but since you're just extracting the files from the package, you end up seeing them.

If you want to keep the source code around, but want to free up some space, you could just delete all those extra files.  Move into the top-level directory of the source (/media/OLPCRoot/usr/src/olpc-kernel in your case) and run:
rm -ri *

That'll ask you if it's ok to delete each file (that's what the i represents in -ri, interactive mode).  Say yes ('y') to each of them, except for decending into linux-2.6.22 and into usr.  You want to save the source code (in linux-2.6.22) and deleting usr interactively will be tedious.

Once the rest are deleted, you can delete usr by running:
rm -r usr


If you're looking to save space, deleting those files won't free up as much space as recompressing the source code:
tar -cjf source.tar.bz2 linux-2.6.22

For me, that converted a 834 MB directory into a 256 MB file!

Once that's done, you can now delete the source code:
rm -r linux-2.6.22

Then to decompress it when you want to use it again, run:
tar -xjf source.tar.bz2
in the directory where your source code was stored.

[Telchar]

Blah, I'm trying to boot Ubuntu off my 8GB SDHC card and it's giving me "Card didn't power up after 1 second" at boot. I tried flashing from firmware q2d07 to q2d14, but that didn't work. Trying q2d13 now...

[Telchar]

Damn! flashing it to q2d13 didn't help either.

[anna]

Is anyone else's microphone not working with the new kernel?  I've tested it every which way with Audacity and arecord, but all I get is static.  And then when I run alsamixer and look at just the capture devices, the mic levels are zero and don't respond to changes, though they look normal in xfce4-mixer.

And I don't really know my way around the guts of how the kernel works, but I did go look at /lib/modules/2.6.22/kernel/sound/drivers and the .ko files in there aren't executable like the sound drivers in the olpc kernel. 

Am I going down the correct path?

[koolkat]

Blah, I'm trying to boot Ubuntu off my 8GB SDHC card and it's giving me "Card didn't power up after 1 second" at boot. I tried flashing from firmware q2d07 to q2d14, but that didn't work. Trying q2d13 now...

In olpc.fth there is something like a rootdelay=1 and you can change that to longer if you wish.  If it is taking a second for your card to powerup you can try to change it to rootdelay=5 and see if it works then.  Of course you are adding 5 seconds to every boot, but once you get it working then trimming down and optimization dont see so bad.

[moocapiean]

Is anyone else's microphone not working with the new kernel?  I've tested it every which way with Audacity and arecord, but all I get is static.  And then when I run alsamixer and look at just the capture devices, the mic levels are zero and don't respond to changes, though they look normal in xfce4-mixer.

And I don't really know my way around the guts of how the kernel works, but I did go look at /lib/modules/2.6.22/kernel/sound/drivers and the .ko files in there aren't executable like the sound drivers in the olpc kernel. 

Am I going down the correct path?

You look like you're in the right path.  Hmm, I guess the audio drivers need to be compiled.  I wonder why they weren't included in the .config file that (I assume) was created when you ran make ARCH=i386 olpc_defconfig.  I'll go looking for the the configuration used for the olpc kernel.

[Telchar]

Thanks Koolkat, I'll try it out. Beyond that, I'm getting a 4GB SanDisk Extreme III card ($8 !!) which should provide better speeds than my 8GB. I feel like we should start a thread to document which SD cards work and which don't, as it seems to be rather hit-or-miss.

[quixote]

I finally got around to following the nice, simple instructions, and everything worked like a charm.  When is Google going to hire you, Moocapiean?  Or have they already?

Commenting out that xset line has made the touchpad click-happy.  i.e. it can interpret a resting finger as a click, but not too bad.  not like before when it would open 30 windows before you could stop it.  Should be a minor tweak to xset.

Thanks!

[quixote]

(I'm talking about upgrading the kernel, on p 17 of this thread....)