Cutting edge kernel 2.6.23.8

[tempestuous]

I have compiled the 2.6.23.8 kernel with many "advanced" features enabled, and prepared a dotpet which is available here, thanks to Raffy -
http://www.bexa.org/pup/tempestuous/cut ... 6.23.8.pet

This new kernel can ONLY be installed in a full HD installation of Puppy at this stage. Eventually I will prepare a Puppy remaster with this kernel included, but that requires quite a bit more work, and it's possible that the kernel may require futher changes before then.
I compiled the kernel in Puppy 4.00 alpha, but it should be possible to install this in any recent version of Puppy.

At this stage I have only provided the standard kernel modules. There are no third party modules such as wifi, winmodem, nor the lzma-squashfs module.

The kernel has been patched with all the normal Puppy patches, plus these features:
Tickless System (Dynamic Ticks)
High Resolution Timer Support
Symmetric multi-processing support
SMT (Hyperthreading) scheduler support
Multi-core scheduler support
Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop)
Timer frequency 300 HZ
TuxOnIce hibernate (suspend-to-disk) support.

INSTRUCTIONS: After installing the dotpet, open /boot/grub/menu.lst in geany and add these lines -

Code: Select all

title Puppy cutting edge
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.8 root=/dev/hda1 ro vga=normal

Now when you reboot you will see a new boot menu entry "Puppy cutting edge".

Dougal and I discussed the exact details of this kernel configuration at length. We enabled MANY esoteric settings!
But we may have gone a bit too far ... the main kernel image is 2.4MB.
The kernel config file is attached for anyone who might want to make further suggestions.
This process makes me realise that there are many unique settings possible with a kernel configuration. It would be feasible for people to customise a kernel specifically for their individual hardware, which would have optimum performance, with minimal size.

[tempestuous]

Regarding TuxOnIce suspend-to-disk, here is the necessary hibernate script (/usr/local/sbin/hibernate) plus config files.
Refer to http://www.tuxonice.net/HOWTO-2.html for further instructions.
Note in particular the need to use the boot parameter "resume=swap:/dev/..."
In grub, this will be at the end of your "kernel" line.
If you attempt to hibernate incorrectly, there may be filesystem damage. You have been warned.

I tested the hibernate function just now. It certainly works, but I think the exact process requires testing and refinement. I found it to be not much faster than Puppy's full shutdown/startup.

DO NOT attempt to hibernate if you have an NTFS filesystem mounted with fuse.

[tempestuous]

And here is the "iwlwifi" driver package for recent Intel wifi devices.
These drivers require the new mac80211 wifi stack, so they're not easy to add to existing Puppy kernels, but quite easy to add to this new kernel.
There are 2 drivers in this package;
iwl3945 - supports IPW3945 chipset (replaces the old ipw3945 driver)
iwl4965 - supports 4965AGN chipset.

[BarryK]

tempestuous, have you and Dougal thought about moving on from the 'hd' ide support to the all-sd/scd scsi-layer for pata drives?
Maybe it has matured enough.

I just glanced at the 2.6.24 preview notes, looks like wireless support is advancing.

As Dougal mentioned, the current 2.6.21.7 kernel has the pcmcia support switched off, so I have to compile the kernel anyway for dingo, so I'm thinking why not jump to the very latest, 2.6.24 when it gets released. And also jump to the all-sd/scd drives.

[Dougal]

tempestuous, have you and Dougal thought about moving on from the 'hd' ide support to the all-sd/scd scsi-layer for pata drives?
Maybe it has matured enough.

I personally would rather delay it as long as possible... it would require re-writing many scripts.

[tempestuous]

The whole PATA/SATA/SCSI/MD thing is not my area of knowledge. I leave it to you guys to decide on that issue.

Regarding wifi, I think the new kernels are fine. There was some alarm at an earlier stage that all existing drivers would need to be rewritten for the new ieee80211 subsystem, but that has apparently been resolved.

My interest in an updated kernel is in response to requests by users for a low-latency and SMP-enabled kernel.
From k2.6.23 Ingo Molnar's Completely Fair Scheduler (low-latency) feature is standard. It's then a question of whether you want the Puppy kernel to be SMP-enabled ... and maybe have the other performance options: Dynamic Ticks, High Resolution Timer, Hyperthreading, multi-core, 300HZ timer.
If it's any help, I'm using the "cutting-edge" 2.6.23.8 kernel as I write this now, on my old P2-350 desktop computer. I have had no adverse effects, and I even detect slightly faster response than when I use the same setup with the old 2.6.18.8 kernel.

[cb88]

that sounds great tempestous has memory management improved any? how much ram does your PC have? running non SMP PCs here but the support is welcome.... PII 300mhz 64mb ram(96 if a guy comes through with a stick for me) and sempron 1.8ghz (512mb)

[raffy]

Thanks, tempestuous. It should be good to test this on the eee PC.

Maybe an eee owner may want to lend the unit to tempestuous for tinkering?

As to IDE interface, budget/embedded PCs tend to use storage via the USB interface.

[BarryK]

As to IDE interface, budget/embedded PCs tend to use storage via the USB interface.

Yes, that really did surprise me -- the Classmate laptop has an internal 'uDiskOnChip' Flash RAM module which has a USB2 interface. They are quoting read speeds up to 9 Megabytes per second, which is quite fast. The company that makes that module also has an 'iDiskOnChip' with an IDE interface and I checked out the specs -- amazing, considerably slower.

[Dougal]

Regarding wifi, I think the new kernels are fine. There was some alarm at an earlier stage that all existing drivers would need to be rewritten for the new ieee80211 subsystem, but that has apparently been resolved.

I think it was 2.6.21 that had a new wifi stack introduced, so there might be problems with that one and the drivers...

[Aung]

The Puppy (dingo alpha 6) I am trying this on is sda3 (hd2,0) XP is on (hd0,0). I'd rather xp is not there but tux-nux is not main stream yet. Only going this far. I guess Puppy is looking in xp (0,0) for everything.

kernel panic not syncing VPS unable to mount root fs on (0,0)

This is my menu.1st

title Puppy cutting edge
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.8 root=/dev/hda3 ro vga=normal

Whats the easy way out. Aung