Puppy 4.2 smp

Message

#31 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 11 Apr 2009, 07:37

MU wrote:Beem,
if you use an old savefile, there will be old modules in the savefile, so the ones from pup_420.sfs do not get loaded. I assume a frugal installation.

This could be solved, by deleting the old drivers from the layered filesystem.
Exit X, then type:

rm -rf /initrd/pup_rw/lib/modules
reboot
/initrd/pup_rw is the writable part of the layered filesystem (so stuff saved in the savefile). If you delete files there, then after the reboot, the ones from pup_420.sfs will be used again.
You need to reboot afterwards immedeatly, because deleting files in initrd can confuse the unionfs driver.
So you would encounter strange errors, if you would not reboot.

Mark

You were right it was a problem of modules.
Remember the issue we discussed when muppy used a pup_3xx.sfs which was bigger then the puppy one and the puppy one was loaded instead of the muppy one and vice versa.

It's the same here. the pup_420.sfs I had in mnt/home was the one of the 420 final. Copying the one of the 420 smp one to mnt/home solved the issue.

#32 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 11 Apr 2009, 07:44

Deleted. The forum is sick again.

aragon · #33 Post by **aragon** » Sat 11 Apr 2009, 20:00

DC wrote:Hi
Many thanks for the fast smp build of 4.2

For compiling does one use the
devx_420.sfs?
and
kernel-src-2.6.25.16-patched-puppy4.1.sfs?

or is there a source sfs for Puppy 4.2 smp
like g_pup had its own (kernel_src-412_gpup.sfs)

DC

p.s. I'm doing a full install so I don't want to integrate the sfs files if they're wrong

hi DC,

devx_420.sfs for compiling should be ok, although i've not tested it so far. But maybe test from frugal-install/live-cd first.

kernel-src:
problem! jcoder has not provided a kernel-source for his package. so there is actually no available and i don't think that it would be a good idea to use another one. so no solution atm. sorry.

general:
i didn't use full installs (ok only one for my 6 yr old daughter with an old 256 mb sony-laptop). please report your installation experience. AND after installation please control grub menu.lst for 'nosmp'-statements. the universal-installer might set this automatically. if so, simply delete 'nosmp'.

aragon

DC · #34 Post by DC » Sun 12 Apr 2009, 15:03

Hi Aragon,
re. full install smp and compling
Decided to play with full install and sfs - and currupted the superblock

This was either because I tried to install the sfs twice or that I mixed up the devx_420.sfs.
I have one devx_4.20(77mb) and one devx_4.20(98mb)?
Any way reinstalled and tried devx_4.2.sfs(77mb) and that seems ok.
I'm trying to install vmware workstation. It stops with the error "C header files matching your running kernel not found".
Tried kernel-src-2.6.25.16-patched-puppy4.1.sfs - failed
Tried kernel_src-412_gpup.sfs - failed
So I think I do need the kernal source for this build.

Regarding the grub install. I always have a data partition on my harddrives and usb sticks in which I have installed grub. The advantage is I don't have to remember all the details to get some installs / upgrades working and don't get over written by a new install (i.e. nosmp). I also have personal comments to identify different installs . The final reason I've got a bad habit breaking partitions, file tables and now superblocks

David

ecomoney · #35 Post by **ecomoney** » Sun 12 Apr 2009, 17:57

So to clarify, this is 4.2 with all of the fixes and keeping the "bling".....and it will run on dual cores as well

I think this is 4.2 Nirvana.....my projects can progress

The only thing I can think of is.....isnt there a bugfix for intel 8781 (or similar) wireless cards that was identified?

aragon · #36 Post by **aragon** » Sun 12 Apr 2009, 21:39

@ david
good to see, you know what you're doing

@ ecomoney
yes, bugfixes as posted on page one.

The only thing I can think of is.....isnt there a bugfix for intel 8781 (or similar) wireless cards that was identified?

not in the official bugfix-thread.

aragon

ecomoney · #37 Post by **ecomoney** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 00:08

yes, I see it was the BCM related module you already have included I was thinking of - apologies. Ive downloaded and installed your 4.2 version, everything checks out beautifully.

There are still a few usability/file association bugs in 4.2. Are you planning on doing any further updates to this version? I would be happy to supply details as (despite my mistake above) I have been keeping rough track of them.

Personally I think that, considering the still-buggy official 4.2 release available on www.puppylinux.org, this would make an excellent base for a speedy and much needed bugfixed 4.2.1 release.

Many thanks for saving me a lot of work.

ecomoney · #38 Post by **ecomoney** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 04:39

Ive been informed about a bug still in abiword, and I can confirm it still exists in this SMP version too

Running abiword from the command line and trying to insert a symbol from the "insert" menu gives:-

Code: Select all

(abiword:28293): Pango-WARNING **: shaping failure, expect ugly output. shape-engine='BasicEngineFc', font='Standard Symbols L 32', text=''
Aborted

Ive looked into the bug (is there a thread for it somewhere?), and found some quite useful information...including a patch from the abiword team itself.

http://bugzilla.abisource.com/show_bug.cgi?id=11731

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs ... 20965.html

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=493565

My debugging skills are limited at best....some of the bugs above point to it being an abiword problem, and some to it being a "pango" problem.

Someone with more technical skill than me will need to look at this (i.e. practically anyone!).

DC · #39 Post by DC » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 11:14

Help - C header files required

I've tried various things from googling, including this thread
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=250718
but it looks like it has to come from when the source / build was done?

thanks

DC

jcoder24 · #40 Post by **jcoder24** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 14:07

aragon wrote:kernel-src:
problem! jcoder has not provided a kernel-source for his package. so there is actually no available and i don't think that it would be a good idea to use another one. so no solution atm. sorry.

The "2.6.25.16-smp kernel for unleashed" I provided was packaged from one MU's early smp isos. For my build environment I downloaded the vanilla 2.6.25.16 kernel source, dropped in the config used by MU, applied the appropriate patches and recompiled the source. If someone can give instructions on building a dexv sfs I can give it a try.

NB. For basic application compiling, the standard devx from puppy 4.1.2 was sufficient, so maybe 4.2 devx would be also.

Edit:There is also a devx at http://puppyisos.org/files/sfs/Puppy-4.1-smp/ but I'm not sure if it is for the smp kernel. From the readme on that page it seems as though you can use the standard devx and only have to drop in the kernel config file. MU or one of the gurus can confirm.

I believe the kernel source is available there as well.

ecomoney · #41 Post by **ecomoney** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 14:35

Is this to recompile abiword?

Could the files not be copied over from a previous puppy version (say 4.1.2) where abiword "just worked". Sure .docx would be nice to have but its hardly a critical feature just yet.

#42 Post by MU » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 14:46

to compile own modules, this shoulld work:
Use devx from Puppy 4.2.
And the 2.6.25.16_410.sfs from http://puppyisos.org/files/sfs/Puppy-4.1-smp/
Extract http://puppyisos.org/files/sfs/Puppy-4. ... .16.tar.gz in /usr/src/linux/.
Rename the config to ".config".
Now type:

cd /usr/src/linux
make oldconfig
make prepare

Now if you compile additional modules, they should use the correct settings.

----------------------------------------
The files there are a backup, the files I had uploaded in chronology got lost on the original server.
I think, the above work.

If jcoder wants to create a own kernel sfs just to be sure, he can do these steps in the system he used to compile the kernel:

Create on a linux drive the folder k262516smp/usr/src, like
/mnt/sda1/k262516smp/usr/src

Now package your kernelfolder:
cd /mnt/sda1/k262516smp/usr/src
tar -czvf kernel.tgz /usr/src/*

Then extract it at the current location:
tar -xzvf kernel.tgz
Then delete kernel.tgz again.

You also could copy the files, but I sometimes encounter problems copying symlinks, so I prefer to use tar.
Or use Muppyfiler, that internally uses tar to copy files:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=32575

Finally, build the sfs:
cd /mnt/sda1
dir2sfs k262516smp

Mark

#43 Post by MU » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 14:50

ecomoney,
abiword uses no kernelmodules.
The error you get might related to the meanwhile quite old Gtk related libraries in Puppy 4.x.

If you have an Puppy 4.x with an older Abiword that works, you could try to use that version.
You could try a pet from:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dis ... ackages-4/
There is more than one version.
Mark

DaveS · #44 Post by **DaveS** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 15:06

4.2 SMP installed and running properly on my system. It was nice to install a 4.2 variant and not have to fiddle with the patches. JWM 'rounded' up and running with no problems. My crappy Broadcom wifi worked out of the box too. Have not yet tackled setting up a printer, but as there are no patches added for that, guess it will be chore. I was hoping for better performance from OO, but I guess it is not optimized for dual-core.
Abiword remains pretty poor at Word docs, but OO handles that stuff ok. At least the garbled fonts are gone. It is a bit pointless worrying about Abi on this thread maybe, as by definition, any PC with a dual-core processor is going to have the resources to handle Open Office.
So have I noticed any performance gains............ not really, but this is a pretty impressive distro for more modern PCs, and certainly no performance losses. Thanks...........

DC · #45 Post by DC » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 15:12

@mu
Hi Mark
Does your kernal sfs procedure you have described automatically include the C header files?

David

#46 Post by MU » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 15:34

the method described for jcoder, copies everything.
The source itself, his settings, and the compiled binaries.
So he could upload a complete kernel with everything included.

If you mean my general instruction:
the 2.6.25.16_410.sfs has the complete kernelsource, so also the C headers.

In addition, each devx sfs has a set of some older kernelheaders in /usr/include/linux.
But to compile own modules, you need the ones from the kernel sfs.

Mark

ecomoney · #47 Post by **ecomoney** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 15:41

The reason Im worrying about abiword (I use OO myself) is that a little bird tells me that it MAY be possible to use this as a base for a CE or next official version. At the moment puppylinux.org is still distributing the very buggy 4.2 standard...and this may be a shortcut to getting those ISO's replaced before too many new linux users get the misguided idea that Linux cant handle M$ Word documents.

DaveS · #48 Post by **DaveS** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 15:55

ecomoney wrote:The reason Im worrying about abiword (I use OO myself) is that a little bird tells me that it MAY be possible to use this as a base for a CE or next official version. At the moment puppylinux.org is still distributing the very buggy 4.2 standard...and this may be a shortcut to getting those ISO's replaced before too many new linux users get the misguided idea that Linux cant handle M$ Word documents.

YUP........... printing was the chore I expected. Got it up and running more or less now, but I have to use the 'wrong' driver and install an earlier CUPS courtesy of rcrsn51. I think it might be good to revert to CUPS 1.3.9 for 4.2 smp
OK, it dont autodect network printers, but it also dont hang at the drop of a hat!

ecomoney · #49 Post by **ecomoney** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 16:08

I absolutely agree DaveS, its better to make sure base functions work before adding nice to haves. Wordprocessing/Printing are the absolute base functions that people want. Thanks for letting us know about your success with reverting CUPS, it seems we may have to do the same with AbiWord also for any official 4.2 bugfix version.

Thanks for the benefit of your knowledge MU, I will test those Abiword packages and get back. Sorry I thought that kernelmodules/C headers and things were used for recompiling. There is a patch to the AbiWord C source code on one of those links to known bugs. I may not know many specifics......but I am aware of general principles

ecomoney · #50 Post by **ecomoney** » Mon 13 Apr 2009, 16:16

Ive just got this quote from another thread

I don't think you can seriously recommend that smp version since it has no kernel source available. You can't compile nvidia drivers, vmware, or anything else kernel related.

Just a query..is this true? Will the SMP support break existing software?

Ive moved the abiword bug report to the end of the Abiword problem in 4.2 thread, its better categorized there.

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