Is There Any Distro With 2.6.x Kernel Options

[Haros]

As far as I see all the available distros work with 2.4 linux kernel in order to have stable fatx support.

But is there any distro with 2.6 kernel? I (and many other people I guess) don't need stable fatx support...

[run088]

fedora distro but I have never used it. I get the 2.4 debian based distros and install a 2.6 kernel in them. Only thing I run that needs it is virtualbox. With a little effort I can usually get anything else I need to compile in the 2.4 kernel.

[luther349]

well there is but there all dated distros. i was working on getting a updated modern distro over to 2.4 so it worked well for all users. but i ran into to many issues that are byond my know how. mostly due to all the patches and drivers for xbox linux all dated. running the latest 2.6 kernel isnt gonna make any difference in terms of the xbox hardware support. if anything it broke the nivida driver completely with the nevu switch.

This post has been edited by luther349: Jul 8 2010, 11:04 AM

[Haros]

I see.

I guess then that an update with a xbox patched linux kernel deb (2.6.18) I found is the best thing I can do.

However I have some problems installing module-init-tools, initrd-tools, procps in order to install the kernel.

Any help?

[run088]

http://www.aelius.com/njh/xbox-linux/


These kernels dont have the 32k-64k fatx patch but can be installed with dpkg on a native install. Will work on xdsl or xebian. I have not tried anything else. Might need to get the xorg xdsl upgrade if your using xdsl. I did and had to use the xorg upgrade to cure a graphics problem.

Install with dpkg -i packagename.deb

If you do this remember to add the modules on its config. I think sound driver, keyboard and mouse modules changed in at least name between 2.4 and 2.6 kernel.

Other than that just change the linuxboot.cfg to run in the new kernel. That is all there is to it. This setup is complete with kernel sources that will work for most app compiling. The biggest problem I have had with the 2.4 is all the kernel sources for the xbox available dont seem to be complete. But with these kernels stuff compiles much easier. Like virtualbox and its dkms package.

You can still boot off the 2.4 kernel if you want. Just leave its stuff on the linuxboot.cfg and make it a dual boot setup. Just add the modules from the module sheet that are not already on your modules sheet. Each core will ignore the modules it does not need. There may be a brief message about it on bootup but it will not hurt anything.

This post has been edited by run088: Jul 8 2010, 12:42 PM

[Haros]

I see. For the apt-get update / upgrade should I use the etch repos from the debian archive?

[Haros]

I used the debian archive repos...

I dkpg -i the deb and I get

You are attempting to install an initrd kernel image (version 2.6.18-xbox)
This will not work unless you have configured your boot loader to use
initrd. (An initrd image is a kernel image that expects to use an INITial
Ram Disk to mount a minimal root file system into RAM and use that for
booting).
As a reminder, in order to configure lilo, you need to
add an 'initrd=/initrd.img' to the image=/vmlinuz
stanza of your /etc/lilo.conf
I repeat, You need to configure your boot loader. If you have already done
so, and you wish to get rid of this message, please put
`do_initrd = Yes'
in /etc/kernel-img.conf. Note that this is optional, but if you do not,
you'll contitnue to see this message whenever you install a kernel
image using initrd.
Do you want to stop now? [Y/n]

I skip that by pressing n.

then I get

You already have a LILO configuration in /etc/lilo.conf
Install a boot block using the existing /etc/lilo.conf? [Yes]

i press yes to continue

the installation completes. I update the modules and edit the linuxboot.cfg

the linuxboot.cfg is like this

title v2_6
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-xbox
append root=/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 devfs=mount kbd-reset xbox=hdd
xboxfb y

title v2_4
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append root=/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 devfs=mount kbd-reset xbox=hdd
xboxfb y

but when I try to boot the 2.6 installation I get an error "Unable to load kernel, Grub error 1"

any help?

[Haros]

Ok...

I had misstyped the word "kernel" in my linuxboot.cfg... "kenrel" yeah right.... took me an hour rechecking...



Now I guess the next step is a 2.6.32 kernel. Anyone interested?

[luther349]

2.6.32 uses nevu meaning thers no xbox nivida driver.i relly wish the guys at xbox linux would take a step back and port a modern small distro like lucid puppy to the xbox. i as i said i tryed and failed at it being im no dev and have no clue how to make my own xbox patches.

lucid puppy is a light fast distro simler to dsl but much more powerful and up2date and the lucid release even can use ubuntu repos and debs.

This post has been edited by luther349: Jul 9 2010, 02:26 AM

[run088]

If puppy uses ubuntu stuff it is a debian branch distro. You should be able to install xebian or xdsl or xubuntu and make them into puppy. I say this because the biggest differences in linux distros are the packages each come equiped with. Use xdsl because it is as lightweight as they come and compile or install the packages you want. After your done you can remaster the distro and re-release it as puppy if you want.

Xdsl is perfect there is no need for a another distro that runs any faster. dsl was designed to run on the worst hardware anyone could muster. Once it is installed natively it is just a bare bones debian install. You can upgrade to the 2.6 kernel easy if you want with the deb packages I linked to in the prior post.

If it is the desktop of xdsl you dont like you can change it by installing gnome or kde or whatever and make a .xsession file in the root of your home directory and exec start it there to run the new desktop automatically on startup. Most the apps you need are most likely in the repos somewhere and you can install most hassle free with synaptic..

[luther349]

puppy is its own distro its not based on anyone. it uses own package system called .pets and it still does. but recently they added the ability to use other distros packages. not just ubuntu but rpms and slackware packages as well. lucid puppy just has the ubuntu repos included in it.

the reason they have done this is the fact .pets where community made for the most part so not everything was available for puppy. adding compatibly to other distros opened the door to alot more packages.

the woof system is new to puppy but its is the first distro to be cross comptable with all package systems. yes you could hack any distro to do this but normally it winds up unstable.

This post has been edited by luther349: Jul 10 2010, 01:17 AM

[ldotsfan]

2.6.32 uses nevu meaning thers no xbox nivida driver.i relly wish the guys at xbox linux would take a step back and port a modern small distro like lucid puppy to the xbox. i as i said i tryed and failed at it being im no dev and have no clue how to make my own xbox patches.

There has been no xbox 1 linux development for a long time and the mailing lists today are full of spam. The last dev that was active was lalee of XFedora and he has since disappeared too. Only Shallax from Gentoox still updates his distro from time to time and he still uses 2.4 kernel. I don't know how long he will keep this up.

[luther349]

yep back in the xbox 1 glory days it and the dreamcast was the only totally hacked open system. now you got the wii psp iphone and recently xbox 360. lots of newer stuff to hack even thow xbox linux is x86 and still the most complete then powerpc or other platforms. no linux devs like to look back to the origal xbox and say hey maybe we should at least keep the drivers patched every couple years so people can keep making distros. and that annoyes me. xboxes still make good servers and good media center pcs and basic use pcs. but the aging distros are hurting the last abilty.

and if puppy can play flash 10 full speed on my 10 year old c610 laptop with a 8 mag ati card the xbox can do it to if they ever got a decent 3d driver under linux.

This post has been edited by luther349: Jul 11 2010, 04:22 AM

[Haros]

I believe the lack of xbox patches for the latest linux kernels is due to the fatx support. Even Shallax who has the latest xbox-linux release continued using 2.4 kernel...

Funny though because many people nowdays don't need fatx support. They just have dedicated linux harddisks.

I wish someone could just release a new kernel xbox patch. That would give life again to the xbox-linux scene. As I have seen in this forums, many people have the will to do something like that but they are missing the know-how.

This post has been edited by Haros: Jul 11 2010, 11:32 AM

[luther349]

well you can keep using kernel 2.4 forever as long as you can compile it. its the xorg and alisa patches that hurt more then anything.