/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2009/05/15/#ubuntu-kernel.txt

SquideshiCan the kernel that ships with Jaunty be replaced with a newer kernel?00:46
SquideshiI've read some about building a mainline kernel, but it also talks about mapping to a close match.00:47
SquideshiIn my situation, there is a bug in the kernel, which is fixed in later versions.00:47
SquideshiI guess I would also like to know how upstream fixes like that eventually work their way into Ubuntu.00:49
SquideshiI just spoke with Anholt, one of the Intel graphics driver developers. He says the page allocation table (PAT) code in the kernel is a mess--there have been a ton of bugfixes, but there is indication that not all of them have been fixed even in the most recent version. This is preventing xorg from starting properly for those affected using the Intel graphics driver.01:25
SquideshiThey think the best solution is just to disable PAT by default, using the "nopat" kernel option via GRUB.01:25
SquideshiMy concern is that affected users are simply going to find that they aren't able to start xorg after upgrading to Jaunty.01:26
SquideshiThe guys over on #intel-gfx are telling me that Jaunty disables PAT by default; but I am finding that, in my case, it is NOT disabled unless I manually add the "nopat" kernel option in GRUB.01:49
rtgapw: grub2 bricked my xps1710.13:33
apwrtg how did it fail?13:33
apwunrecognised device?13:34
rtgapw: fails at the chain command line. I'll get theerror message in a bit, but when you attempt to boot a selection it always says the same thing, something like 'Unidentified device string'13:34
apwrtg yes thats a known issue13:34
apwboot it to there, and edit the entry and change the word root to uuid13:35
rtghow helpful :)13:35
apwi have a fix building for it now13:35
apwknown in the sense we found it acouple of hours ago, rather than known for a long time!13:35
rtgapw: I'm pretty sure I tried root --> uuid13:35
apwhmm that should work, cirtainly worked here for me and cking13:35
rtgapw: well, its on a different floor in the mansion. I'll go back up there and mess with it while I make some coffee.13:36
apwheh ok ... hope it is the same issue13:36
* cking too13:37
rtgbiab13:37
apwcking, heres hoping.  sounds too like what we both saw to not be ... 13:38
apwi have the full fix building in my PPA now13:39
ckinglemme know when it's cooked13:39
apwwaiting on a publisher run right now13:39
apwcking, ok it should be there now ~apw313:45
ckingOK13:46
apwinstalling on my crashy too13:46
apwbugger its too clever13:48
ckingmm.. did not seem to work for me13:50
apwhrm .. really13:50
apwwhat didi it do?13:50
apwwas this a downgraded system of a virgin13:50
apwhrm yes seems flawed... will recheck it13:51
ckingit was clean install13:51
apwk, same result here... yet i tested it ... /me returns to the source13:51
apwapw@dm$ /bin/bash foo "123-412121"13:53
apwuuid13:53
apwapw@dm$ /bin/bash foo "123412121"13:53
apwuuid13:53
apwapw@dm$ /bin/bash foo "(hd0,1)"13:53
apwroot13:53
apwit is supposed to make the right choice!13:53
ckingwhitespace perhaps?13:55
apwperhaps ... am checking13:55
apwi picked the check straight out of grub 1 ... so its a little confusing13:55
apwooooo, its got a #! /bin/bash on it, but if you test it with /bin/sh it doesn't work ... i wonder13:57
rtgapw: I managed to get the root --> uuid thingy correct, so it at least boots.13:58
apwrtg excellent.  sorting the converter script as we speak13:59
apware you following the testing page?13:59
rtgis there a grub2 menu.lst where I can make that change permanent?13:59
apwyou are in chainload mode (if you are seeing this)13:59
apwso that is in the real grub one, in menu.lst14:00
apwif you do the next step, switching to it completely14:00
apwthen its irrelevant14:00
apwhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Grub2Testing14:00
ckingI kind of think the buggy BIOS where grub2 won't work are very few and far between - and new users should be very rare to hit BIOS weirdness in the boot loader nowadays14:01
apwas grub hasn't had to change for an age14:02
ckingfor aeons14:04
apwso any new bugs are compatible with old ones :)14:04
ckingwhen did we last see a BIOS bug where the bootloader failed?14:04
apwthey are all hotkeys, and fan control and things after boot14:04
ckingyep - but early bootloader issues are nuts'n'bolts BIOS flaws and that is rare (anyhow there is just as much voodoo in isolinux)14:05
apwfor sure14:06
apwrtg can you put your results on the testing page for us14:06
rtgapw: yep, I just got distracted assembling my road show. gotta leave crack 'o dawn tomorrow14:07
apwwoh, nasty ... u carry on14:07
tjaaltonumm, so installing grub2 removes the old grub, expected?14:31
tjaaltonthough it does leave the installed bootloader in place.. so, why yess!14:33
apwtjaalton, its odd, it replaces your grub with a legacy grub of its own14:37
apwalso right now is bolloxes up your menu.lst14:38
apwi've finally just fixed the transition script14:38
apwuploading the fix to my ppa for those who want to test it ...14:38
tjaaltonit did work here without modification14:38
ckingapw, will do14:38
apwinteresting14:38
ckingwhatsup?14:38
apwcking, i'll yell when its done building14:38
apwcking, it worked for tjaalton unexpectedly14:39
cking?14:39
apwoh he may have just told it to install14:39
apwtjaalton, did you skip the chainload mode?14:39
tjaaltonapw: no, it chainloaded from grub114:40
apw!14:40
tjaaltonthis was the version in karmi14:40
tjaaltonc14:40
apwand you didn't have to change the root -> uuid14:40
tjaaltonno14:40
apwkarmic and jaunty are the same package14:40
tjaaltonin which file would that be?14:40
* cking is mystified14:40
apwso do you have uuid or root specifiers in your menu.lst?14:40
apwin each entry?14:40
tjaaltonroot=UUID=bleh14:41
apwin /boot/grub/meu.list14:41
apwthe other one, the one in each entry14:41
tjaaltonah14:41
tjaaltonroot (hd0,5)14:41
apwthere is normally a 'uuid fooo' or 'root foo' in each entry14:41
apwok so that makes sense then, no idea why its not a uuid, but its not using uuid14:42
apwso you would be fine14:42
tjaaltonprobably because it's an older installation14:42
tjaaltonmaybe since gutsy or hardy14:42
ckingthat makes sense - upgrades don't get the UUID14:42
tjaaltonyeah14:42
apwyeah something like that.  uuid wern't normal for grub itself14:42
apwgood understood14:42
* cking is no longer mystified14:43
apwtjaalton, are you following the test page, ie are you going to update the test page with your results (pretty please)14:43
tjaaltonI'll try to boot vista (yeah..)14:43
tjaaltonapw: sure14:43
* cking crosses fingers14:43
apwheheh14:43
ckingapw: I've got a 2.5GB USB flash based bootable full installation with grub2 for peeps to try out at UDS14:44
tjaaltonoh it was xp, and works. then there's the factory vista installer14:44
* cking cheers14:44
ckingNice to know XP and Vista now work14:45
tjaaltonI'll try that one too, just for the kicks14:45
apwcking, ok this one tests ok locally built, the ppa is on the go.  tested it both ways and things come out right for a change14:49
* cking goes and checks14:49
apwthe ppa will take a few more minutes to complete ... ~apw5 is the working version14:49
tjaaltonhmm, no 'update-from-grub-legacy' here14:50
tjaaltonargh14:50
tjaalton*upgrade14:50
tjaaltonok, done14:51
apwyeah its very confusing14:51
ckingtakes a while for it to be published ...14:57
apwyeah it sure does.  the publisher runs on a half hour14:57
apwcycle or something14:57
maxbppa publisher is 0, 20 and 40 minutes past the hour14:57
apwnot far off then :)14:58
apwi like the fact it tells you its not published now, thats new14:59
apwand that it now show you which are published with the green tick14:59
apwie those which are not published yet are there14:59
apwcking, its published, and ready to test15:02
apwlooking good here15:03
ckinglooks good to me15:03
ckingsweet15:04
* apw goes get it uploaded15:04
rtgapw: your ppa?15:05
apwyeah its in my ppa ~apw5 version15:05
* apw goes jump hoop15:05
ckingapw, good work!15:09
akkHi, all! I'm trying to understand why my kernel.org (non ubuntu, non modular) kernel won't boot on jaunty.17:24
akkIt worked fine on hardy and intrepid, but on jaunty it panics, "VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"17:24
pgranerapw: can you assist akk pls?17:25
apwhello17:25
akkI'm using UUID= everywhere so I don't think it's a libata vs. old ide problem.17:25
apwhmmm ... well i would try using root=/dev/sdxxx sort of boot to confirm its not a uuid issue17:25
apwbut in general that is done in initramfs, so your kernel shouldn't be an issue for that i'd think17:26
akkI've tried root=/dev/sdaX and root=/dev/hdaX both17:26
apwwhat kernel config did you use to build you kernel17:27
pgranerapw: akk build a custom upstream kernel17:27
pgranerakk: initramfs creation prob?17:28
akkNo initrd17:28
akknon modular kernel, it's never needed an initrd17:28
apwif its non-initrd, you won't have any support for UUID period17:28
apwas that is done in userspace in ithe initrd17:28
apwif its panicing then that implies you don't have the driver for your disk controller enabled17:29
akkinteresting! I could have sworn I'd done that before.17:29
apw(if its panicing with the /dev/sdXN or hdXN specifiers)17:29
apwi would boot the regular kernel and see which driver reports as finding the disks17:30
apwand track that back to ensure its enabled in your config17:30
akkThat's in dmesg?17:30
apwshould be around where it find those disks17:30
akkWith the jaunty kernel, "Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods" 17:32
apwyeah normal 17:32
akkthen a lot of confusing messages about sata (which I don't think this board has) and ata. It does mention scsi2: pata_via, scsi3: pata_via17:33
akkare those what I'm looking for?17:33
akk(it is a via chipset)17:33
apwakk very likely, you could push the whole dmesg to a pastebin, and we could check17:33
akkhttp://shallowsky.com/tmp/dmesg.out17:34
akkbrb, changing irc machines so I can do boot tests17:34
apwakk, yeah you seem to be using pata_via and sata_via, so you need to make sure they are enabled17:36
akkThis same kernel was working under intrepid, so I figured I had all the right drivers17:38
akkbut I'm checking that17:38
apwthe exact same kernel or the same .config17:38
akkexact same kernel17:39
apwhmmm17:39
akksame file in the shared /boot partition17:39
apwwell that is mytifying as the kernel is loaded in the same way, and from the same bootloader17:39
apwand the kernel doesn't even know its loading the jaunty userspace as it cannot mount it to find out17:39
apwso its not at all obvious how the kernel can work under intrepid17:40
apware you saying if you put the root spec for the intrepid userspace on this machine it loads?17:40
apwin the same entry?17:40
apware both the intrepid and jaunty userspace on the same drive?17:40
akkThat's a good point. Let me double-check my menu.lst entries and make sure they're really identical.17:40
akkSame drive, different partitions.17:41
akkah, actually if the menu.lst entries are the same, the error is different17:43
akkit gets a little past mounting the root and hangs after loading the usb devices17:43
apwhow can that be17:43
apwcan you paste bin them both please17:43
apwthe entries17:43
akksure, just a sec ...17:43
akkbtw, "setting the system clock" is the next step (after where it hangs) if I boot into intrepid17:44
akkblah, it decided to fsck this time so it'll be a little while before it's back up17:44
apwhit escape?17:44
akkescape doesn't stop it17:46
apwhmm, odd.  normally does for me17:46
akknor does ^C17:46
akk12%17:47
akkI keep meaning to put these fscks onto some sort of user warning so I can run them manually and they can't hold me hostage at boot time.17:47
apwon all my systems using usplash you can hit esc, and they do it next time17:48
akkah, I like seeing the boot messages so I'm not using usplash17:48
apwa downside is you can't stop the fsck it seems17:49
akkyep!17:49
akkI didn't know usplash did that17:49
apwthe other trick is to reboot with the power out which prevents it occuring17:49
akkWith which power out?17:50
apwthe power cord, if it has a batter of course17:50
akkoh, cool! It doesn't fsck on battery?17:50
akk(This is a desktop, so I don't have that option, but that's great to know for the laptop)17:51
apwnope puts it off to next time, if its a '30 boot is enough' type check17:51
akkyeah, this is a 29 times check17:51
akkI've been superstitious about booting on battery power, because some past ubuntu version set performance to low for the duration of the session when I did that.17:52
akkProbably with laptop-mode and so forth, that's no longer a problem and I should try it again.17:52
jjohansenyou could just edit your fstab and then you will never get an fschk on boot17:52
akkjjohansen: That's what I've been meaning to do -- but only after I put a check and warning somewhere else, otherwise I might forget to ever do it.17:53
akkI've heard assertions that really there's no point in fsck'ing ext3 anyway and it's safe to go without, but I'm not sure whether to believe it.17:54
akkyay, done. Now what was I checking? :) oh yeah, pasting the menu.lst lines17:55
akkhttp://shallowsky.com/tmp/grublines.txt17:57
akkoh, the static /dev is screwed up on that jaunty partition, so I am indeed doing something stupid17:59
akkyeah, that was it18:00
akkit boots with root=hda5 ... so my problem was not realizing that root=UUID= required an initrd.18:00
akkThanks for the help!18:05
apwakk you are welcome18:08
DGMurdockIIIany chance to get this fixed https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/27774919:37
JanCDGMurdockIII: you didn't provide the info that Chris requested yet?20:19

Generated by irclog2html.py 2.7 by Marius Gedminas - find it at mg.pov.lt!