Kernel Compiling Prep Help Needed

Hi; I'm a linux newbie. I am using knoppix ( stripped down debian ). I would like to recompile my kernel to get some new features. I have been researching how to do the basic kernel compile by reading O'Reilly's "Running Linux". In the chapter on kernel compiling they explain a long list non-intuitive kernel config questions to be prepared to answer. I have studied that list and boiled it down to a few unsettled questions for myself. These are mostly hardware questions and involve finding out what I have. I went looking for the "kernel howto" but it has been pulled at the tldp site for review. Some of these questions might seem ridiculous to people here, but I welcome any polite help that is offered. Anyway, here are my questions: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ( I lost the docs to my hardware months ago moving ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. How do I find out information about my processor? What do I need to know for compiling a kernel? 2. Does my motherboard have a PCI bus? How do I find out? 3. How do I know if I have PCI devices installed? 3. Do I have parallel ports, what are parallel ports? 4. How do I know if I have IDE devices? 5. Do I have SCSI controllers? How do I tell? What are they? What do I need to know about them for the kernel? 6. How do I find information about my network card? 7. How do I know if I have ISDN hardware? 8. Do I have an IDE or SCSI CDROM? 9. What is my sound card's IRQ? What is the address of my sound hardware? 10. I currently have a 2.4.20-xfs kerenl without the source ( knoppix doesn't include it to save space ). Will a 2.6 kernel be compatiable with my system? Thanks in advance for any polite help :) Steve -- 2 Bush Administrations 2 Recessions 2 Wars Can we skip Jeb?

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:08:53 +0100, Steve wrote in comp.os.linux.misc: > Hi; > > I'm a linux newbie. > > I am using knoppix ( stripped down debian ). > > I would like to recompile my kernel to get some new features. > Thanks in advance for any polite help :) > > Steve Steve, I really don't mean to be impolite, but based on your questions, I suggest you're premature in attempting a kernel compile. What features are you after that you don't have now? Are they really worth what may be a lot of aggro with a non bootable system? Take a look at the new book "Linux Power Tools." It will give you a lot of help on such questions. HaroldWho -- Powered by SuSE Linux 9.0 -- Kernel 2.4.21-SuSE News Reader slrn 0.9.7.3

Steve <ADDRESS_MUNGED_TO_PREVENT_SPAM_PLEASE_REPLY_TO_GROUPstevesusenet@yahwho.com> wrote: > Hi; > I'm a linux newbie. > I am using knoppix ( stripped down debian ). > I would like to recompile my kernel to get some new features. What features? [..] > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ( I lost the docs to my hardware months ago moving ) > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can open up the case and write down all info you can get, with google you should be able to find almost any hw doc as .pdf from the vendors. > 1. How do I find out information about my processor? What do I need to > know for compiling a kernel? $ cat /proc/cpuinfo > 2. Does my motherboard have a PCI bus? How do I find out? AFAIK all x86 PC produced perhaps in the last 10 years should have a PCI bus. Try 'lspci'. > 3. How do I know if I have PCI devices installed? See 2. > 3. Do I have parallel ports, what are parallel ports? Mostly you should have one mostly used for connecting some printer. > 4. How do I know if I have IDE devices? Try, 'fdisk -l', if there is some device showing up like /dev/hda[1-n] /dev/hdb[1-n] you should have IDE. > 5. Do I have SCSI controllers? How do I tell? What are they? What do > I need to know about them for the kernel? If you don't know about them, you probably don't have SCSI. With 'lspci' you should see something in the line of: 00:0b.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-2940/2940W /AIC-7871 (rev 03) > 6. How do I find information about my network card? Again 'lspci' presuming PCI: 00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) 00:11.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05) > 7. How do I know if I have ISDN hardware? Look at answer 2, if PCI, for ISA you need the ISA pnp tools. > 8. Do I have an IDE or SCSI CDROM? If you don't have a SCSI controller, it's obvious that you have IDE. > 9. What is my sound card's IRQ? What is the address of my sound hardware? Doesn't matter, if it's PCI, the kernel will handle IRQ/interupt on module loading. Try, 'cat /proc/interrupts' [..] 5: 2905414 XT-PIC EMU10K1 [..] From my sound card, 'lspci' shows the SB Live card: 00:09.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 0a) > 10. I currently have a 2.4.20-xfs kerenl without the source ( knoppix > doesn't include it to save space ). Will a 2.6 kernel be compatiable > with my system? Download the source, unpack and read Documentation/Changes and upgrade your system if needed. However, make sure to keep your working kernel, so you can boot that, if something goes wrong with 2.6.0. -- Michael Heiming Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for inconvenience, but I get tons of SPAM

On 2003-12-23, Steve <ADDRESS_MUNGED_TO_PREVENT_SPAM_PLEASE_REPLY_TO_GROUPstevesusenet@yahwho.com> wrote: > Some of these questions might seem ridiculous to people here, but I > welcome any polite help that is offered. > > Anyway, here are my questions: > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ( I lost the docs to my hardware months ago moving ) > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 1. How do I find out information about my processor? What do I need to > know for compiling a kernel? "cat /proc/cpuinfo" should tell you. > 2. Does my motherboard have a PCI bus? How do I find out? If it is a PC type machine and was manufactured within the last 10 years it will have a PCI bus. > 3. How do I know if I have PCI devices installed? "cat /proc/pci" > 3. Do I have parallel ports, what are parallel ports? Parallel ports are typically used to attach printers, although lately many printers offer USB connections in addition to or even instead of parallel connections. If you have such a printer, you probably won't need to use the parallel port. You can always add parallel port support later if you need to. > 4. How do I know if I have IDE devices? Unless you explicitly purchased a machine with SCSI hardware, chances are your hard drive(s) and CDROM device(s) are IDE. Try "ls /proc/ide" and see what shows up there. "cat /proc/ide/drivers" will tell you what device-specific IDE drivers are being used. > 5. Do I have SCSI controllers? How do I tell? What are they? What do > I need to know about them for the kernel? If you have them, you will see them with "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" > 6. How do I find information about my network card? Check the list produced above with "cat /proc/pci" to find out hardware information; "ifconfig" will tell you how it is configured, etc. > 7. How do I know if I have ISDN hardware? > > 8. Do I have an IDE or SCSI CDROM? Look in /proc/ide and/or /proc/scsi > 9. What is my sound card's IRQ? What is the address of my sound hardware? Check the listing from "cat /proc/pci" > 10. I currently have a 2.4.20-xfs kerenl without the source ( knoppix > doesn't include it to save space ). Will a 2.6 kernel be compatiable > with my system? If you specify xfs support when you build the kernel it should work. -- -John (JohnThompson@new.rr.com)

Michael Heiming <michael+USENET@www.heiming.de> wrote in message news:<amsbsb.fhe.ln@news.heiming.de>... > Steve <ADDRESS_MUNGED_TO_PREVENT_SPAM_PLEASE_REPLY_TO_GROUPstevesusenet@yahwho.com> wrote: > > Hi; > > > I'm a linux newbie. > > > I am using knoppix ( stripped down debian ). > > > I would like to recompile my kernel to get some new features. > > What features? 1. ACPI.. My hardware is new as of March. Knoppix ( debain...its installed to my hard drive ) does not turn off my machine when it turns itself off. I would like it too. 2. ALSA. Again, my hardware is new. My sub woofer does not have a control on it to adjust my bass. It ** NEEDS ** to be turned down :). I haven't been able to find any software that will do this aside from ALSA, which needs ALSA drivers, ALSA kernel parts. Thanks for the info, I found it to be extremely helpful. Steve

> 2. ALSA. Again, my hardware is new. My sub woofer does not have a > control on it to adjust my bass. It ** NEEDS ** to be turned down :). > I haven't been able to find any software that will do this aside from > ALSA, which needs ALSA drivers, ALSA kernel parts. ALSA can be installed without recompiling the kernel. I hava ALSA working fine with a 2.4.18 kernel. I believe it needs the kernel headers to compile correctly, but if they are not provided with Knoppix could you not get them from the Knoppix website? AFAIK anyone who distributes Linux _must_ provide the source code. I suspect ACPI can also be installed as a kernal module, with the aforementioned kernel headers.