Author: yam

Fun with the 2.6.8 Kernel and ALSA

Posted on by yam

I figured it was high time I updated my desktop machine to a modern kernel. And, as usual there were some hiccoughs, but it seemed to go reasonably well with the following procedure:

cd /usr/src

tar xjfv linux.[version].tar.bz2

rm linux (assuming it is a link to your old kernel)

ln -s /usr/src/linux.[version] linux

cd /usr/src/linux

cp /usr/src/[oldkernel-source-directory]/.config .config

make oldconfig

make menuconfig

cd /usr/src/linux

make-kpkg clean

make-kpkg --append-to-version=.[a_unique_and_clever_name] kernel_image modules_image

cd /usr/src

dpkg -i kernel-image-[version].[a_unique_and_clever_name]_10.00.Custom386.deb

vi /etc/lilo.conf

lilo

What gave me troubles was using ALSA instead of OSS as the sound architecture. It worked, after following instructions to install a few things, if I was root. I don’t always want to be root though, and nothing I tried seemed to work. Finally, I used the brute force approach. I went into /dev and went to town, chmoding everything in sight, including mixer, sequencer, dsp, music and the snd directory, as well as the entire contents of /dev/snd. It works now though, so that’s something.

Weird Kernel Problems

Posted on by yam

Well, things didn’t go as well as I thought they did. I noticed that when I was loading the modules on my new kernel that the computer threw a number of FATAL errors, which I took to be a bad thing. More importantly, however, was that I could no longer mount my USB key – I got errors about /dev/sda not being a valid block device. Well that won’t do, so I compiled another kernel and booted into that. Then I had more problems – the USB key still didn’t work, sound software began whining about permissions-related issues and then, for no reason, my mouse stopped working. So I booted back into the previous kernel, and the mouse still didn’t work. I’ve had to go all the way back to my 2.4.18 kernel to get the mouse working again. Very annoying. I am not the only person around, I suspect, who thinks that you should be able to upgrade and have everything still work. Yes, the new kernel is very different, but you should not have to worry about the baby in the bathwater when you upgrade, you just shouldn’t.

eterm theme

Posted on by yam 
<Eterm-0.9.2>
begin color
    foreground white
    background black
    cursor #ffff00
    cursor_text #880000
    pointer white
    video normal
end color

begin attributes
    geometry 80x56
end attributes

begin imageclasses
    path "/usr/share/Eterm/pix/"
    begin image
        type background
        mode trans allow trans auto
        state normal
        cmod image 100
    end image
end imageclasses

begin toggles
    map_alert on
    visual_bell on
    login_shell true
    scrollbar off
    utmp_logging on
    iconic false
    home_on_output 1
    home_on_input 1
    scrollbar_right true
    scrollbar_floating false
    borderless false
end toggles

begin keyboard
    smallfont_key LessThan
    bigfont_key GreaterThan
end keyboard

begin misc
    save_lines 1024
    cut_chars "t\\`\\"'&() *,;< =>?@[]{|}"
    border_width 0
end misc