Re: Tiny Core v17.0 upgrade issues

[Stefann]

Small update…
Application was still running without crash after 3 days.
I got a bit worried….. I am sure the system is not stable, but appearantly I changed some detail such that the time to crash got extended.

Yesterday I restarted the application without serial read. In parallel I used a dedicated “crash program”. It reads the serial-over-usb with a buffer of only 2 bytes. That gave me 23500 reads/minute versus about 120 per minute with my applictqion. On top of that I fire an interrupt every 100us.

Bingo.. crash after 14 hours. It’s still not stable

@rich..
I had hard wired terminal  with gui up. However ist completely frozen. Control-alt-F1 or control-alt-F2 does nothing. So… no messages…

Today i spent time to hardware-built-in the terminal. So far it was blocking the hallway. I mounted it at the inside of the hallway cupboard. Made the keyboard “foldable”. This allows the terminal to be a permanent service setup. So…. No Kernel testing today. That will be tomorrow.

I was able to compile and built a kernel from source on my second system. It took about 3 hours.
I also compiled all modules. That took about 36 hours. Completely unnecessary as I only need the usb-serial module which I probably better compile als part of the kernel anyways.
But… I’m learning……

[Stefann]

Anyone has tips??

Monday I succeeded to make a "custom kernel" for TC17, linux-6.18.28
However... when I tested it today:
- It boots and gets to a terminal prompt which is responsive to linux commands
- but extensions are not loaded at boot.

Trying to load afterwards also fails, example:

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tce-load -i /mnt/hda1/tce/optional/nano.tcz
gets me:
mount: can't setup loop device: No such device or address
Any reason why?

Note, how I created kernel:

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1/ get files you need
On laptop:
- find download location on http://tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html
- download [version]/x86/release/src/kernel/linux-x.y.z-patched.tar.xz
- download [version]/x86/release/src/kernel/linux-x.y.z/config-x.y.z-tinycore
On tinycore:
- create toplevel directory that you want to use for kernel customization. Can have 1 top-level for all versions. Assume path to be [TC]
- cp above 2 files to [TC]

2/ goto your [TC] toplevel directory and prepare kernel make
- cd [TC]
- tar xvf linux-x.y.z-patched.tar.xz (this creates a linux-x.y.z directory)
- cp config-x.y.z-tinycore linux-x.y.z/.config
- cd linux-x.y.z

3/ make kernel image
- make clean
- make bzImage (this makes kernel image, takes 3 hrs on my 1GHz 2core machine)

4/ Install image, on main system:
- cp [TC]/linux-x.y.z/arch/x86/boot/bzImage /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/vmlinuzCUSTOM
- modify /mnt/sda1/tce/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf to boot from vmlinuzCUSTOM
Should I have run "make mrproper" ?
or "make oldconfig"?
And what about core.gz. I used the core.gz that was made with linux-6.18.2?

[Juanito]

Before making your changes, use "make mrproper", copy the tinycore config to .config in the top level of the linux source and then "make oldconfig"

Before packing up the modules.gz initrd (or core.gz), you need to issue a depmod command so that the kernel know where to find the modules when it boots.

..something like:

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sudo depmod -a -b /tmp/extract $KERNEL...assuming you have the initrd under /tmp/extract

[Stefann]

Hi Juanito,
1/ Thanks a lot!

2/ its a bit to fast.. could you (please please) explain a little bit more step-by-step?

What I understand from you:..... after I downloaded and unpacked the sources and have the .config:

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cd ./linux-x.y.z
make mrproper
cp ../[downloaded config] ./.config
make oldconfig
Than I would expect...

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make bzImage
cp bzImage  [bootdrive]/tce/boot/vmlinuz
At this moment, I just copied it as alternative vmlinuzCUSTOM to the existing vmlinuz in the same boot directory.
in that boot directory "core.gz" is already available.
--> so far so good...

but....
Do I really need to regenerate core.gz?
Existing core.gz is 6.18.2 while new bzImage is 6.18.28. does that hurt?
And IF I need to generate the core.gz: "how do I do that" It is NOT created with a make bzImage.

help is greatly appreciated.

[Juanito]

Ah - if you’re only changing something that’s compiled into the kernel then you shouldn’t need to regenerate core.gz/modules.gz.

In that case the steps you list should be fine.

If you’re using 6.12.28 you’ll need the core.gz/modules.gz that goes with it.