kernelyogi

Silan drivers - found!

2007-05-04T17:12:19Z

Before my blog gets added to the long list of dead blogs, here is a long overdue entry and guess what, Silan drivers *are* somewhere in this worldwide hyperspace. They are here! I have not tested them and all the standard disclaimers apply :) Happy compiling!

Download ahoy!

2007-01-15T08:36:16Z

"Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" by Greg Kroah-Hartman is now available for free downoad. Check it out here.
Happy hacking!

Not Real (Tek)?

2006-11-12T07:10:39Z

Intex's NIC cards are not RealTek 8139 but rather Silan sc92031. See this and this. Also, Check out geektalkin and lspci listing after inserting the card.
Need some data on this chip set (and device driver knowledge too :) ) to write the driver.
Shree Ganesha with Rubini's book now...

On to the Net using Intex's RTL 8139D LAN card

2006-10-15T14:12:08Z

OK, so now I am on to the net using Intex's NIC card. Installed Debian 3.1 R3 which had kernel 2.4. The Intex NIC has drivers for 2.4/2.5 but not 2.6.

Steps followed -
1> Needed the headers of the running kernel (uname -r) to compile the driver. Best way was -
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-386

2> Copied the unzipped folder containing the driver source code to a local directory.
Note that I took the 8139D RTC (not RTD) from Intex

3> Compiled the driver source using the Makefile provided. Compilation gave a warning and compiled without any error.

*****************************
sc92031.o built for 2.4.27-2-386
SMP Disabled
*****************************

In file included from /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/build/include/linux/spinlock.h:6,
from /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/build/include/linux/module.h:12,
from sc92031.c:15:
/lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/build/include/asm/system.h: In function `__set_64bit_var':
/lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/build/include/asm/system.h:190: warning: dereferencing type-punned pointer will break strict-aliasing rules
/lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/build/include/asm/system.h:190: warning: dereferencing type-punned pointer will break strict-aliasing rules

4> Inserted the module created "sc92031.o" using
insmod ./sc92031.o

5> Setup NIC interface
ifconfig eth0 inet up 192.168.1.100
Local network was setup after this step. Checked by pinging the ADSL router/modem.

6> Added gateway
route add default gw 192.168.1.1
ping to system outside the local network successful.

So, here I am, on the net, using the NIC card and posting to lj!

Unfortunately, this card may not work on 2.6 going by the discussions here, here and so many other google search tails.
Ndiswrapper can be the solution - http://www.geocities.com/rohitksethi/

BTW this not RealTek chipset but rather Silan SC92031 chipset, see it if you understand chinese :) (One task added for me - search a online translation site :))

So till I understand how to write a device driver and specifically for 2.6, its a dead end for making this NIC work. Otherwise, I will have to wait for somebody/Silan to write the driver.

Debianated!

2006-10-02T12:21:31Z

Successfully installed Debian 3.1 R3 on MB4. I had never installed Debian before and most of my experience in installing Linux was in Red Hat. Recently, I did try Damn Small LInux, Knoppix 5.0.1 and SLES10, but none of these prepared me for the moment of truth that Debian presented.
Take this -
If you are installing from CD-ROM in any of the other distros, you select all the package needed and go on popping the CDs, 1 to n. If everything goes fine, you have a brand new black screen staring at you (don't tell me X configuration went fine, it can't be :) ). So simple. Now, what if one of the CD is gone bad or downloaded incorrectly or if you don't need the 99% of a CD content (most likely scenario, in which case why waste precious bandwidth on the 99%, the last 1% can be later downloaded if need be)?
Debian solves this in a true Linux way. The installer asks for the CDs that you have and prepares a database of what *you* have. In this way it knows the dependency of selection made by user (which other distros also know) as well as whether the dependency is satisfied by the CD set you are holding! This is profound power!! This way if you have just the first CD, Debian can be up and running in no time with just that. You can later download (or beg, buy, borrow, steal!) the remaining CDs. Or if you can do oodles of downloads, do a network install. Exhilarating! Now I know why Debian has such a staunch following and what was missing from my Linux life!
Cool, so now I have a SLES10 on MB0 and Debian 3.1 R3 on MB4.
Now back to making Intex NIC card work.

Stuck...

2006-09-30T09:19:16Z

Tried compiling the drivers (downloaded from Intex site as well as sent by the Intex support person) using procedure posted by posmanet in Knoppix forum. No success. The procedure is for different problem - I used a part of it, for getting the kernel headers and sources. I am doing all the procedures blindly without giving much thought to it. Looks like I will have to do a full fledged Debian install, understand the sources (maybe) and give it a try again.
The first step is a mile long :)

Some more source...

2006-09-24T10:58:31Z

Got a new source code base for Intex's NIC drivers from them. I will resume my attempt to use Intex's NIC in Linux kernel 2.6.17 again.

Breaking free!

2006-09-18T15:02:37Z

4 gruelling hours and SLES10 is installed on my Dell Optiplex GX1! Needed a rock solid system to concurrently work on Linux as I set up NIC on MB4 (http://kernelyogi.livejournal.com/2006/09/05/). Greedly, I have installed everything that was in the CD set (web server, mail server, file server, AppArmour and what not!), so the system is crawling initially (RAM is peanuts - just 128 MB :( ). Anyway, I am up, running and enjoying the whiff of freedom!

Isolated still!

2006-09-10T07:44:51Z

I am not able to configure the Intex RTL8139D card yet. The card doesn't get detected in "netcardconfig" and "modprobe 8139too" inserts the driver but 'ifup'ping throws out errors saying "No such device". I am now thinking that, I should have thoroughly checked the compatibility before buying...But it was just a impulse buy you see! :)
This is what I tried -
1> dmesg | grep -i eth
Nothing seen
2> lspci
Ethernet Controller: Unknown device 1904:2031 (rev 01)
3> modprobe 8139too
No errors
(8139too is supposed to be the driver for RTL8139 family)
4> dmesg | grep -i eth
8139too: Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
So the driver is installed.
Next if I try "ifconfig eth0 up 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0", error is shown -
eth0: ERROR while getting interface flags : No such device
SIOCSIFADDR : No such device
eth0: ERROR while getting interface flags : No such device

Checked this out on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, Knoppix v5.0.1, DSL and Gentoo (all as LiveCDs). No luck.

Now I have following options -
1> Try on another distro (SLES10?), if it works - get the drivers from that.
2> Try NDISwrapper
3> Compile driver on my own (provided I get source somewhere)
4> Change the card.

Hooking up to internet till then is far away :(

No X and No net

2006-09-05T16:49:19Z

X has stopped working after changing language to English from German. I have stumbled upon oft asked question on linux mailing lists - How to configure X? Also, the cheap NIC I bought is not getting detected in Debian and DSL. Its a RTL8139D intex card. Price tag of just Rs.190/- tempted me into buying this card :(. Need to find drivers for this card. My learning of kernel is started :)
(I am still not able to break free from Windows. X + network will do the trick!)

MB4!

2006-09-04T16:16:50Z

Debian booted -

(Got the Ubuntu CDs, hence the stickers :) )

Bare bones -

Up and Running!!!

2006-09-03T11:34:20Z

Up and Running Debian (from Knoppix v5.0.1) on one of the boards - a Celeron 466MHz with ~97MB memory (why such odd figure? Need to investigate). Bought a CDROM drive and Harddisk for this. The CDROM was Rs.600/-(52X speed, Samsung make). The Hard disk is 40GB, Seagate make costing Rs.1950/-. I had not checked the prices of these items since long time and was amazed to see the prices falling so much. The mantra of volumes and large scale integration have driven the prices to this level. Few years back this would have costed me a fortune. What's more, I was given option of buying a 80GB(!) hard disk for Rs.2200/-. I decided against it since it was not sure if the HD will suit the BIOSs I have.
Connected the HD and CDROM drive and BIOS was able to detect it as 36GB in Auto mode. I tried User mode in BIOS but still it showed a shade less that 40 GB, so decided to keep in Auto mode. After BIOS POST screen BIOS was giving one error - "Primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed". Never seen such error anytime before in my life in front of computer monitor. I was surprised but decided to try out installation anyway.

Installation from Knoppix CD was a breeze except for one error - "/mnt/hdinstall/sbin/hotplug-knoppix: No such file or directory". But it did not stop installation and soon X was also running. Only problem was - it was showing menus in German language. Anyway, I thought X is not important at this moment and rebooted many times to see that all things worked perfectly. Now I had a full-fledged Linux box running!

Okay, time to see the 80 conductor error. Googled on this and soon hit a solution. The IDE cable I was given by the hardware shop guy was a cheap Rs.25/-, 40 conductor cable and my motherboard expected a 80 condutor cable. Replaced the 40 coductor with 80 conductor one (at pricely Rs.80/-) and the error was gone. It is quite possible to run on 40 conductor one (I was able to install and run Linux) but it would be running at lesser speed. The 80 conductor one had extra conductors to reduce the cross talk at higher speeds.

Good going so far. Now to look into frugal setup of remaining systems. The hardware shopping binge is over. Now want all the remaining systems to boot up from minimum hardware (network boot probably). This will need a couple of network cards, ethernet cables, a hub or a router, and probably KVM to see what's happening where...hmmm...here I go again for some more hardware shopping.

Lowest Common Hardware

2006-08-27T15:36:10Z

I want my Linux Boxes to be up with least possible hardware. So thinking booting off from USB thumb drive(using DSL!). But these motherboards are old. They may not have USB support. Also, the BIOS may not have support to boot from USB even if a USB PCI card is installed. So need to get BIOS upgraded for this. Since the make is very much unknown, need to find which is the chipset and what's the make. The BIOS is very much standard - AMI and Award Modular for all the boards. Googling for BIOS upgrade landed me at esupport. Looks like they can upgrade any BIOS on earth. Hmmm...it is costing $$$. Also, no guarantee that USB boot will be available in the upgraded BIOS. Looks like I will have to find a different way. May be network boot! Things are getting murkier.

Junk pile

2006-08-26T17:52:10Z

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk - Thomas A. Edison

Well, I am not inventing anything just trying to discover the Linux kernel all by own. I am finding junk is necessary to learn it. In this case, junk is a couple of motherboards my great friend and bro-in-law, Atul sent for this experiments. These are the fossils from digital era when MMXs and Celerons ruled. So here I am with total 4 motherboards - processors and memory (SDRAM!) included. Though old and extinct this motherboard beauties are a big haul for me since Linux can be as frugal as I want. Thanks Atul, this is Great!!!

The inventory -
Two Pentium MMX boards, One Celeron and One x686 (AMD?) boards with clock speed of all < 500MHz and Memory < 64 MB.
No keyboards, no HDs, no CD ROM drives - just bare Copper and Silicon!
Oh I forgot - two SMPSs are their too.

With this modest ammo, I hope to blast off in kernel space...

DSL ho!!!

2006-08-25T15:08:11Z

Posting this entry through my system booted from Damn Small Linux - http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/. The procedure was simple. Just burned DSL's ISO and restarted the system with 'CD boot first' enabled in BIOS. Lo and Behold the system is loading DSL and in no time X is up! The default browser 'Dillo' did not display lj properly, so used Firefox instead. Really liking this, its just 50 MB in size!!

Experiments with LiveCDs

2006-08-21T16:47:02Z

Heard a lot about LiveCDs and wanted to try them out some time. Thinking to start with LiveCD for kernel learning (since they don't need a hard disk install) I decided to give it a try. My quest of kernel learning had to start off with a warning that success is 99% perspiration and 1%. Got a list of current LiveCD distributions from http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php. Downloaded the LiveCD ISO image of Knoppix (http://knoppix.net/get.php) and Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml). Downloaded Ubuntu ISOs (http://www.ubuntu.com/download) also. Burned the ISOs using Nero and popped in Knoppix CD in my Dell Optiplex GX1. Knoppix showed a cute small penguin and started showing messages about detecting different devices (it was colorfull text, so was looking much better than usual RedHat prints I was used to seeing). Then something unexpected happened and I was staring at message "Can't find Knoppix filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. Press reset button to quit". Implying that what I can maximun do is reset! Hmmmm...OK, Lets try Gentoo I said - so many options are their in Linux world, why worry? Merrily popped in Gentoo CD and soon I was looking at screenfull of prints. Then it tried to mount CD ROM - "Attempting to mount CD :- /dev/hdc" and took a long pause. Again mount was attempted and their was a long pause. This was done many times. After waiting for long enough I decided to reset and started thinking that CD ROM drive is not working properly. When the same thing occurred with Ubuntu, showing "Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 1..2..3..4...", I was sure that my system needed a replacement of CD ROM drive. Feeling a bit let down by Linux, I decided to google on this problem and see if anybody faced this problem. Typed exactly the same message that Knoppix had shown and in a few minutes I was able to find the solution. Cool! So I was not alone!! Here is the solution for Knoppix - type "knoppix nodma lang=en" at boot prompt. This error seems to be a very common and each type of system has a different solution. For a Dell OptiPlex GX1, this worked. See http://www.edlug.ed.ac.uk/archive/Oct2004/msg00139.html. Also check out http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix-dvd/knoppix-cheatcodes.txt. So finally I was able to boot Linux from LiveCD and felt very happy about the whole thing. Learnt a lot by seeing the links and possible solutions. It seems the kernel enables dma for CD ROM drive by default which my old system could not understand and hence kernel had be told explicitly not to use dma. Cool!!! Now I will try Knoppix install (somehow I liked Knoppix more!). Lets see.

Digital incarnation of a Kernel Yogi

2006-08-18T15:40:09Z

My first post on Livejournal and the very first on any blog as well. This journal is my path of learning Linux kernel. I am starting with a almost a clean slate. I will be in quest of learning Linux kernel and documenting what I find. Though this is mostly the Journey of learning Linux, occasionally I plan to change lane and enter into personal domain (you see I don't have any other outlet!)
Till then...poweroff