Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

kernel-kit, the woof-CE component responsible for building and packaging Puppy kernels, is capable of building the latest version of a kernel "longterm" version (say, 5.4.x) and packaging it in a way that makes it possible to build third-party drivers against it (say, nvidia drivers) and update the kernel (say, from 5.4.100 to 5.4.101) without breaking them.

kernel-kit runs every once in a while on GitHub and updated kernel packages for multiple "longterm" versions are available at https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... el-kit.yml.

To get a fresh kernel, choose the latest kernel-kit run, then scroll down to the list of build artifacts and click the kernel that suits you, by architecture and version. Then, extract the .zip file and you'll have a "huge" style kernel package that can be used for swapping the kernel, a firmware SFS, a kernel sources SFS, etc'.

Why is vmlinuz handled differently? Only provided once within huge.... whereas fdrv & zdrv (kernel_modules) are included twice - both individually and within huge .tar.bz2.

Are kernel_headers in kernel_sources?

Every .zip file is the kernel-kit output directory zipped. The structure of this directory, its contents, etc' are determined by kernel-kit's build.sh.

vmlinuz is in output but is not in the zip - as are other things so the zip is not the full output directory:

# pwd
/mnt/sdc1/kernels/5.12.1/kernel-kit/output
# ls
aufs-util-5.12.1-x86_64
build.log.bz2
DOTconfig-5.12.1-x86_64-030521
huge-5.12.1-lxpup64.tar.bz2
huge-5.12.1-lxpup64.tar.bz2.md5.txt
huge-5.12.1-lxpup64.tar.bz2.sha256.txt
kernel_headers-5.12.1-lxpup64-x86_64
kernel-modules-5.12.1-lxpup64.sfs
kernel_sources-5.12.1-lxpup64.sfs
kernel_sources-5.12.1-lxpup64.sfs.md5.txt
kernel_sources-5.12.1-lxpup64.sfs.sha256.txt
linux_kernel-5.12.1-lxpup64
patches-5.12.1-x86_64
vmlinuz-5.12.1-lxpup64
#

vmlinuz must be there somewhere, otherwise the ISOs produced by woof-CE's CI wouldn't boot, because there's no kernel.

vmlinuz is inside huge-*.tar.*.

What are the broken links to /home/runner/work/Woof-CE/.... in current kernel kit produced kernels?

I downloaded the latest 5.10 kernel-kit version from github as mentioned above. I swapped out the kernel in slacko8.0pre, which is an update from 5.10.25 to 5.10.34. I noticed that there are 2 broken links in the kernel-modules.sfs (zdrv*.sfs). I checked back to the original slacko8.1pre.iso, which also contains similar broken links.

While I'm asking, why the change in the naming convention to drop the actual version numbering, now only using the 5.10.0 naming convention?

.

TerryH wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 1:21 am

What are the broken links to /home/runner/work/Woof-CE/.... in current kernel kit produced kernels?

You'll need to replace /lib/modules/`uname -r`/{build,source} with symlinks to /usr/src/linux.

I don't know why the links are broken, but it's been this way for a very long time and I have no explanation for this, because somehow, people are able to build third-party modules despite of this

TerryH wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 1:21 am

While I'm asking, why the change in the naming convention to drop the actual version numbering, now only using the 5.10.0 naming convention?

If modules built for kernel 5.10.25 look for kernel 5.10, you'll be able to use them without recompilation when you update to 5.10.34. That's why kernel-kit resets the bugfix version.

In the future, I hope we'll have automated (but opt-in) kernel updates.

You can see the full kernel version in /proc/version.

I've always fixed the symlinks since I ran into these broken links compiling VirtualBox disk drivers manually. Was a real mystery in the beginning.

Testing the fix, will open a woof-CE pull request soon.

https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... s?expand=1

The latest kernel-kit run (#14) has the fix. The symlinks are gone from zdrv, but present in the kernel sources SFS and they're relative now.

I wonder if it would be possible to include in the next schedule, a 5.4 kernel? I used to occasionally download them, but noticed there haven't been artifacts of this LTS branch for a few months. Unfortunately I accidentally erased the USB drive which had puppy (fossapup64 9.5). No big deal, as I had backups - except for the kernel (stupidly, I only had backups of the sources). I tried to use the available 5.10 kernel, which initially seemed OK, but actually doesn't work very well in my old machine (crashes, and I can't compile the nvidia driver for it). If there is a chance to get an up to date kernel, I'd greatly appreciate it (or is it something anyone could do on github, similar to building with woof-ce? There doesn't seem to be a config_x86_64 for it though)

Also, just taking the chance to bring this up:

dimkr wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 6:31 am

TerryH wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 1:21 am

While I'm asking, why the change in the naming convention to drop the actual version numbering, now only using the 5.10.0 naming convention?

If modules built for kernel 5.10.25 look for kernel 5.10, you'll be able to use them without recompilation when you update to 5.10.34. That's why kernel-kit resets the bugfix version.

It's nothing new, it hasn't been .0 for more than a year, but I never asked about it. Wasn't sure if it had been intentional or not. Was useful as per dimkr's comments. Just posting in case it wasn't intentional

bigpuppyfan wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 12:48 am

I wonder if it would be possible to include in the next schedule, a 5.4 kernel?

https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 1791996239

It is possible, but somebody needs to be committed to maintaining the kernel configuration file and fixing build failures. aufs for 5.4.x is dead and AFAIK broken for a very long time.

https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 6ab2984568

https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linux_Huge-Kernels

kernel-kit-output-aufs-5.4.212-x86.zip (View Contents) 11-Feb-2023 17:15 234.4M
kernel-kit-output-aufs-5.4.212-x86_64.zip (View Contents) 11-Feb-2023 17:17 240.3M

Thank you peebee and dimkr. Had come to say that I remembered I had the last updated 5.4 kernel from the kit elsewhere, while doing some experiments with vanilla dpup, but you beat me to it.

dimkr wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 5:53 am

https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... 1791996239

It is possible, but somebody needs to be committed to maintaining the kernel configuration file and fixing build failures. aufs for 5.4.x is dead and AFAIK broken for a very long time.

Oh yes, that's right, forgot about that part. Unfortunately that's outside of my league But 5.4 is reaching EOL anyway