Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I've been struggling to make kernel 6.6.x work on my machine using PorteuX and Porteus. It works on some machines but it doesn't on others. So I decided to try Puppy kernel 6.6.0, from here: https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linu ... 64.tar.bz2

Surprisingly it works! So then I tried to build it using your .config file (extracted from a runtime kernel) but I got the exact same error during boot, which is:

kernel panic - not syncing: Can't create rootfs

So my question is what is the magic you guys are doing to build the kernel?

Thanks a lot!

How are the module and firmware SFS's set up? Or are you are compiling a monolithic type kernel?

I just built a general purpose huge kernel version 6.6 using the kernel-kit from woof-CE using a VoidPup64 merge2out version.

I have attached the file DOTconfig-6.6.0-x86_64.tar.gz which I used for the build. I can make this kernel available if any one is interested.

Will be attempting with the same kernel-kit setup to build a full real time 6.6-rt13 kernel with both AUFS and OverlayFS builtin, patched and configured for full real time preemption.

porteux wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 10:18 am

So my question is what is the magic you guys are doing to build the kernel?

Thanks a lot!

Hi @porteux

Our build.sh is available on Github:
https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... t/build.sh

There weren't any changes needed when moving from 6.5 builds to 6.6 builds.....

My 6.6.1 build is at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxpup/ ... /interims/

Let us know if there is anything we can do to help solve the mystery - we can use Porteus kernels in Puppy installs so could do that test if you have a link to your kernel.

You guys are super kind and supportive! I appreciate that a lot!

@rockedge, thanks to your .config file I managed to find that what was causing the problem was not my .config file, but how I was patching AUFS. It's all working now, although I have no idea why it worked for 1 year and it decided to break just now

@peebee, nice to know that you were willing to test my kernel build just to help me!

Thanks once again, guys!

although I have no idea why it worked for 1 year and it decided to break just now

I am amazed every time when a kernel build goes as planned. Part of the fun of doing it. I have the most problems when patching a kernel for full real time and AUFS together.

I realized that by applying the AUFS patch the way you guys are doing prevent modules from being able to be mounted from inside the union -- no problem mounting them from outside the union though (like a physical storage unit).

Example: get a sfs/xzm module, copy to ~/Desktop and try to mount/activate it. It will fail with the following message: mount: /: mount point not mounted or bad option.

The way I was applying AUFS path to the kernel this issue wasn't happening, but then it doesn't work at all (kernel panic) with 6.6.x.

Should we ask Sir sfjro?

OK, things are starting to make sense now.

The way Puppy is applying AUFS patches are somehow funny:

for i in kbuild base standalone mmap; do #loopback tmpfs-idr vfs-ino
	patchfile=../aufs_sources/aufs${aufs_version}-$i.patch
	( echo ; echo "patch -N -p1 < ${patchfile##*/}" ) &>> ${BUILD_LOG}
	patch -N -p1 < ${patchfile} &>> ${BUILD_LOG}

By doing that you're applying only aufs*.patch, letting these ones out of the game:

lockdep-debug.patch
tmpfs-idr.patch
vfs-ino.patch

So the initial problem I was having (the reason why I open this thread) is most likely due to something wrong with the code in one of these 3 patches, and they happen to enable mounting of the sfs/xzm modules that are in the union -- most likely other features are also missing when not applying these 3 patches.

I'm building the kernel at the moment to see if I can find more information. If you guys know anything, any information is welcome

@porteux Interesting. I was pretty sure I was including those patches so I'll have to look closer.

I managed to compile a 6.6-rt13 full real time kernel but overlay only and no aufs to see how that went. I will attempt a build using @ozsouth 's 2018 kernel-kit which has worked for me building a full RT kernel with both AUFS and overlay

It is the AUFS and the RT patches that seem to not play well together and need some tweaking.

I will convert this kernel into a usermerge model for use with KLV variants.