Linux Lite Kernel

[Jerry]

So that we can better support new hardware, we've starting producing a custom Linux Lite kernel. I've yet to decide if this is something that will be offered post-release of each Linux Lite, or with the release.
When compiling this kernel, there is special emphasis on hardware support. I painstakingly go through the entire kernel and add as much hardware support as possible.

For this to be a success, I need your help.
We need people with the following graphics cards: ATI, Intel and nVidia.

These kernels will be beta quality until I am satisfied we have stable, reliable kernels available in both 32bit and 64bit versions. If you'd like to participate, do the following:

Open a terminal and do:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-linuxlite-3.15.0 linux-image-linuxlite-3.15.0 -y
Ignore any errors in the terminal.

NB: This should NOT be tested on your everyday machine unless you know how to remove the kernel from a tty. If you have a spare pc or laptop lying around with the above graphics cards we really need your feedback and your results. Also if you are using VirtualBox, these LL Kernels will not work with it. You'll have to use the stock kernel that ships with LL if you want to use VirtualBox.

We will only release the latest stable mainline kernels, if you're not sure what these are see here - https://www.kernel.org/ it will be the kernel version in the yellow box on the right.



Thank you

Valtam

[Jerry]

Kernels available in both 32bit and 64bit versions.

[pemafi]

We need people with the following graphics cards: ATI, Intel and nVidia.

Not sure what is the wanted way to report. Run some data collection script or app or just verbal report.
I just installed Linux Lite. I love as minimalistic Ubuntu derivative as possible. Created several with woof2 and woof-ce myself.

Linux Lite is great ! I have netflix already working, touchpad works great. Only problems have been kernel 3.13 related. I installed available Linux Lite 3.15 kernel right away.
I have compiled several kernels. So I know what it means to go through those compiling options, package the kernel, create a build and test it. And then recompile it again...lol.

I have acer V3-571G laptop with dual graphics. Inbuild intel and Nvidia 710M. They have been pain in the somewhere. With 3.15 kernel those problems are away. I can use intel and nouveau.ko kernel module does not misbehave anymore. Not also in this Linux Lite 3.15 kernel. I can suspend and resume. With 3.13 the resume didnt work, it resulted to the frozen desktop. I had to remove nouveau.ko to get suspend to behave. 3.15 resolves this problem. Also Huawei-E5776 behaves now, it does not drop net connection as 3.13 kernel did. Improved driver I suspect.
All other hardware components have been working so far....Powertop shows decent battery consumption, meaning nvidia graphics has been shutted down as it should be. No need to use acpi_call kernel module ( meaning no need to compile it, install it and make the shutting down script to be placed to be run at every boot ).

Looks good so far.

If somebody needs more information about intel/nvidia dual graphics, I can post information.

[newtusmaximus]

Happy to try out on various desktops and laptops - however they are all workers! Is there a way to do this from a Live CD or have a special Iso to run as a live CD. Tks.

[gold_finger]

Happy to try out on various desktops and laptops - however they are all workers! Is there a way to do this from a Live CD or have a special Iso to run as a live CD. Tks.

Just throwing out an idea here.  Don't feel obligated to do this if you're not comfortable with it.  (I haven't done this myself, but am thinking of doing so sometime later this week or next weekend.  I'll report back whether or not I ran into the potential problem I point out at end of this post.)

If you've got the room to spare on your hard drive, you could just make a 20GB partition and do a second LL installation to that as your "testing" system.  If something breaks -- no big deal.  It won't affect your real "working" system on the other partition(s).

If you do that -- DO NOT install the bootloader to the MBR!  Instead, install it to the same root partition as the test system is installed to.  Then boot with your "working" system and just run sudo update-grub to add it to the boot menu.  That way your main working system keeps control of booting the computer.  If a new kernel on the testing install causes boot problems for the test system, it won't affect your ability to boot into the main working system.

However, now that I've said that, this might turn into a problem:  https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/index.php?topic=441.0.  Read through that thread and you'll see that there may end up being a problem when you try to update-grub to add the testing installation.  If you go through with installing a testing LL and the boot entries don't end up booting the testing LL, then post back and we'll have to try adding an entry for it manually like one person ended up doing.

[newtusmaximus]

GF,

Firstly, have just reread Valtam's  initial post above. i.e. objective = better support for new hardware.  Most of the machines I am likely to encounter are older i.e should work on current LL2.0 ?  Therefore no need for updated kernel testing on these?  Is that so?

If not, then

 Re your options - and as a newbie to linux, possibly one or two steps too far for me,  for now. and as the test machines are not mine, not practical.

My idea to was try out the new Kernel on a number of my neighbours' machines, mainly running Windows, possibly XP OS. i.e boot up a "beta" Live CD and see if it runs smoothly, and note  the make, model, system log, video card etc.  i.e minimum of messing about and get as broad a range as possible - all silver surfers and  "older" machines I think.

My collection  (3) of old cast off laptops are running LL 1.08 or 2.0 without problems.

However my daughter's  HP G60 (sssslow on Vista) laptop with GeForce 8200m Video card was temperamental with LL2.0 Live CD so dared not dual boot. There were always problems rebooting from the live LL.2.0 CD back to windows Vista.  Vista wanted system check routine each time.   This may have been because the closing of the Live CD never completely shutoff the laptop, seemed to hang after ejection of the CD stage leaving the "feather" screen. 

My HP DC7700 USDT  (Intel Q 965  Express Chipset)  desktop had problems with monitor oscillation  with LL2.0 full installation, so currently forced to run Linux Mint Maya (reluctantly)- saga reported previously. 

Therefore keen to get the latter two "problems" solved.

[gold_finger]

Just lost a long post I wrote due to "Internal Server Error" -- not the first time this has happened and very annoyed.  (Not at you newtusmaximus.  Just needed to vent a little frustration.)

Sorry, don't feel like typing out everything over again, so just reducing to bullet points.

• Don't bother trying to experiment with new kernels.  I have a 10-yr old Athlon XP 2600 with old Nvdia graphics.  Will test new kernels on it when I get the time an let you know if I notice improvement.
• RE:  Daughter's HP
• Graphics problem likely caused because it needs proprietary Nvidia driver to run properly.
• Live DVD only uses generic driver.
• LL 2.0 will likely run graphics fine once Nvidia driver is installed (easy to do).
• If not comfortable installing before knowing for sure that solves problem, you can do a test installation to a USB stick that is 8GB or larger.
• If you want to do that, let us know.  We'll give you instructions for doing that.
• RE:  Shutdown problem
• Once live DVD is ejected and see Feather on screen, hit the <Enter> key to shutdown computer.
• If that does not work:
• Simultaneously hold down these three keys:  <Ctrl> + <Alt> + <SysRq>  (same as <PrtScn> key)
• While holding those down, SLOWLY type r   e   i   s   u   b  (allow 1-2 seconds b/w each letter typed)
• RE:  HP DC7700 -- not sure what to do about that.  Try using this search engine for possible solutions:  Linux Beginner Search Engine.

[stamper]

Hi, i install the LINUXLITE 3.15 kernel en what a surprise. My pc  get  more memory than the normal 3.15 kernel. 1004,6 ipv 1003,2.

Question : is there a site where the linuxlite kernel stand. I was looking but can't find him.

Thanks.

[myrddin]

So that we can better support new hardware, We've starting producing a custom Linux Lite kernel. I've yet to decide if this is something that will be offered post-release of each Linux Lite, or with the release.
For this to be a success, I need your help.
We need people with the following graphics cards: ATI, Intel and nVidia.


Thank you

Valtam

Hi there,
I've installed the 3.15 kernel on my ASUS laptop, NVIDIA GEFORCE 740M, using the NVIDIA driver ver# 331.38.
No problems at all so far. All applications are working  normally, YouTube Mozart concert, VLC playing DVD movie, Xscreensaver running GL-extras. NVIDIA X-Server settings are all functional, as are e-mail, browsing, Office writer, etc...
I have all my data on an external HDD (SATA to USB3 connector box), as the OS is resident on internal SSD. If the kernel breaks, I can either remove it via the terminal, or simply reinstall LL. It doesn't take very long, and I have my edited FSTAB (for ssd optimization) on the HDD.
Hope this helps.. Is there anything in particular that you would like me to try I am retired, and do have "some" spare time on my hands..although, right now, there are two German Shepherds looking alternately intently at me, and at the front door !!!
Oh, Happy Canada Day to us Canucks, and to everyone else....
Regards
Richard

[Jerry]

Hi, i install the LINUXLITE 3.15 kernel en what a surprise. My pc  get  more memory than the normal 3.15 kernel. 1004,6 ipv 1003,2.

Question : is there a site where the linuxlite kernel stand. I was looking but can't find him.

Thanks.

http://repo.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite/pool/main/l/lite-kernel/

[Jerry]

Is there anything in particular that you would like me to try

Just what is mentioned in the first post, if you have those brands. Other than that, thank you for your feedback

[newtusmaximus]

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Si1520  + 2GB RAM on LL 2.0 + new trial Kernel. Video working fine on INTEL 945GM/GMS 943/940 GML Integrated Graphics Controller (rev03).  Display max 1280 x 800

Was working on original Kernel.

As an aside - I know it should be in software section- but Google Earth still does not work as "unsupported graphics card" even after the kernel upgrade - Works on this machine with Puppy Linux 5.7.1 and Xorph  Puppy upgrade..

[Jerry]

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Si1520  + 2GB RAM on LL 2.0 + new trial Kernel. Video working fine on INTEL 945GM/GMS 943/940 GML Integrated Graphics Controller (rev03).  Display max 1280 x 800

Was working on original Kernel.

As an aside - I know it should be in software section- but Google Earth still does not work as "unsupported graphics card" even after the kernel upgrade - Works on this machine with Puppy Linux 5.7.1 and Xorph  Puppy upgrade..

Thank you for the Intel feedback, much appreciated.

[stamper]

I install kernel 3.16 RC6 and what a surpise. No errors or problems with this kernel. I hope that more Lite-users it gone testing it.

[Jerry]

This thread is specifically for the linux-headers-linuxlite-3.15.0 linux-image-linuxlite-3.15.0 kernel, I don't want people confusing the issue with other kernel versions. Thank you