Kernel – New Home for Release Candidate Source..

Posted on by September 23, 2018
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In case you had previously been accessing the work-in-progress -rc source of the Kernel at https://github.com/torvalds/linux, then – after 4.19-rc4 – it can be found here:  https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/log/

To get the latest source:
# git clone -b master --single-branch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git

And tarballs are here (under ‘Download‘): https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/

Robert Gadsdon.  September 23, 2018

NVIDIA – New 4XX Driver, OK with Kernel 4.19..

Posted on by September 21, 2018
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NVIDIA have version-bumped their driver, and new driver 410.57 is now available, and details are here:  https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/138279/en-us

Tested with Kernel 4.19-rc4, and this version compiles/loads OK, without any need for a patch..

........................
ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 4 modules
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.19-rc4'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.19-rc4'

Robert Gadsdon.  September 21, 2018.

Kernel – 4.19-rc2 – OK with Latest VMware, and Patched NVIDIA

Posted on by September 2, 2018
2

Kernel 4.19-rc2 is out, and details of changes from -rc1 are here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1809.0/00713.html

As with -rc1, the latest VMware (14.1.3) compiles/loads OK, and the latest NVIDIA (396.54 and 390.87) with the patch mentioned in a previous article ( http://rglinuxtech.com/?p=2391 ) compiles and loads OK.    The patch is applicable to both versions..

Robert Gadsdon.    September 2, 2018.

NVIDIA – 396.54 Patched for Kernel 4.19-rc1 – OK for Some?

Posted on by August 29, 2018
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Thanks to Tomas Pruzina for more info on this problem…    I have now tested NVIDIA 396.54 – patched with the changes mentioned in my previous article – and it runs OK on my system (Fedora 28, KDE/Plasma).    I created a patched runtime version of the installer, and then (as root) installed it as usual:

# ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54-419.run -s --install-libglvnd --glvnd-glx-client

As mentioned in Tomas’ comments, it has been reported that some systems are showing a ‘black screen’ with this patched-driver/kernel combination, so this may not be a solution for everyone…

Robert Gadsdon   August 29, 2018.

Kernel – 4.19-rc1 – OK with VMware, breaks NVIDIA – and Possible Fix..

Posted on by August 27, 2018
6

Kernel 4.19-rc1 has been released, and very brief details of changes are here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1808.3/01014.html

VMware 14.1.3 compiles/loads OK, but NVIDIA (396.54) compile failed:

......................
/home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-drm/nvidia-drm-encoder.c:219:11: error: implicit declaration of function ‘drm_mode_connector_attach_encoder’; did you mean ‘drm_connector_attach_encoder’? [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
ret = drm_mode_connector_attach_encoder(connector, encoder);
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
drm_connector_attach_encoder
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
....................

– and a similar error with nvidia-drm-connector.c

Changing occurrences of ‘drm_mode_connector_attach_encoder’ to ‘drm_connector_attach_encoder’ and ‘drm_mode_connector_update_edid_property’ to ‘drm_connector_update_edid_property’ enabled the driver to compile/load OK, but this has not been further tested, yet:

........................
ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 4 modules
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-396.54/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.19-rc1'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.19-rc1'

I also found that this was a problem for the DisplayLink 4.2 driver, as well..

Robert Gadsdon,  August 27, 2018.

VMware – 14.1.3 Released – OK with Kernel 4.18..

Posted on by August 20, 2018
3

VMware 14.1.3 has been released, and details (not very informative..) are here:  https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/14/rn/workstation-1413-release-notes.html

Although it is not mentioned, this version does work OK with Kernel 4.18 without any patches (tested with 4.18.3)

Robert Gadsdon.   August 19, 2018

Kernel – 4.18 Finally Released – OK with latest NVIDIA, and Patched VMware

Posted on by August 12, 2018
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Kernel 4.18 has finally arrived, and details of changes since -rc8 are here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1808.1/02806.html

As expected, after changes in -rc7, the latest NVIDIA and (patched) VMware all compile/load OK..    Tested with VMware 14.1.2 with the vmmon patch, and NVIDIA 390.77 and 396.51.

Coincidentally, I can also confirm that 4.18 boots OK on HP PA-RISC (HP9000/785-C3700) – but more on that, in a later article..

# uname -a
Linux rgparisc 4.18.0 #1 Sun Aug 12 15:06:04 PDT 2018 parisc64 GNU/Linux

Robert Gadsdon.   August 12, 2018.

PA-RISC – Back to the Future (Again..)

Posted on by August 8, 2018
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As part of my quest to test Linux on more obscure/historical hardware, and given that the theme was ‘HP’ after my perilous foray into the world of Linux on IA64, I have now acquired (eBay!) an ‘inexpensive’ PA-RISC system – HP 9000/785 C3700 – after upgrading from an older C3000, and adding some more up-to-date IO cards..

HP C3700

The system shows its age, by only having 10/100 (DEC!) Ethernet built-in, and USB1.1 connectors for just a mouse and keyboard, and has mixed PCI/PCIX card slots – and a floppy drive!.   Fortunately, there are inexpensive HP PCIX Gigabit Ethernet cards available, and I installed one of these (NC7771), together with a ‘proper’ USB2 card (Belkin). I also beefed up the memory to 4GB, but this may well have been overkill, as I later discovered…

There are two Distros available for PA-RISC, and after my struggles with Gentoo on the IA64 system, I decided (from over 20 years with Red Hat / Fedora!) on the lesser-of-two-evils, and installed Debian. The ‘standard’ Debian release was quite ancient – with a 3.16 Kernel – but fortunately there is an up-to-date ‘development’ version available, with Kernel 4.17 etc…    This may be ‘interesting’ for my IA64 project as well, as it appears that Debian have started to produce a similarly up-to-date version for IA64 as well, after many years!

My goal for this project, as usual, is to be able to use this as another more ‘interesting’ testing platform for the latest kernel versions, for the least expense!

More on my tribulations with the actual Linux installation, and configuration, in a later article…

Robert Gadsdon. August 8, 2018.

NVIDIA – GPL Problem with Kernel 4.18, But only for Some.. Fixed in 4.18-rc7.

Posted on by August 1, 2018
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Thanks to towo, for pointing out that some others have had GPL issues with the latest NVIDIA drivers and Kernel 4.18-rc6, even though they compiled/loaded OK on my test system, as reported in an earlier article..

……………
ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 4 modules
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc6’
make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc6’

See https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1037642/linux/driver-390-77-not-compiling-in-kernel-4-18-rc5-xubuntu-18-04/ and other reports..

I changed my usual system-specific kernel config in 4.18-rc6 to the ‘Distro’ (Fedora) version, with almost-everything-selected, and was then able to reproduce the problem:

........
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 4 modules
FATAL: modpost: GPL-incompatible module nvidia.ko uses GPL-only symbol '__put_devmap_managed_page'
make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc6/scripts/Makefile.modpost:92: __modpost] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc6/Makefile:1504: modules] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc6'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:146: sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc6'
make: *** [Makefile:79: modules] Error 2

I have checked on the offending code, in linux-4.18-rc6/kernel/memremap.c, and compared with the same file in 4.18-rc7:

4.18-rc6:
# grep EXPORT_SYMBOL memremap.c
EXPORT_SYMBOL(device_private_entry_fault);
EXPORT_SYMBOL(devm_memremap_pages);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(get_dev_pagemap);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(devmap_managed_key);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(dev_pagemap_get_ops);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(dev_pagemap_put_ops);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__put_devmap_managed_page);

4.18-rc7:
# grep EXPORT_SYMBOL memremap.c
EXPORT_SYMBOL(device_private_entry_fault);
EXPORT_SYMBOL(devm_memremap_pages);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(get_dev_pagemap);
EXPORT_SYMBOL(devmap_managed_key);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(dev_pagemap_get_ops);
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(dev_pagemap_put_ops);
EXPORT_SYMBOL(__put_devmap_managed_page);

So.. It would appear that the problem has been fixed in 4.18-rc7 (tested with the full ‘Distro’ kernel config):

 .................
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 4 modules
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia-uvm.ko
CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia.mod.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77/kernel/nvidia.ko
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc7'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.18-rc7'

I should mention that using the full ‘Distro’ kernel config is not ideal for my test system, as it causes a load of ACPI and other errors at boot time, and is only for a ‘generic X86_64’…  A better solution – at least for compile-time testing – would probably be to use a VMware Fedora VM..

Robert Gadsdon.  August 1, 2018

Kernel – 4.18-rc6 – OK with Latest NVIDIA, and Patched VMware..

Posted on by July 22, 2018
2

Kernel 4.18-rc6 has been released, and details of changes since -rc5 are here:  http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1807.2/06572.html

The latest NVIDIA drivers ( 390.77 and 396.45 ) compile/load OK, as does vmmon-patched VMware 14.1.2 (see http://rglinuxtech.com/?p=2322 ).

Robert Gadsdon.  July 22. 2018.