Category Archives: Hacks

GCC – Fun with GCC 10, and the Kernel, NVIDIA, VMware..

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I have updated some test systems (x86_64 and aarch64) to pre-beta Fedora 32, which now includes GCC 10: $ gcc –version gcc (GCC) 10.0.1 20200216 (Red Hat 10.0.1-0.8) There have been a couple of problems with kernel compilation, but in each case there was already a patch/workaround available.. https://www.spinics.net/linux/fedora/fedora-arm/msg13193.html and https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/1/29/494 The most serious problem was a … Continue reading →

ARM64 – Odroid N2 – Latest U-Boot, Kernel 5.6-rc2, EFI, Fedora 31, Plasma/Wayland

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I have recently acquired an Odroid N2 (4GB) and managed – with some difficulty – to get it to run a ‘modern’ U-Boot, Kernel 5.6-rc2, with EFI support, and Fedora 31. This time, there were no clues from OpenSuse, and all the examples I found still used the ancient/custom Hardkernel u-boot and a kernel.img ‘blob. Fortunately, the … Continue reading →

Kernel – 5.6-rc1 Released – No Surprises?

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Kernel 5.6-rc1 is out, and brief details are here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2002.1/00576.html After the pre-release testing mentioned in my previous article, patched VMware 15.5.1 and patched/hacked NVIDIA 440.59 both compiled and ran, but with the same NVIDIA # startx tombstone, as previously mentioned.   I had already created a patched NVIDIA runtime, to make things easier: # ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-440.59-k56.run -s –install-libglvnd … Continue reading →

Kernel – Pre-Release Tests for 5.6-rc1 ..

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Kernel 5.6-rc1 should be out on Sunday, February 9th, but I noticed that early-version-test patches are already available for VMware 15.5.1, here:  https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/tree/tmp/workstation-15.5.1-k5.6 These patches gave clues to what might affect NVIDIA as well, and I managed to get a GIT version of 5.6-rc1-pre (dated February 5th) to compile OK, and was able to use this.   Of … Continue reading →

Ethernet – If you Can’t Wait for 5.4.14, an Unofficial e1000e Patch for 5.4.13..

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As there is (so far) no sign of an update to the 5.4.x kernel series, I have uploaded a _very unofficial_ patch I had already created for 5.4.13, and I have tested this, and so far it seems to work OK..    It is based on an ‘earlier’ e1000e patch version found on linux/netdev.. https://www.spinics.net/lists/netdev/msg623693.html,  and thanks are … Continue reading →

Ethernet – Intel e1000e – Still Problems with Kernel 5.4.1, on Some Systems.

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Tested the Intel e1000e driver in Kernel 5.4.1, and this still fails with some Ethernet NICs, but is OK on others.. On my HP Z820, there are two (different) Intel NICs, and the e1000e driver works with one, but fails with the other: LAN connection to eth0 (Intel 82579LM) fails: [ 125.292581] userif-2: sent link down event. … Continue reading →

Kernel – 5.4-rc1 Released – Odd Quirks with Kernel Symbols

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Kernel 5.4-rc1 is out – a day later than usual, and brief details are here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1909.3/04895.html My tests with VMware and NVIDIA revealed some odd errors/warning relating to kernel symbols.. With the latest NVIDIA (435.21) I got the following: # make make[1]: Entering directory ‘/usr/src/linux-5.4-rc1’ The Module.symvers file is missing, or does not contain any symbols exported … Continue reading →

ARM – Original Hikey Updated and Fixed – with Gotchas..

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After successfully updating and re-configuring the Odroid C2 to use Fedora uefi/grub2 to boot, I decided to try to do the same to the even-older Hikey SOC. This already booted using fastboot with an older version of grub, with manual configuration, but I wanted to use the standard (Fedora) boot process. I had read that there was … Continue reading →

Fedora – Fix for Broken rpmbuild in Fedora 31.

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Testing Fedora 31 – which is still work-in-progress, of course.. Tried to use # rpmbuild –rebuild to create a missing RPM from a F30 source RPM, and found the following error: ………….. Illegal char ‘)’ (0x29) in: Obsoletes:………. I found a reference to this error in the buglist, but it had been flagged as ‘rawhide’, and closed, … Continue reading →

ARM – Odroid C2 – Updated..

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When the Odroid C2 was first released way back in 2016, I spent ages trying to get it to function correctly with a mainstream kernel, and tested innumerable development versions of U-Boot, including functionality that was working OK at that time, but that – for some reason – then failed to be included in the ‘mainstream’ U-Boot.. … Continue reading →