Laurabelle’s Blog

Heads up, geekery follows. This probably won't be my most fascinating entry ever, but at least I'm not complaining about being sick. (I've been actively sick since last Friday and sort of pending-sick since the weekend before that. I'm ready for this to be over already.)

A few days ago I upgraded to version 6.9 X.org, hooray! All was well until I booted Delilah the next day and X wouldn't start. No sweat; I should have expected this. I just have to reinstall the nvidia module. And what the heck, I might as well recompile a new kernel while I'm at it because I want to change some options.

[laura@delilah linux]$ fakeroot make-kpkg --append-to-version -20060117
kernel_image modules_image
exec make -f /usr/share/kernel-package/ruleset/minimal.mk debian
APPEND_TO_VERSION=-20060117
====== making target minimal_debian [new prereqs: ]======
                    [blah blah blah]
  CC      init/initramfs.o
  CC      init/calibrate.o
  LD      init/built-in.o
  HOSTCC  usr/gen_init_cpio
  CHK     usr/initramfs_list
  UPD     usr/initramfs_list
  CPIO    usr/initramfs_data.cpio
  GZIP    usr/initramfs_data.cpio.gz
  AS      usr/initramfs_data.o
  LD      usr/built-in.o
  CC      arch/i386/kernel/process.o
{standard input}: Assembler messages:
{standard input}:845: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:846: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1072: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1073: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1153: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1154: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1239: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1240: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1299: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
{standard input}:1311: Error: suffix or operands invalid for `mov'
make[2]: *** [arch/i386/kernel/process.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [arch/i386/kernel] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.11-7'
make: *** [debian/stamp-build-kernel] Error 2

What in the heck was that? I couldn't figure it out. I asked Jeff, and he didn't know what the problem was either. I tried using gcc 3.4 instead of 4.0 (although I may or may not have been successful at doing so), and I even tried a previous kernel source tree that had compiled successfully in the past. No luck.

Eventually, as a temporary solution just so I could use X, I switched to the open-source nv driver. That's what I'm using right now, and it works fine for most purposes. Then Thunderbird refused to start for some absolutely unknown reason (no error messages or any output whatsoever), but now it's just as mysteriously working again. Ironically, I'm used to software failing wordlessly on Windows but can't stand it on Linux. I might or might not be able to fix the problem, but I should at least know what it is, like this assembler business.

Since I'm home sick today, I thought I'd take another poke at this problem and see if the WWW has any wisdom to offer. Oddly enough, it does. Someone else had trouble compiling the 2.6.11 Linux kernel source with gcc 4.0, and was simply told that 2.6.11 isn't even supported any more (since at least August, oops). I didn't have the same errors, but I wouldn't be surprised if a newer source tree wouldn't solve my problem.

I've been looking for updated kernel sources for several months but not seeing any, so I figured 2.6.11 must be the last in unstable. I was wrong! The package name has merely changed, from kernel-source to linux-source. This is fairly logical since Debian GNU/Hurd is under active development — Linux will no longer be the only Debian kernel! I just wasn't paying close enough attention.

New sources duly retrieved, I compiled a new kernel and rebooted. Success! Beautiful new kernel, and udev no longer complains that it needs at least a 2.6.12 kernel. Changed xorg.conf to use nvidia driver... not so much success. In fact, same failure that started me on this whole adventure (can't locate nvidia driver). Rats.

I went poking around in the debian-user mailing list archives to see if I could find anything helpful. There wasn't anything directly relevant, but someone mentioned adding non-free to apt's sources. Sure enough, when I switched mirrors recently, I'd forgotten to add non-free back in. Oh hey, it looks like I've been missing new graphics drivers for the last few months too. Great...

It's new kernel time again! Compile, edit lilo.conf, edit xorg.conf, reboot. This time X flashed the screen a few times before failing, which is sort of progress.

I'm calling it quits for today. I have at least workable (if not perfect) solutions to most of my problems. I have a graphical interface, and I can compile a new kernel if I need to. For the moment, that's more than enough.