# Kernel for EPIA-M 10000?

## JohnBurton

I've got a EPIA-M 10000 which I want to install gentoo on.

I've read that kernels >= 2.4.21 have specific support for the C3-2 CPU used on this board which I'd obviously like to use if possible.

But the latest gentoo-sources kernel is 2.4.20.

So presumably I'll have to grab the kernel from kernel.org instead of using emerge to install it - but I'll lose the patches that gentoo apply. 

So my questions are :-

1 - Do I lose anything essential by not having the patches.

2 - Is there another kernel ebuild I can use (I see ac-sources is 2.4.21 but I'm not sure how stable this is)

3 - Anyone got any advice on configuring my system for this cpu/board.

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## dberkholz

There's no requirement to use gentoo-sources. aa-sources, ac-sources, gs-sources, and of course development-sources and mm-sources (as 2.5 kernels) are 2.4.21 or higher right now. Many people are happily using other -sources and having a great time.

I highly recommend gs-sources.

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## JohnBurton

Great.

Is there a statement anywhere of what the patches in gentoo-sources are for?  Or do I just have to look at each one?

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## dberkholz

The ChangeLog is often the primary source of information for things like this.

 *gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5 ChangeLog wrote:*   

> 
> 
> *gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5 (10 May 2003)
> 
>   10 May 2003; Jay Pfeifer <pfeifer@gentoo.org> gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5.ebuild:
> ...

 

If you read the ebuilds, they can be fairly informative. This is taken from the gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5 ebuild:

 *Quote:*   

>         # This is the *ratified* aavm USE flag, enables aavm support in this kernel
> 
>         # If the compiler isn't gcc>3.1 drop the gcc>3.1 patches
> 
>         # This is the *ratified* evms2 USE flag, enables evms2 support
> ...

 

Also 'ebuild /path/to/ebuild postinst' often prints post-installation messages, among other things.

 *ebuild /usr/portage/sys-kernel/gentoo-sources/gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5 wrote:*   

> 
> 
>  * There is no xfs support in this kernel.
> 
>  * If you need xfs support, emerge xfs-sources.
> ...

 

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## JohnBurton

Thanks for that information.

I'm installing now - I decided to first install the standard gentoo kernel and then once it is all working and installed to upgrade to a different one just so make sure that if something breaks I've got a good chance to know what it was.,

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## IamtheOne

I would suggest that you not use the gentoo sources, as they don't have support for the epia-m hardware.  I would use one of these kernels in order:

1. ac-sources

2. development-sources

3. wolk-sources ?

I've never tried wolk, but have heard it contains stuff for via epia, but I could be wrong.  I am currently using ac-sources.  It supports the sound-card(oss) and has agp, dri, and fb support for the via cle266 chipset in the epia-m motherboard. (Oh and it has a C3-2, processor option for the nehemiah)

Good luck  :Wink: 

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## rinnan

@JohnBurton

How did that install go?  I'm thinking about installing ac-sources.  Does ac-sources have all the low latency and other scheduler patches in it, does anyone know?  I have a HushPC (which has a VIA Nehemiah M10000 on it) and am currently using gentoo-sources.

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## ozonator

I've been using ac-sources (2.4.22-ac4) with an M10000 board with great success so far, but the recent do_mremap() vulnerability has me looking for a newer kernel.  Unfortunately, all the ac-sources ebuilds have disappeared from portage, and GLSA 200401-01 doesn't indicate any non-vulnerable version of ac-sources.

I haven't decided yet what to do.  It doesn't seem that gentoo-sources, development-sources, or vanilla-sources includes the CLE266 xfree-drm module, as ac-sources did, and this thread doesn't offer much hope for the VIA binary drivers.  Also, xfree-drm doesn't seem to have the right module yet, though the DRI wiki suggests things are moving along.  Any suggestions regarding which sources to use?  It looks like wolk-sources 4.10 may have CLE266 support (according to its changelog); are there any others?

Alternatively, is there somewhere that I might find appropriate patches?  The usual source of the epia kernel patch isn't working right now.

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## Erik_

Going slightly of course, how do those epia motherboard hold up ? Care to give us the /proc/cpuinfo for that motherboard ?

Thanks.

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## ozonator

 *Erik_ wrote:*   

> Going slightly of course, how do those epia motherboard hold up ? Care to give us the /proc/cpuinfo for that motherboard ?
> 
> Thanks.

 

```
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor       : 0

vendor_id       : CentaurHauls

cpu family      : 6

model           : 9

model name      : VIA Nehemiah

stepping        : 1

cpu MHz         : 999.550

cache size      : 64 KB

fdiv_bug        : no

hlt_bug         : no

f00f_bug        : no

coma_bug        : no

fpu             : yes

fpu_exception   : yes

cpuid level     : 1

wp              : yes

flags           : fpu de tsc msr mtrr pge cmov mmx fxsr sse

bogomips        : 1992.29

```

Full specs: http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_m_spec.jsp?motherboardId=81. The ones I have use the 1 GHz 'nehemiah' C3 CPU.

The board works beautifully, and it fits in a standard ATX case (including standard ATX power supply, and a plate for the ports at the back; depending on the case, the PCI slot may not line up with a case opening, however). I've got them in some old mid-tower cases that originally housed Pentium 200 MMX machines.

As for Linux support, all works well for me, using them as ordinary workstations (i.e., not as a multimedia box, but a machine for mail, web, etc.); they've been completely stable, and 'feel' just about as fast as my Duron 1200 (i.e. plenty fast for most uses).  The most complete docs for getting Linux to run are likely those in the EPIA HOWTO, and there are some other threads in these forums that go into some detail (search for 'nehemiah' or 'm10000').  Frankly, they'd make ideal business/lab/home desktops for the average user, with the excellent side-effect of significantly reducing electricity usage compared with a system based around a typical 'mainstream' x86 CPU.

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## rinnan

Fear not!  There are DRM and V4L patches for Linux kernel 2.6.  Read about them on this forum.  This is viaarena.com, Linux section, which has tons of info on these boards and several regulars who are coders creating and sharing various patches Linux for them.  You may have to dig around a bit but they are there.  There are even ebuilds for some stuff!  

Erik

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## ozonator

 *rinnan wrote:*   

> Fear not!  There are DRM and V4L patches for Linux kernel 2.6.  Read about them on this forum.  This is viaarena.com, Linux section, which has tons of info on these boards and several regulars who are coders creating and sharing various patches Linux for them.  You may have to dig around a bit but they are there.  There are even ebuilds for some stuff!  
> 
> Erik

 

Many thanks!  Don't know why I forgot about those viaarena forums, but looks like I've found exactly what I was looking for, in this thread and this thread.  The long and short of it is that there are updated patches for 2.4.23 and 2.4.24, and even ebuilds for those and 2.6.1; the working, up-to-date mirror appears to be http://epia.kalf.org/.  Time to give one of them a try...

Update:  the 2.4.24-epia-r1 kernel is now running on the nehemiah board; I had no problems compiling, or in getting what I needed to work.

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