# Issues with kernel upgrade

## Xamien

I'm currently using 2.6.30-gentoo-r5 kernel on a Dell Inspiron 1501.  The problem is that I've been wanting to upgrade to a newer kernel for some time but when I compiled the -.30 kernel, I did not save a copy of the .config and also did not include an option in it to post the config being used to the /dev directory.  Every kernel I have tried to compile to since then has not worked, and that's with different variations everytime.  The thing that wasn't working was that it wasn't seeing or using my SATA.  The latest attempt was with 2.6.35-gentoo and from what I saw of POST, it seemed to be working okay until the screen blipped out and never came back on.  Rebooting back into -.30 still works, though.

I have tried making use of Pappy's kernel seeds page and have followed the instructions to the letter, I thought, but I'm to the point where I think I'm doing something wrong.

Here's the outputs of lspci -v and lspci -n, respectively: http://pastebin.com/0iTD2stT

Here's the output of cat /usr/src/linux/.config where linux is -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.35-gentoo : http://pastebin.com/MN9VNfbx

Ideally, I'd like to resolve performance issues with my broadcom 4311 (rev 01) by using the broadcom-sta, so if anyone has an idea of changes to make the .config to make all this work, along with broadcom-sta, I'd appreciate it.  Suggestions otherwise are more than welcome.  Let me know of any additional info needed.  Thanks, in advance!

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## krinn

here's how i do mine:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6364648.html#6364648

do lspci -k and your kernel will tell you the driver you need for your sata

oh and have a read at the linux sea documentation, really nicely made and useful

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## idella4

Xamien,

In addition, boot into your kernel-2.6.30.  In a terminal, enter

ls /proc/config.gz.

Copy it

cp /proc/gz ./

and there  you have the 2.6.30 config.  The kernel has possibly changed the location of your sata drive, not hard to figure out.

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## Xamien

I -believe- I have the sata detection problem resolved.  I was under the impression I didn't have /proc/config.gz setup in the .30 kernel but I was wrong.  Turns out it was simply one missing dependency I didn't realize was there in the kernel for it to work.

The only issue I have right now is the screen going blank during POSTUP, but I think that's because I enabled KMS.  I've disabled it and I'm about to reboot into it to verify that's the issue.  The only outstanding issue is trying to get broadcom-sta working and the documentation says CONFIG_SSB should be unset but I've tried unsetting both manually and in xconfig and it gets turned back on automatically during make, anyway.  The only dependency is CONFIG_SSB_POSSIBLE, which does not respond to manual change and can't be gotten to from menuconfig.   Any ideas on that one?

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## Xamien

Further research into this seems to suggest that the SSB may only be being pulled in automatically because of my b44 for my NIC.  I guess I don't have an issue with disabling it but it's almost important to have it as not everywhere is there a wifi AP available to connect to.  And there is no longer any external driver supported or available in a similar manner to the broadcom-sta to avoid the conflict with SSB and the wl module.  Really frustrating.  It sounds like I either can use wl with no b44 or use b43 and b44 (which is crappy, because from other tests I have read, the performance is better under wl than under b43).

Any other ideas, opinions, or suggestions would be appreciated.

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## Hu

The package net-wireless/broadcom-sta appears to be a proprietary driver.  I have not used the Broadcom proprietary drivers, but as a general rule, proprietary drivers tend to fall behind and make upgrading difficult.  Could you explain why you must use this driver instead of one of the wireless drivers shipped in the mainline kernel?  Your last sentence suggests that you elected broadcom-sta instead of the mainline driver because broadcom-sta is claimed to perform better.  Have you checked whether this is still the case, and if so to what extent using the mainline driver hurts performance?

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## Sven Vermeulen

I'm less lucky to require broadcom-sta myself (the b43 driver doesn't support my card currently), but it works well.

Regarding the SBB: build it as a module. The broadcom-sta ebuild will complain, but not fail. If you need to load the wl driver, make sure sbb isn't loaded (rmmod sbb). If you need b44, then you can safely unload wl and modprobe b44 (which will load sbb as well).

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