# kernel 2.6.3 is out!

## Lemma

And now we have one more kernel with even more drivers (and a few other things too  :Wink: ).

Changelog 2.6.3

----------

## refriedbean

Goodie goodie goodie!!   :Cool: 

----------

## charlieg

But where is the -love?  :Wink: 

----------

## raoulduke

Can someone please explain to me why 2.6.3 is listed as 'current stable' on kernel.org? I always thought the numbering scheme was to use (regarding minor version number) even numbers for stable releases and odd numbers for stable, development releases, and now all of a sudden the stable release is 2.6.3 and there's currently no development branch listed. So, if anyone can explain, I'm interested.

----------

## Lemma

 *raoulduke wrote:*   

> Can someone please explain to me why 2.6.3 is listed as 'current stable' on kernel.org? I always thought the numbering scheme was to use (regarding minor version number) even numbers for stable releases and odd numbers for stable, development releases, and now all of a sudden the stable release is 2.6.3 and there's currently no development branch listed. So, if anyone can explain, I'm interested.

 

2.[odd].x is the unstable branch, and 2.[even].x is the stable one. 2.6.3 is therefore a part of the stable branch.

----------

## raoulduke

Yes. You are right. I clearly wasn't awake at the moment I wrote my previous comment. Thanks for waking me up  :Wink: 

----------

## ormi

Damn! Just compiled rc3-mm1 a couple of days ago   :Confused: .. hope that bttv will finally work again.

----------

## pixelcatcher

yeah, just downloaded 2.6.3 - works fine  :Smile: 

Michael

----------

## Lemma

Converting the old gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.3_rc4.ebuild to gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.3.ebuild (as is) work fine too  :Wink: . I have only been running it for a few hours so I may be a bit hasty in concluding that it is as stable as 2.6.2-gentoo-r1 but it does look fine (and now errors that I can see, so far...).

----------

## Elm0

May I recommend Con Kolivas's kernel patches for 2.6.3 for you all  :Smile: 

http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/2.6/2.6.3/2.6.3-ck1/patch-2.6.3-ck1.bz2

Includes the CFQ Scheduler and HT threading improvements. As I don't have an HT PC I don't include these myself, but I hear they can improve peformance nicely on an HT pc.

----------

## steel300

 *charlieg wrote:*   

> But where is the -love? 

 

Right here

----------

## cbr

There is a development-sources ebuild now also  :Smile: 

----------

## Birnenpfluecker

Damn, just could kick my ass to compile 2.6.2 and now that. Two new kernels on one day.

----------

## paulisdead

Anyone else having some sound troubles on the 2.6.3 kernels with nforce2 onboard sound?

I got XMMS and Xine to work by setting them to use hw0,0 for the device, but couldn't figure out how to get gmplayer to use it.  I haven't had time to try it on any games or any other apps.  It's rather annoying that they can't just use default, since I'll have to modify every other app to use hw0,0 as well.

Also weren't we supposed to get hardware mixing support on nforce2s with the ALSA that ships with this kernel.  I tried setting up dmix, I've sort of had it working before.  Xine's sound would be garbled, but other apps could share the sound fine in previous kernels.  I only tried it with xine and xmms (since they're all I had working in 2.6.3) and they couldn't share the sound device.

----------

## Jefklak

Quick question: with the 2.6 series, ALSA is built-in - I know - but do you still need to emerge something from alsa? The drivers or tools?

Thanks!

----------

## lemming

 *ormi wrote:*   

> Damn! Just compiled rc3-mm1 a couple of days ago  .. hope that bttv will finally work again.

 

I had my bttv working with 2.6.1.  I didn't do anything different from when the system was running 2.4.x.

----------

## lemming

 *Jefklak wrote:*   

> Quick question: with the 2.6 series, ALSA is built-in - I know - but do you still need to emerge something from alsa? The drivers or tools?
> 
> Thanks!

 

You'll want the tools.  alsa-driver is now provided by the kernel.

----------

## nsahoo

 *ormi wrote:*   

> Damn! Just compiled rc3-mm1 a couple of days ago  .. hope that bttv will finally work again.

 

That's obsolete anyways  :Wink: 

----------

## teilo

 *lemming wrote:*   

>  *Jefklak wrote:*   Quick question: with the 2.6 series, ALSA is built-in - I know - but do you still need to emerge something from alsa? The drivers or tools?
> 
> Thanks! 
> 
> You'll want the tools.  alsa-driver is now provided by the kernel.

 

You also need the libs: alsa-lib. Make sure you grab the latest ~masked version, which is 1.0.2, for that is the alsa version contained in this kernel.

----------

## buckminst

Oddly enough, my 2.6.3-rc1-mm1 system worked just fine, but with 2.6.3-mm1, my system hangs right after it enables the parallel port... looking at my previous boot, it's right before lp0 gets enabled... any ideas?

----------

## marcalexis

Same problem here... it hangs right after enabling the floppy drive.

----------

## nekonoko

I'm getting the hang too - last thing I see is "Using anticipatory io scheduler".

----------

## buckminst

That's really odd... we all get hangs during startup but it all seems to happen in different places... 

What kernel versions were you running before, that were booting? And were you using the same config file for them? 

Also, are you guys just running stock 2.6.3? or the -mm or -love sources / etc ?

*off-topic note*

Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu! *grins* I love Mahoromatic.

----------

## superjaded

Those that are getting weird lockups, are you using framebuffer/bootsplash?

If you are, try disabling it. I had lockups similiar to that while attempting 2.6.3-rc3-love* and simply taking the video/vga/initrd lines out of my kernel boot line lets it boot normally.

----------

## legalos_wrx

I am hanging right after it displays the cache of my hda device...

detects all ide devices and then hangs after displaying "max cache 128Ki" or something very close to that.

disabled fb/bootsplash, and it booted fine...Last edited by legalos_wrx on Thu Feb 19, 2004 7:10 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## buckminst

 *superjaded wrote:*   

> Those that are getting weird lockups, are you using framebuffer/bootsplash?
> 
> If you are, try disabling it. I had lockups similiar to that while attempting 2.6.3-rc3-love* and simply taking the video/vga/initrd lines out of my kernel boot line lets it boot normally.

 

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am using framebuffer console w/bootsplash... Anyone else? I'd wondered if that might've been part of the problem, I'll give that a test.

----------

## Raoul_Duke

I can't even get framebuffer or bootsplash working on 2.6.3   :Sad: 

----------

## maKKus

I've a verry strange problem with 2.6.3.. Totem (Gnome media-player using xine backend) hangs the computer. rebuilding Totem and libraries has no effect. Mplayer works without problem. Going back to 2.6.2. solves it. verry weird! As far as I can see everything else works.

Using latest Nvidia-kernel by the way.Last edited by maKKus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:16 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## patwu

same here... with bootspalsh the system freezes very early during boot.

I think that nobody wants to  renounce fb and bootsplash. So there has to be a solution vor this.   :Evil or Very Mad: 

----------

## zin32

I'm also experiencing random hangs with 2.6.3-mm1.

Sometimes it hangs when checking module dependencies. Then I reached maximum mount count on my root partition and it hanged during fsck. I rebooted with 2.6.3_rc3-mm1 and ran fsck. Then booted 2.6.3-mm1 again and it froze about 4 minutes after the boot when xmms was changing songs.

I am NOT useing fb or bootsplash.

Also, maybe we should post our hardware since one of my friends is running 2.6.3-mm1 without problems:

ASUS nForce2 (w/ nForce audio on board -- alsa intel8x0).

Don't think anything else matters.

EDIT: maybe it is worth mentioning that the kernel failed to link without enabling "Local APIC support for uniprocessors" -- never needed this option before.

--P

----------

## neonik

Well, here it doesn't hang anymore (was an issue with e1000 module - downgrading it to the one used in previous releases of 2.6.2 solved it), but now it's even worse: the system is simply SLOW. It takes it 14sec to build nvidia-kernel with 2.6.2-rc2-mm1 and 1min 14sec with 2.6.3-mm1. That issue is to be found in all Linux kernel releases >=2.6.2-rc2 (that's on my machine and a few others). I believe it's SMP/SMT/PREEMPT - sisnce it's been tweaked pretty much since release of 2.6.2-rc2.

----------

## legalos_wrx

As far as the bootsplash issue is concerned, there is a bug posted:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42121

I have it happening on 3 machines, dual AMD MP, p4 and pII.

fb/bootsplash disabled, all 3 boot.

----------

## Figaro

I'm getting the dreaded 'unknown error 990' using 2.6.3-gentoo.  It's an XFS filesystem bug, but it works just fine when I reboot back to 2.6.2-gentoo.

XFS users beware..  :Shocked: 

----------

## dan2003

my system hangs after the hda 128k thing too, also using bootsplash..

Also since 2.6.1 my synaptics touchpad hasnt worked right, only the buttons work not the pad to move the cursor.

I'll try 2.6.2 and also try 2.6.3 without bootsplash

----------

## sgaap

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> May I recommend Con Kolivas's kernel patches for 2.6.3 for you all
> 
> 

 

Finally, ck-sources for 2.6 (still think of this patchset as one of the best for desktop use)

----------

## paranode

 *neonik wrote:*   

> Well, here it doesn't hang anymore (was an issue with e1000 module - downgrading it to the one used in previous releases of 2.6.2 solved it), but now it's even worse: the system is simply SLOW. It takes it 14sec to build nvidia-kernel with 2.6.2-rc2-mm1 and 1min 14sec with 2.6.3-mm1. That issue is to be found in all Linux kernel releases >=2.6.2-rc2 (that's on my machine and a few others). I believe it's SMP/SMT/PREEMPT - sisnce it's been tweaked pretty much since release of 2.6.2-rc2.

 

Hmm, e1000 loads for me on 2.6.3 but the system locks up hard whenever I try to do an ifconfig.

This never happened on anything prior to 2.6.3 that I used.

Anyone seeing similar behavior?

----------

## mmealman

 *paulisdead wrote:*   

> Anyone else having some sound troubles on the 2.6.3 kernels with nforce2 onboard sound?

 

Yep, I get nothing but static that maxes out my CPU.

----------

## Ateo

It runs.... so..... so..... fast.. geez. Me like 2.6.3-mm1. Mmmmm. food.

----------

## corefile

yep I was using bootsplash and it locked it up, removed it and it didn't lock up!

so I have to disable features to get it to work, sounds like a BUGGY build

----------

## marcalexis

there seems to be a new package for the gentoo-dev-sources (2.6.3_r1) which solved my problems with bootsplash. The kernel loads perfectly now. I suggest you try it.

----------

## corefile

so it solved it meaning you can boot? are you haveing problems with it being slow and all the other problems people are reporting?

----------

## Malakin

With 2.6.3 I was just getting a high pitched whine for sound if I cranked up the volume and nothing at all if the volume was at a medium setting or lower. This is with an sblive on an nforce2 board, never had problems with sound before and reverting to 2.6.2 fixed it so I'm not too concerned about it, guess I'll wait until 2.6.4.

----------

## corefile

2.6.3-r1 solved my problem. I can atleast boot now.

----------

## Vermyndax

When I loaded 2.6.3-r1, my sound was clicking and popping in KDE whenever a sound file was played.  Annoying  :Sad:   At least it worked better than 2.6.2, which kept maxing out my CPU.  But, I reverted back to 2.6.1-r1 because of the pops and clicks.  Sigh.

----------

## bammbamm808

Sounds like 2.6.3 is a DOG...ARF ARF. BAD BOY!

----------

## mem7

Nice, I noticed a lot of fixes for the AC97 codec.

----------

## neonik

linux-2.6.3-gentoo-r1 has solved nearly all the issues - from e1000 to speed. Well, it still is a bit slow when starting apps for the first time but then they start much faster, mozilla works much faster than with any previous release of Linux kernel, although, RAM consumption is very high, if not too high (over half used).

----------

## andrew_j_w

 *Malakin wrote:*   

> With 2.6.3 I was just getting a high pitched whine for sound if I cranked up the volume and nothing at all if the volume was at a medium setting or lower. This is with an sblive on an nforce2 board, never had problems with sound before and reverting to 2.6.2 fixed it so I'm not too concerned about it, guess I'll wait until 2.6.4.

 

I had the same problem, I think it's because alsa in the kernel has been upgraded. All I did was type alsactl store, alsactl restore and that fixed it for me,

Strange, but it worked!

HTH,

Andrew

----------

## Baaled

Anyone else got wierd lockups with gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.3? I can boot safely but my system hangs sometimes randomly.

[EDIT] Stupid me, i had enabled APIC in kernel conf [/EDIT]Last edited by Baaled on Sun Feb 22, 2004 9:27 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## gwion

i just got confused now... i used 2.6.3-mm-sources with cfq scheduler... now i switched to gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.2-r1 but i cannot use the cfq scheduler:

now: is this scheduler only included in mm-sources or did i just do something wrong so that i cannot activate it?

many thanks in advance

gwionLast edited by gwion on Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:24 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## khazad-dum

Alsa, nForce2 and love-sources-2.6.3-r1 not work here.

The device exist (/dev/sound/dsp and so), the player play...but i can't listen anything. i've put store and restore on alsactl...but nothing. in dmseg i've:

intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49403 usecs

intel8x0: clocking to 47426

ALSA device list:

  #0: NVidia nForce2 at 0xec081000, irq 7

Recompiled alsa-lib,alsa-tool,alsa-utils...

I can't listen my music! :-\

i'm go back a t 2.6.2  :Sad:   :Sad: 

any suggestions ?

----------

## neonik

Well, I gotta admit, Gentoo is great. That's the only 2.6.3 sources I've gotten running well, but still due to some leaks in 2.6.3 vanilla it's very slow and uses loads of RAM and even swap. So I'm back to 2.6.2-rc2-mm1 - the fastest and most stable kernel release I've been using.

----------

## Dinini

 *gwion wrote:*   

> i just got confused now... i used 2.6.3-mm-sources with cfq scheduler... now i switched to gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.2-r1 but i cannot use the cfq scheduler

 

So far cfq is in mm-sources (and it's derivatives like love-sources) but not in gentroo-dev-sources.

----------

## neonik

Spent a few minutes to apply the Gentoo patchset to linux-2.6.3-mm2 but it's still same slow... Well, at least it's Gentoo-powered on my machine now  :Smile: 

----------

## gwion

 *Dinini wrote:*   

>  *gwion wrote:*   i just got confused now... i used 2.6.3-mm-sources with cfq scheduler... now i switched to gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.2-r1 but i cannot use the cfq scheduler 
> 
> So far cfq is in mm-sources (and it's derivatives like love-sources) but not in gentroo-dev-sources.

 

thank you! that explains is obviously   :Very Happy: 

----------

## unstable_geek

I get fantastic performance, and then, if I tax the system too much, it slows right down to pathetic speeds.

Something is definitly wrong: top shows 98% system and 5.17 load average, and all I'm doing emerge unmerge gentoo-sources.

ksoftirqd/0 is at 68% cpu, I think thats the problem.

----------

## o5gmmob8

Hi All,

I have emerged 2.6.3 and compiled it, but when running it, the only complaint is that it uses 50%++ of the cpu when playing audio.  It starts the arts daemon and that slows the computer to a cripple.  Right now, I am running 2.6.1 as it runs audio just fine and uses less than 10% of the cpu.  Have you guys had any similar complaints about this or do you think it can just be a configuration error somewhere?  I have tried using different drivers in XMMS, but found no difference.  I don't know if this is related, but KDE seems to screw up sound for some odd reason - audio would run fine using any driver with XMMS when running GNOME, but in KDE, only ALSA and ARTSD would work.

Other than these complaints, I am happy with the 2.6.x kernels, especially 2.6.1 - when starting up my computer and running KMail, GAIM, and XMMS, my system usage is as follows on a P4 2.4 GHz machine running KDE 3.0.2:

80 MB memory, 5% CPU usage running KDE!!

Windows can't compare to that.

Walter

----------

## kwaakie

 *unstable_geek wrote:*   

> I get fantastic performance, and then, if I tax the system too much, it slows right down to pathetic speeds.
> 
> Something is definitly wrong: top shows 98% system and 5.17 load average, and all I'm doing emerge unmerge gentoo-sources.
> 
> ksoftirqd/0 is at 68% cpu, I think thats the problem.

  Sam problem here  :Sad:  Experienced this problem twice now in less then 24h. There's definatly something wrong. I'm using the nvidia driver.

----------

## kwaakie

Upgraded to 2.6.0-gentoo-r1, problem still persists. Does anyone else experience simiar behaviour ? This is really starting to annoy me..

It only seems to happen at high loads tough.

----------

## unstable_geek

For the record, I am not using Nvidia.

Glad to hear I'm not alone kwaakie  :Wink: 

----------

## drakos7

Although neonik was having hang problems with the e1000, does anyone have their e1000 running really slow. Not the machine itself, but the networking? I can only get ~80k through my 100M switch off the card. I was getting ~5M with the 2.4.20 kernel.

There has been some talk on lkml but the "solution" is not solid in 2.6.4 either apparently.

----------

## neonik

I've got my 2.6.3 sources patched with the patch by Scott Feldman, which you can find there: http://bugme.osdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2106#c7 or in genpatches-2.6-3.23, works fine. Did you try to use a 2.6.1 kernel?

----------

## drakos7

Thank for the link to the patch. Unfortunately I am still not getting peak performance. My 2.4.21 kernel gives me 2.1MB/s and 2.6.3 yields 1.6MB/s. (I am running through a 100MB network). Oh well.

----------

