Subject: Re: PPP with ARMLinux kernel 2.0.33 (fwd)

From: "Glenn Ramsey" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 10:02:32 GMT+1200

Hi Tom,

>  Bearing in mind that I know almost nothing about Linux except for a brief
> period spent as a user on a remote system via telnet and the last two days, I
> would really appreciate some instructions on either where to get a kernel (I
> have a Risc PC StrongARM with 40+2Mb). If they can be phrased as "get this,
> type this" I would be very grateful as I'm mainly used to point-and-click
> style behaviour and surprisingly an inside knowledge of ARM programming has
> helped me very little in trying to use ARMLinux.

I was faced with a similar dilemma and no-one on the list had any 
suggestions.

Here's what I did:

1. Got the kernel source.  This is explained on the website.
http://www.arm.uk.linux.org/~rmk/armlinux/tools.html
I got it from www.kernel.org using RISCOS.  Its about 6M so took a while to 
download.  Here's the URL.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.0/linux-2.0.33.tar.gz 

2. get the latest ARMLinux patch from the ARMLinux ftp site, the URL 
is:
ftp://ftp.arm.uk.linux.org/pub/armlinux/kernel-sources/v2.0/patch-arm-2.0.33-19980426

Now follow the instructions in the FAQ to compile the kernel.  This
is nowhere near as straightforward as it sounds.  But the
instructions are pretty good if you understand them. You need to
include PPP support in the kernel either permanently or as a loadable
module. I used the module approach beacuse my machine only has 8M of
RAM.  You also need to enable network support.

You configure the kernel by typing "make config" in the top level
directory of the source tree (makes life easy if this is
/usr/src/linux) which asks you heaps of questions and at the end
tells you what to do next.  

If you're using X windows and have tcl/tk (what's that? it should be
there already) installed then you can use "make xconfig" which I
prefer because it provides point and click and allows you to see the
whole picture. Some kernel options are dependant on others and those
that are not available will be greyed out.  In particular if you want
adfs readonly support then you have to enable the "code maturity
level" option and any option that mentions adfs. If you're using
a 640x480 display then the xconfig window will be bigger than the
screen.  You need to change the display to 800x600.  You do this in
one of the BASIC files in the Riscos !Linux application directory
before you boot Linux. I think its called "SetModeNew".  640x480 was 
the default on my system.

If you used "make zImage" to compile the kernel then the kernel
binary will be in arch/arm/boot/zImage (or pretty close, I think the
documentation with the kernel tells you exactly where). It takes about
1 hour to compile the kernel on my RPC700.

Once you have a new kernel compiled copy it to the /boot directory
*but do not overwrite* the exisitng kernel, give it another name, I
called mine vmlinuz-2.0.33-0426.   Leave the old kernel there
because there is a chance that the new one won't work.  (Took me 3
tries to get what I wanted).

To be able to use your new kernel edit the /etc/boot.conf file and
make an entry for your new kernel. More details are in the FAQ but
the file is pretty self explanatory.  Then run loadmap -v to update
the bootloader.

When you boot linux you can press the alt key when it asks and you 
will get a menu that should have your new kernel as an option.

I found all this a good learning experience but it still a bit
painfull, it went a lot smoother when I compiled a kernel on my
linux-PC at work.  I've just noticed that there are rpm's on the ftp
site named "modules" and "PPP" which may have the required stuff in
them.

Now, once you have all the right kernel bits sorted out, take a look
at the PPP-Howto (from www.linux.org) which tells you how to
configure PPP.

You're probably going to want a browser.  As far as I know the
options are limited.  I use lynx, a text based browser, because its
fast, and Chimera 1.7 if I want to see the pictures.  Chimera
doesn't seem to work very well, it sometimes doesn't load pages that
load fine in lynx. 

hope this helps
g

-- 
Glenn Ramsey
G . Ramsey @ irl . cri . nz
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