In this release, like in the previous ones, you get the same goodies, acerhdf module (0.5.20) for Acer Aspire One netbooks, coretemp patch for Intel Atom processors, enabling of kernel mode settings for Intel i915 video driver plus a custom kernel configuration to run a bit more faster and smoother. The kernel mode settings will help those of you who use a newer version of Ubuntu/Debian, also will improve the booting screen, not so much flickering as before.

Also, to not forget, I have remove from e1000e module (driver for Intel Ethernet controllers) a very annoying error reporting, which seems to be harmless. The guys called it AER (Advanced Error Reporting), but the only thing you would get would be some kernel error similar to this: pci_enable_pcie_error_reporting failed 0xOFFFFF. The error appeared in kernel version 2.6.30, which never affected the Intel ethernet adapter.

To install this new kernel packages, you need to use dpkg and of course to download at least linux-image-2.6.31.6-dragonfly_1_i386.deb package from http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.31.6-dragonfly/ (US/CA) or http://mirror.visualserver.org/kernel/2.6.31.6-dragonfly/ (CZ) and if you are thinking of building you own kernel, maybe for a different Linux distribution or just because you want to, you can download the source code and kernel config file from http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/source/ (US/CA) or http://mirror.visualserver.org/kernel/source/ (CZ).

Please test this new kernel packages, play with them, abuse them and in case of any issues please drop me a comment or mail.

Ceers!

Usually, I do not release any kernel package based on kernel version 2.6.31.[0-9] as I had some bad experience with it, plus it didn’t function as I would wished, but after some tests with this new kernel version I end-up with the conclusion it needs to be released.

Because the installation of this packages is the same as any Debian/Ubuntu package, I wont explain it, but I can tell you all what you need to download and from where you can download this packages. First of all, you will need at least the linux-image-2.6.31.5-firebird_1_i386.deb package to be able to use this kernel and you can download it from http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.31.5-firebird/ and if you are thinking of building you own kernel, maybe for a different Linux distribution or just because you want to, you can download the source code and kernel config file from http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/source/.

To end this post, I will ask you again, like every time to test, check, play and use this packages and drop me a note for any issues or even just that it works.

Cheers you all!

At the moment, I have missed two releases, but now we have kernel 2.6.30.9 which I called Seahorse. I know is unusual, because I was using rock band names, but with this release I will start a new naming convention.

As usual, this release comes with the same goodies, but also with a lot of bug fixes, features and for sure a lot of other improvements. Of course, if you wanna read more about what this kernel release is all about, please visit http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.30.9.

Now from my side, the goodies are always or almost always the same, coretemp patch so it supports Intel Atom CPUs, acerhdf module included (version 0.5.17), for Acer Aspire One netbooks, plus a lot of performance tuning done to the kernel config. I’m not sure how well this kernel will or does perform, but for this, you guys, those who use it and need it will have to give some feedback, especially if there are issues with the kernel.

The installation instruction are simple and the same with the other released, download at least linux-image-2.6.30.9-seahorse_1_i386.deb and then use dpkg to install it. In case of error from dpkg please using dpkg with –force-all option. To be able to download the packages, please go to: http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.30.9-seahorse/.

For developers or those who wanna rebuild the kernel for themselves please go to http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/source/ and download from there the source code plus the config file for the kernel and then just build it.

Good luck and please do not forget to drop me comments if there are some issues with this new kernel package.

Like usually, this kernel includes the latest bug fixed, features and improvements, plus acerhdf module for Acer Aspire One, coretemp fix for Intel Atom CPU’s and a bit of configuration settings to make sure it works better and faster. Also this new package release includes some more support for other laptops/computers besides Acer Aspire One and Lenovo laptops.

Testing of this new kernel was done already on two computers/laptops, a Lenovo T61 and an old Dell OptiPlex GX200 and seems to perform and work quite well, actually I have the impression it works a bit faster. On the old Dell, I’ve done some PHP benchmarks and seems that the times are lower with about 1 seconds, which means an increase in speed with 1-2 seconds to the overall tests, but this doesn’t mean it’s 100% sure will work better for everybody, seems that in my test or in my case it does perform better. To make sure that there aren’t any issues with this new release I would love to get some comments and feedback regarding this new kernel. So drop me a comment/feedback to see how everything works and also do not forget to check out what changes are included in this new kernel, for that please visit http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.31.

If you wanna use this kernel package you have to remember that at least linux-image-2.6.31-final_1_i386.deb package have to downloaded and installed. To be able to download the packages, please go to: http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.31-final/.

For developers or those who wanna rebuild the kernel for themselves please go to http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/source/ and download from there the source code plus the config file for the kernel and then just build it.

Cheers!

CONFIG_MMC=y
CONFIG_MMC_BLOCK=m
CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI=m
CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_PCI=m
# CONFIG_MMC_UNSAFE_RESUME is not set

to this:

CONFIG_MMC=y
CONFIG_MMC_BLOCK=y
CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI=y
CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_PCI=y
CONFIG_MMC_UNSAFE_RESUME=y

Enabling MMC, MMC_BLOCK, MMC_SDHCI, MMC_SDHI_PCI and MMC_UNSAFE_RESUME, seems to fix the SD cards problem after resume. Now this revision includes this fix, but it never was actually tested by me, so I will have to go on the guys word from the Ubuntu bug report web site and also I will have to hope that you guys will test it and tell me the result.

Again, I will remind you, that if you are using my previous version of kernel 2.6.30-final (doesn’t matter that is the first or second revision) you will have to reboot your laptop/netbook into a different version of kernel and then install this revision, other way the upgrade may cause issues and even file corruption.

How to download:

wget http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.30-final/linux-image-2.6.30-final_3_i386.deb

wget http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.30-final/linux-headers-2.6.30-final_3_i386.deb

wget http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.30-final/linux-source-2.6.30-final_3_all.deb

How to install:

dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.30-final_3_i386.deb linux-image-2.6.30-final_3_i386.deb

dpkg -i linux-source-2.6.30-final_3_all.deb ( this is the kernel source, may be need it for development)

How to force install (only in case dpkg doesn’t allow you to install this revision due to some error):

dpkg -i –force-all linux-headers-2.6.30-final_3_i386.deb linux-image-2.6.30-final_3_i386.deb

dpkg -i –force-all linux-source-2.6.30-final_3_all.deb ( this is the kernel source, may be need it for development)


NOTE: For those interested in build this kernel on different distributions then Debian/Ubuntu or just a custom version, please go to http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.30-final/source/, download the kernel source and the kernel config and try to build your own kernel.