[NEWS] Debian 11 is out

[xilinder]

I do not make .deb packages. I also do not use make -jx, or make modules.

Pretty much I do make menuconfig, make, make modules_install, make install.

In menuconfig I change things to what I want, like 4k PAGESIZE, and for my system with 2x8 cores, I use 64 processors.

If I want I use mc (midnight commander) as root or sudo to look at /boot and perhaps remove,move, or add kernels and
other stuff and then use update-grub as necessary.
Using the update-grub command may require you to login as su - (the  - is important) and then do /usr/sbin/update-grub.

[MauryG5]

Hi Xlinder, I also do like you and I use that procedure that they say is the universal one, only that way the system does not recognize you the fully installed kernel and when you have to remove it to put a new one, you have to remove file by file in the boot folder and when you run the grep command to find out how many kernels you have installed, the one you made is not there since you have not installed .deb packages. and you can't even do the classic purge command to remove that kernel because it tells you that kernel isn't installed on your system. So the system eventually does not recognize as installed, a kernel with that procedure even if it regularly makes you use it obvious. I would like to understand if it is possible to make the system recognize a kernel installed with this universal procedure as you do ...

[Borley]

I have been burned by running make as root user in the past, so I always avoid running make with sudo when possible. My understanding of the process so far:

• apt install dpkg-dev flex bison rsync libssl-dev (if not already installed)
  
• mkdir build-directory && cd build-directory
• apt source linux-image-X.XX.X-XX-powerpc64le
  
• make oldconfig (to copy kernel config from existing entries)
  
• Edit .config and:

   CONFIG_LOCALVERSION=""  (<-- append custom kernel name in "")

• Make whichever changes you need to the kernel/modules
• make bindeb-pkg
  Then finally:
  
• sudo dpkg -i linux-image-X.XX.X_X.XX.X-1_ppc64el.deb
  

[xilinder]

I have been using Midnight Commander for so long, not only on Linux, that it has become my goto default tool for kernel building, system snooping, etc.. I build my kernels as user, and install as root as necessary.
Many times I will remove them from /boot by moving to a folder in /home along with the modules....just in case.
Different strokes for different folks.

Now that my Radeon 7750 is working with 64k pagesize there is less urgency.

[MauryG5]

Borley, I tried your procedure, practically the same as the one done with the command: make -j 32 KDEB_PKGVERSION = 1.-maury.ppc64le deb-pkg and the error that gives me at the end is always the same on the Kernels with long support of the 5.15.X series If I try to compile the recent ones then it works but unfortunately the recent kernels as we know do not work on Power, like 5.17.X and therefore I cannot use this procedure yet. The error here is this too: make [2]: *** [debian / rules: 7: build-arch] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: Error: debian / rules binary subprocess returned exit status 2
make [1]: *** [scripts / Makefile.package: 83: bindeb-pkg] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile: 1576: bindeb-pkg] Error 2

I don't understand why these 5.15 Kernels make this error, 5.15.2 does it, 5.15.30 does it and also the current 5.15.33. Only if you use the universal procedure like the one I've always used and which uses Xlinder, then it doesn't give you compiler errors but I don't know how to make the system recognize it in that case. I'm waiting for them to fix the new Kernel bug so I can use that ...

[mparnaudeau]

Finally, I got my Talos 2 (second hand machine) recently so I am not just a dreaming follower anymore 

I successfully installed Debian 11.4 (kernel 5.10.0-17). Hopefully I am quite familiar with Debian installer because its display was partially corrupted with truncated text and unexpected characters (I started installation with a 17" screen, not large enough?).
I tried KDE Plasma and Mate, installed tools, started to compile few programs, used Firefox a bit ... and also got display from a Radeon HD6570 (and I have received a RX550) but details about that will take place in another section of the forum.

I am not able to test audio, I will do that later. And today, I upgraded to Debian 11.5 (available for 2 days).

Everything works well so far. Ready to enjoy my machine. I just would like it to be less noisy (CPU fans).

[MauryG5]

Great job, you can also try Gnome, since Debian has been updated to version 11, Gnome has improved a lot as a graphical environment and has gone from the old 3.30 to my second best version which is 3.38. I don't know how you manage to make the graphics card work with the default kernel or 5.10.x. To run Radeons correctly on that version of Kernel, you need the page size in 4k and by default the Kernels on Power all have 64K. They fixed this bug only later in the Kernel even though I don't remember exactly from that version right now ...

[ClassicHasClass]

Finally, I got my Talos 2 (second hand machine) recently so I am not just a dreaming follower anymore 
Everything works well so far. Ready to enjoy my machine. I just would like it to be less noisy (CPU fans).

Congrats. To get the fan noise down with the default SC747 chassis, make sure your firmware is fully up to date first. My system also has the superquiet power supplies (bought from a third-party) and I disconnected and removed the two rear fans since the HSFs and other case fans are more than sufficient. With these changes, my dual-8 T2 is very quiet most of the time, even under load -- certainly much quieter than the Quad G5 next to it.

[mparnaudeau]

@ClassicHasClass Thanks! The chassis is a CSE-732 from MicroSemi and I have no fans except HSFs ones and the power supply. I will have to check the firmware version ... I am not yet familiar with all components.
I don't remember who much noise produces my Dual G5 that is side by side with the Talos 2  I will reboot it to install Debian 11 too (don't know when).

@MauryG5 It was reported that the problem was fixed in kernel 5.10.101 and kernel 5.11.12. And this bug was only concerning amdgpu. At the moment, I tried HD6570 that uses radeon driver. Sorry if mentionning RX550 was confusing, let's consider I have not started to test it.

[ClassicHasClass]

The SC732 is very similar, though I don't know if it takes the same power supplies. I'd say the power supply replacement was the biggest reduction, but even just getting rid of the rear fan and relying on the front fans helped.

[MauryG5]

Sorry guys, if I want to update mesa drivers and firmware on Debian 11, which procedure should I use?  Thanks always!

[vikings.thum]

Sorry guys, if I want to update mesa drivers and firmware on Debian 11, which procedure should I use?  Thanks always!

One solution might be to dist-upgrade to testing (currently Bookworm) where things are more up to date. On my test system it's stable (though the number of updates you get each day feels a bit like a rolling-release distro).

Testing doesn't usually get security fixes as quick (or at all), though, unless you get those from unstable. So that's something to keep in mind. Then again it's more difficult to keep the system up to date with an increasing number of packages installed from source. With just the graphics stack built from source that's probably not going to be a problem, so that would be another option I guess.

[MauryG5]

so you advise against doing these updates at the moment I understand... Better wait for the next distro 12 maybe...