ClearFoundation

Hi David,

I just noticed your Squid post now ... that's thread hijacking

We started down the road of upgrading to Squid 3.0 last year until we ran into a showstopper. The Squid 3.0 version does not support the X-Forwarded-For feature and it's required for better proxy reporting with the content filter. The feature is in Squid 3.1, but that Squid version is still in beta (and has been for a looooong time). We'll certainly keep an eye on it.

Hi Peter,

...by that logic this post must also be thread hijacking as it has nothing to do with the kernel topic

I was just trying to make the point that there are a number of features being developed, and not all features can be expected to work perfectly in the first release. Each of these modules have their own respective community development teams, Samba 4 has been in development for a long time too, so I'm not expecting them finished anytime soon! Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement are always good.

David

To update:- i've managed to progress from compiling the kernel using the standard vanilla spec to a modified version of the Fedora spec, and it works! at least in my VM test machine The benefit of using the Fedora spec is that it will also build kernel-devel to rebuild modules again, and also generate the initrd on installation with /etc/grub.conf as per any other normal kernel.

The kernel is built originating from the ClearOS kernel config with all networking drivers added, netfilter patch, iptables and nat compiled as modules, with IMQ support.

There are some gotchas... one i've found some old network drivers won't compile as 2.6.31 has removed support for old network api...this will cause 'struct net_device member not found' errors. I'm sure there are more, thats why I need testers!

Peter is in the process of kindly sorting out a clearfoundation mirror for the files, so I will upload shortly. I would really appreciate anyone who wants to try and test it out. If it proves stable it could prove to be a good platform for ClearOS home edition features etc. At present all ClearOS modules appear to be working normally

Gory details can be provided for anyone interested

Ok! here we go 2.6.31.5-127 (from Fedora 12 incl patches) Thanks again to Peter and the team for the mirror space
download.clearfoundation.com/community/timb80/kernel/

Disclaimer - use at your own risk, not for production use, if it breaks your setup you get to keep all the pieces that aside it boots just fine here

Install with

DO NOT use -Uvh to install a kernel, you will lose your current working one!!
You may wish to leave the old kernel as the default until your happy things work ok. kernel-devel is also available

TODO:
Add the ClearOS logo
Set default build to use mkinitrd instead of dracut (Fedora) so you don't have to pass this as an option at build
Fix firmware build problems, current build does not include driver firmware (Fedora 12 has a separate kernel-firmware RPM)
Review config generation for i686 / versus PAE, review additional config options for kernel

Please pardon my ignorance, Tim. What are the primary advantages of switching to a newer kernel?

A good question! main reason for upgrading is better hardware support, maybe a bug fix in a kernel driver, potentially improved performance, security fixes (although RH / CentOS backport the security fixes into the older 2.6.18 kernel)

Some other benefits:-
NTFS support
More (and updated) network drivers, including USB network adapters
Updated wireless stack for Madwifi etc
Add in conntrack support
Add more sound card, and tuner drivers, updated graphics card drivers
Better SATA support, updated drivers etc

I enabled the above with a view to supporting a more multimedia orientated ClearOS edition, with the likes of MythTV and Torrent servers etc

Hi all,

wow ... ... I love bleeding edge stuff (especially if it works without too many exeptions)
That sounds like a lot of advantages.
Is this going to be implemented in the regular updates in the near future too ... ?!?
It would open a few doors for me that I did think of before, but I simply ignored because it would mean a bunch of CLI commands ... ... and that is obviously not my 'forte'.

Greetings,

John

Hi, to confirm there are no plans to formally implement this - i've just put it together out of my own steam. However Peter has hinted at the possibility of a 'home' media orientated ClearOS in the future if it has enough support / momentum....so you never know

Thanks Tim & Peter, for all your work and for spreading the news.

You have convinced me to start learning how to implement this.
Because after your explanation of the advantages, this is something I will have to get my hands on ... even if it makes my head spin ...

Greetings,

John

Ps, please keep us up-2-date with your to do's, because I want to implement/test this as soon as possible.

awesome work. I can't wait to try it! one of my main motivation for a newer kernal was to see if I could upgrade squid to 3.1! Any chance you have had time to give that a try