[svlug] the continuing saga of the supercheap eMachines box;-)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Alex Martelli (aleaxit at gmail.com):

> Apparently the naming convention has changed (in etch and/or in AMD46  
> builds):
> 
> ii  linux-image-2.6-amd64-k8         2.6.15-8              Linux  
> kernel 2.6 image on AMD64 K8 machines
> ii  linux-image-2.6.15-1-amd64-k8    2.6.15-8              Linux  
> kernel 2.6.15 image on AMD64 K8 machin
> 
> i.e. linux-image instead of kernel-image (even though the semantics  
> stay roughly the same).

Yes.  You'll find that the kernel-image-* variants _are_ still present
as "transitional packages", which would be purged over time if
installed.  (I'm just now catching up on that news.)

> Anyway, that's what I'm running now (with a fresh install of etch and  
> apt-get update):

FYI, you can _can_ directly install using 2.6 kernels by picking boot
image "bf2.6" (boot flavour 2.6) at the first screen on the Debian
(sarge or later) installer program (at the "boot:" prompt).  My
understanding is that 2.6.x isn't used for the default installer kernel
because it's not feasible on all 11-odd supported CPU platforms, and for
some reason they want to be absolutely consistent across all platforms.

> alex at box:~$ uname -a
> Linux box 2.6.15-1-amd64-k8 #2 Mon Mar 20 11:13:14 UTC 2006 x86_64  
> GNU/Linux
> 
> and it still requires me to keep the USB onchip disabled, or else it  
> hangs at "Detecting hardware:" during the boot sequence.

Hmm.  Not sure what to suggest -- though, if it were my system, I might
install package "kernel-package", which provides developer tools for
building Debianised kernels from source code, notably make-kpkg, and 
try my luck with building a custom kernel.

I have details on Debian's kernel-building toolchain inside
document "Information" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Debian/ .  
(_That_ URL I'm sure of.  ;->  )