<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Kernel Questions</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The openMosix HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="the openMosix FAQ" HREF="openmosixfaq.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Getting, building, installing and running openMosix" HREF="x1575.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="File Systems" HREF="x1638.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The openMosix HOWTO: </TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x1575.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 19. the openMosix FAQ</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x1638.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="AEN1608" ></A >19.3. Kernel Questions</H1 ><DIV CLASS="QANDASET" ><DL ><DT >19.3.1. <A HREF="x1608.html#AEN1612" > What kernel versions does openMosix support?:</A ></DT ><DT >19.3.2. <A HREF="x1608.html#AEN1617" > I'm trying to compile an openMosix-patched kernel. What compiler version should I use?:</A ></DT ><DT >19.3.3. <A HREF="x1608.html#AEN1624" > I've compiled the kernel from the sources. How do I add it to the bootloader (LILO, GRUB, other)?:</A ></DT ><DT >19.3.4. <A HREF="x1608.html#AEN1629" > I installed a Linux distribution and it says that its kernel is x.x.x-x. The openMosix README says not to mix kernel versions. Does that mean that the openmosix-x.x.x-y RPM will not work on my machine?:</A ></DT ><DT >19.3.5. <A HREF="x1608.html#AEN1634" > What does the phrase the same kernel on every machine mean? Does it mean the same kernel version, or the same kernel image?:</A ></DT ></DL ><DIV CLASS="QANDAENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="QUESTION" ><P ><A NAME="AEN1612" ></A ><B >19.3.1. </B > What kernel versions does openMosix support?:</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="ANSWER" ><P ><B > </B > The latest Linux kernel supported is 2.4.19. Later versions of the 2.4 series will be supported, as will kernel versions in the 2.5 series.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="QANDAENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="QUESTION" ><P ><A NAME="AEN1617" ></A ><B >19.3.2. </B > I'm trying to compile an openMosix-patched kernel. What compiler version should I use?:</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="ANSWER" ><P ><B > </B > You should use gcc-2.95.3 as this is the recommended compiler for 2.4 kernels. This is a Linux kernel requirement, not just an openMosix requirement. However, nothing precludes you from having, on the same system, gcc-2.95.3 for kernel compiles and gcc-3.x for non-kernel compiles.</P ><P > Additional notes: There are many kernel-related issues with gcc-3.x compilers. Inlining, optimization and page alignment do strange things to operating systems kernels. The standard Linux kernel is only guaranteed to compile and work properly with gcc 2.95.3.</P ><P > However, the Red Hat gcc 2.96 compiler is 2.95 + RH patches. In this case, you should ensure you use gcc-2.96-74 or later. gcc-2.96-54 will not build the kernel correctly. In addition, please pay attention to compiler optimization. Anything greater than -O2 may not be wise. Similarly, if you choose to use gcc-2.95.x or derivatives, be sure not to use -fstrict-aliasing (which, depending on your version of gcc 2.95.x, may necessitate using -fno-strict-aliasing).</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="QANDAENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="QUESTION" ><P ><A NAME="AEN1624" ></A ><B >19.3.3. </B > I've compiled the kernel from the sources. How do I add it to the bootloader (LILO, GRUB, other)?:</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="ANSWER" ><P ><B > </B > Treat an openMosix kernel just like any other kernel. The openMosix system is simply an extension to the kernel, and will be treated like a standard kernel by your bootloader.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="QANDAENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="QUESTION" ><P ><A NAME="AEN1629" ></A ><B >19.3.4. </B > I installed a Linux distribution and it says that its kernel is x.x.x-x. The openMosix README says not to mix kernel versions. Does that mean that the openmosix-x.x.x-y RPM will not work on my machine?:</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="ANSWER" ><P ><B > </B > No. It means is that if you install openMosix on your cluster, all your machines should have the openmosix-x.x.x-y kernel installed. You should not mix kernels which have different kernel versions, i.e. do not mix openmosix-x.x.z-x, and openmosix-x.x.x-y, etc.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="QANDAENTRY" ><DIV CLASS="QUESTION" ><P ><A NAME="AEN1634" ></A ><B >19.3.5. </B > What does the phrase the same kernel on every machine mean? Does it mean the same kernel version, or the same kernel image?:</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="ANSWER" ><P ><B > </B > It means the same kernel version. You can build different kernel images of the same source version to meet the hardware/software needs of a given node.</P ></DIV ></DIV ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x1575.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x1638.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Getting, building, installing and running openMosix</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="openmosixfaq.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >File Systems</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >