Tutorials - Porteus - Portable Linux

[HOWTO] Broadcom wifi under Porteus

2012-08-02T19:55:20+00:00

As you probably know, Broadcom wifi chipsets are the most problematic in the linux world.
Starting with the Porteus-1.2 release we are going to provide 4 drivers which should cover all broadcom wifi cards.

The broadcom-sta driver will be placed in 000-kernel.xzm along with the b43, b43-legacy and bcma drivers. The last three are blacklisted by default as broadcom-sta supports the majority of wifi NIC's. Unfortunately older chipsets are not working properly with broadcom-sta so b43, b43-legacy and bcma must come to the rescue.
Here is an example of a wifi card that is not working with the broadcom-sta driver:

lspci -knn
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:0007]
Kernel modules: wl, ssb

dmesg
[    5.878844] wl: module license 'unspecified' taints kernel.
[    5.878849] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[    5.892862] wl 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[    5.892872] wl 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    5.895866] eth%d: 5.100.82.112 driver failed with code 21

Here is an example of a card that is working correctly with broadcom-sta:

lspci -knn
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000b]
Kernel driver in use: wl
Kernel modules: wl, ssb

dmesg
[    6.916353] wl: module license 'unspecified' taints kernel.
[    6.916357] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[    6.928402] wl 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[    6.928416] wl 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    6.990065] lib80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'TKIP'
[    6.990369] eth1: Broadcom BCM4315 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 5.100.82.112

As you can see "Dell Wireless 1390" is unlucky while "Dell Wireless 1395" works just fine.

What to do if your NIC is not working with the broadcom-sta driver?
The solution is quite simple as Porteus comes with other drivers which should do the job. The only thing which must be done is to blacklist 'wl' driver (our broadcom-sta) and unblacklist the rest. To do this, create a file (plain text) at /mnt/sdXY/porteus/rootcopy/etc/modprobe.d/b43_blacklist.conf with following content:

blacklist wl

This file will override the original one from 000-kernel.xzm and the b43 (or b43-legacy, or bcma) driver will take priority over 'wl'.
By default Porteus-1.2 ships only with open-source firmware for the b43 driver which supports a limited number of chipsets. You can still extract non-free firmware for b43 driver with the help of b43-fwcutter as described in this HOWTO:
link

here is sample dmesg output when broadcom chipset is served by the b43 driver:

dmesg | grep b43
[    8.070964] b43-pci-bridge 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[    8.070975] b43-pci-bridge 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    8.326540] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found (core revision 10)
[    8.444650] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
[    8.444670] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
[    8.444691] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio
[   11.554040] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)

Hopefully all broadcom problems will finally be gone in Porteus-1.2.

[HOWTO] Connect faster while using NetworkManager

2012-08-02T19:45:20+00:00

Here are two tips how to connect faster while using NetworkManager.
Credits goes to the ArchWiki team.
link

Disabling IPv6

Slow connection or reconnection to the network may be due to superfluous IPv6 queries in NetworkManager. If there is no IPv6 support on the local network, connecting to a network may take longer than normal while Network Manager tries to establish an IPv6 connection that eventually times out. The solution is to disable IPv6 within NetworkManager which will make network connection faster. This has to be done once for every network you connect to.

Right-click on the network status icon.
Click on "Edit Connections".
Go to the "Wired" or "Wireless" tab, as appropriate.
Select the name of the network.
Click on "Edit".
Go to the "IPv6 Settings" tab.
In the "Method" dropdown, choose "Ignore".
Click on "Save".

Speed up DHCP by disabling ARP probing in dhcpcd

dhcpcd contains an implementation of a recommendation of the DHCP standard (RFC2131 section 2.2) to check via ARP if the assigned IP address is really not taken. This seems mostly useless in home networks, so you can save about 5 seconds on every connect by adding the following line to /etc/dhcpcd.conf:

noarp

This is equivalent to passing --noarp to dhcpcd, and disables the described ARP probing, speeding up connections to networks with DHCP.

[SCRIPT] Make module for Agere Pinball modems agrsm06pci

2011-01-12T05:03:00+00:00

Note: This script is for Porteus V 1.0.

You'll need to download the source file for the driver (agrsm06pci). As of 06/15/2011, it could be found here.

Cut + paste main code below and save as: agrsm06pci.pbuild

Make it executable: chmod +x agrsm06pci.pbuild

Run the script: ./agrsm06pci.pbuild

Note: It should be run in the same directory as the tar.gz source file.

#!/bin/sh # porteus build script for agrsm06pci CWD=$PWD ARCH=$(uname -m) ARCH=${ARCH:-i486} TMP=/tmp/packages PKG=$TMP/_pkg_ #get ready when slax's gonna change the module's extension #just like slackware did since version 13 pkgext=xzm #SLAXMAJOR=$(awk '{print $2}' /etc/slax-version | cut -d'.' -f1) #don't know yet what it's gonna be #if [ $SLAXMAJOR -ge 7 ]; then # pkgext=lzm #fi #archive expected in format agrsm06pci-*.tar.gz if [ $(ls agrsm06pci-*.tar.gz 2>/dev/null | wc -l) -ne 1 ]; then echo "couldn't find the source archive" exit 1 fi archive=$(ls agrsm06pci-*.tar.gz) src=$(tar tf $archive| head -n1 | tr -d \/) VERSION=$(echo ${archive%.tar.gz} | sed 's?^agrsm06pci-??' | \ sed 's?-[a-z]\{3,\}$??' | sed 's?-?_?g') LIB="" case "$ARCH" in i386) CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686";; i486) CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i486 -mtune=i686";; i686) CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -mtune=i686";; athlon-xp) CFLAGS="-O3 -march=athlon-xp -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer";; x86_64) CFLAGS="-O3"; LIB=64;; esac #should we include the architexture in the name? #MODNAME=agrsm06pci-${VERSION}-$ARCH.$pkgext MODNAME=agrsm06pci-$VERSION.$pkgext description() { cat < /dev/null find . | xargs file | grep "shared object" | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | \ xargs strip --strip-unneeded 2> /dev/null } generatelist() { (cd $PKG LIST=$PKG/usr/src/slaxbuilds/agrsm06pci/pkglist.txt rm -f $LIST find * | while read f do if [ -d "$f" ]; then echo "${f}/" >> $LIST fi if [ -L "$f" ]; then echo "$f -> $(readlink -n $f)" >> $LIST elif [ ! -d "$f" ]; then echo "$f" >> $LIST fi done ) } if [ -e $TMP ]; then rm -Rf $TMP/* fi mkdir -p $TMP cd $TMP tar zxvf $CWD/$archive || exit 1 cd $src || exit 1 # permissions || exit 1 #make module || exit 1 make || exit 1 clear mkdir -p $PKG #make install || exit 1 ./agrinst || exit 1 mkdir -p $PKG/usr/lib/AgereSoftModem cp AgereMdmDaemon $PKG/usr/lib/AgereSoftModem/ mkdir -p $PKG/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/ cp /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/agr* $PKG/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/ mkdir -p $PKG/etc/rc.d/ cp agr_softmodem $PKG/etc/rc.d/rc.agr_softmodem chmod +x $PKG/etc/rc.d/rc.agr_softmodem depmod -a strip #normally this is not necessary (cd $PKG/usr if [ -d share/man ]; then mv share/man . fi ) (cd $PKG/usr if [ -d share/doc ]; then mv share/doc . fi ) #we might want to copy README* LICENCE etc to $PKG/usr/doc/agrsm06pci-$VERSION mkdir -p $PKG/usr/doc/agrsm06pci-$VERSION cp README* LICENSE $PKG/usr/doc/agrsm06pci-$VERSION # copy this script and some info to /usr/src/pbuilds/agrsm06pci mkdir -p $PKG/usr/src/pbuilds/agrsm06pci cp $CWD/agrsm06pci.pbuild $PKG/usr/src/pbuilds/agrsm06pci description > $PKG/usr/src/puilds/agrsm06pci/readme.txt generatelist clear echo cd $CWD rm -f $MODNAME # use this one if you are using Slax 6.1.X #mksquashfs $PKG $MODNAME -b 256K -lzmadic 256K || exit 33 #Use this one if you are using Porteus dir2xzm $PKG $MODNAME chmod a-wx $MODNAME chmod a+r $MODNAME echo echo " agrsm06pci" echo description echo echo "module $MODNAME successfully created in $CWD" echo echo "removing stuff from install" rm -rf /usr/lib/AgereSoftModem/ rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/agr* rm -Rf $TMP/*

[SCRIPT] Module creator for Smartlink modems

2011-01-12T04:57:19+00:00

NOTE: This script is written for Porteus V1.0

Cut + paste main code below and save as 'slmodem.pbuild'

Make it executable: chmod +x slmodem.pbuild

Run the script: ./slmodem.pbuild

#!/bin/bash # # slmodemd package for Smartlink Modems # Download both packages (slmodem and ungrab-winmodem) with wget, ncomment if internet # connection is not present put a "#" before wget commands # #wget http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/smartlink/slmodem-2.9.11-20110321.tar.gz #sleep 2 #wget http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/smartlink/ungrab-winmodem-20090716.tar.gz #sleep 2 PKG=slmodem-2.9.11-20110321 TMP=/tmp/slmodem$$ PKG2=ungrab-winmodem-20090716 TMP2=/tmp/ungrab-winmodem$$ #set -e tar -zxvf $PKG* tar -zxvf $PKG2* # copy rc.slmodemd fromm script/slackware packages and make changes to work in porteus cd $PKG/scripts/slackware/ sed -i '8 s|/dev/slusb0|/dev/slamr0|g' rc.slmodemd sed -i '8 a /sbin/depmod -a' rc.slmodemd sed -i '9 a sleep 3' rc.slmodemd sed -i '13 a if ! [[ -e $SLMODEMD_DEVICE ]] &> /dev/null; then \' rc.slmodemd sed -i '14 a {\' rc.slmodemd sed -i '15 a \\t mkdir -p /dev' rc.slmodemd sed -i '16 a \\t mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr0 c 242 0 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr1 c 242 1 ;' rc.slmodemd sed -i '17 a \\t mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr2 c 242 2 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slamr3 c 242 3 ;' rc.slmodemd sed -i '18 a \\t echo -n' rc.slmodemd sed -i '19 a \\t mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb0 c 243 0 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb1 c 243 1 ;' rc.slmodemd sed -i '20 a \\t mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb2 c 243 2 ; mknod -m 600 /dev/slusb3 c 243 3 ;' rc.slmodemd sed -i '21 a \\t echo -n ||' rc.slmodemd sed -i '22 a \\t {' rc.slmodemd sed -i '23 a \\t echo "failed."' rc.slmodemd sed -i '24 a \\t exit -1' rc.slmodemd sed -i '25 a \\t }' rc.slmodemd sed -i '26 a }' rc.slmodemd sed -i '27 a fi' rc.slmodemd sed -i '28 a\' rc.slmodemd sed -i '28 a \\t cat /proc/modules | grep 'ungrab_winmodem' >/dev/null ||' rc.slmodemd sed -i '29 a \\t {' rc.slmodemd sed -i '30 a \\t echo -n "Ungrabbing winmodem from kernel ... "' rc.slmodemd sed -i '31 a \\t modprobe ungrab-winmodem && echo "done." ||' rc.slmodemd sed -i '32 a \\t {' rc.slmodemd sed -i '33 a \\t echo "failed."' rc.slmodemd sed -i '34 a \\t exit -1' rc.slmodemd sed -i '35 a \\t }' rc.slmodemd sed -i '36 a \\t }' rc.slmodemd sed -i '37 a \\t cat /proc/modules | grep 'slamr' >/dev/null ||' rc.slmodemd sed -i '38 a \\t {' rc.slmodemd sed -i '39 a \\t echo -n "Loading SmartLink Modem driver into kernel ... "' rc.slmodemd sed -i '40 a \\t modprobe slamr && echo "done." ||' rc.slmodemd sed -i '41 a \\t {' rc.slmodemd sed -i '42 a \\t echo "failed."' rc.slmodemd sed -i '43 a \\t exit -1' rc.slmodemd sed -i '44 a \\t }' rc.slmodemd sed -i '45 a \\t }' rc.slmodemd # end of long sed expression mkdir -p $TMP/etc/rc.d/ cp rc.slmodemd $TMP/etc/rc.d/ chmod +x $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.slmodemd cd .. cd .. # return to base directory sleep 3 make KERNEL_DIR=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build make all make install DESTDIR=$TMP sleep 3 cd .. # take care of ungrab-winmodem cd $PKG2 make make install mkdir -p $TMP/lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra cp -ra /lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/ungrab-winmodem.ko $TMP/lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra sleep 5 rm -Rf $TMP2 # delete slamr.ko and ungrab-winmodem.ko rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/slamr.ko rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/ungrab-winmodem.ko # copy build script cd .. mkdir -p $TMP/usr/src/pbuilds/ cp $0 $TMP/usr/src/pbuilds/ find $TMP -type d | xargs chmod -v 755 find $TMP | grep .gz | xargs gunzip find $TMP | xargs file | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded dir2xzm $TMP $PKG.xzm rm -Rf $TMP rm -Rf $PKG rm -Rf $PKG2 chmod 755 $PKG.xzm

[SCRIPT] Make module for PCTEL modems

2011-01-12T04:40:50+00:00

Pctel Modems have linux drivers see this page for more information

http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/package ... lcome.html

If you see the welcome page above, you will see I participated a bit in the helping of getting the driver to work, but if it were not for Porteus & community, it would not have been possible either, I tested code without being harmed.

NOTE: This script has been written for Porteus V1.0

Copy + paste main code and save as pctel.pbuild.sh

Make it executable with: chmod +x pctel.pbuild.sh

Change into the folder and run script with: ./pctel.pbuild.sh

bash-4.1# cat pctel.pbuild #!/bin/bash PKG=pctel-0.9.7-9-rht-11 TMP=/tmp/pctel-$$ # download the source from linmodems page, uncomment if you want to download pctel source #wget http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/pctel/pctel-0.9.7-9-rht-11.tar.gz #set -e tar -zxvf $PKG* sleep 2; cd $PKG/src sed -i '88 a #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,37)' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '90 a #else' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '91 a static DEFINE_SEMAPHORE(linmodem_sem);' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '92 a #endif' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '1207 a #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2,6,37)' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '1209 a #else' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '1210 a static DEFINE_SEMAPHORE(serial_sem);' linmodem-2.6.c sed -i '1211 a #endif' linmodem-2.6.c sleep 3; # run ./configure -auto for the type of modem you have # you can have pct789,,,cm8738, i8xx, sis, via686a ./configure -auto # otherwise change this to your modem type :) make make install DESTDIR=$TMP #mkdir -p $TMP/lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/ #cp -ra /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/*.ko $TMP/lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/ mkdir -p $TMP/etc/udev/rules.d/ echo "KERNEL==\"ttyS_PCTEL0\", SYMLINK=\"modem\"" > $TMP/etc/udev/rules.d/70-pctel.rules sleep 3 rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/pctel.o rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/ptserial.o sleep 3 cd ../../ mkdir -p $TMP/etc/rc.d/ echo "#!/bin/bash " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "#==========================================================" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# Startup script for PCTEL modem modules " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# copied from http://kristol.org/david/dell-i8200/#pctel " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# and modified for Slax Linux Live/Porteus LiveCD by " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# Antonio A. Olivares " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# olivares14031@gmail.com, discuss@linmodems.org " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "#==========================================================" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "/sbin/depmod -a " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "if [-e /dev/modem] &> /dev/null; then" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " { " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " echo \"Linking /dev/ttyS_PCTEL0 to /dev/modem to let kppp access modem\" " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " ln -s /dev/ttyS_PCTEL0 /dev/modem " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " } " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "fi " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo "# See how we were called. " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " case \"\$1\" in " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " start) " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " echo -n \"Starting pctel . . .\" " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " modprobe linmodem" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " modprobe pctel" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " modprobe pctel_hw" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " echo \"done\" " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " ;;" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " stop)" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " echo -n \"Shutting down pctel . . .\"" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " modprobe -r pctel" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " modprobe -r pctel_hw" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " modprobe -r linmodem" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " echo \"done\"" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " ;;" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " status)" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " ;;" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " restart)" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " \$0 stop" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " \$0 start" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " ;;" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " *)" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " echo \"Usage: pctel {start|stop|restart|status}\" " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " exit 1" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " esac" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " " >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel echo " exit 0" >> $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel chmod +x $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.pctel # copy build script mkdir -p $TMP/usr/src/pbuilds/ cp $0 $TMP/usr/src/pbuilds/ find $TMP -type d | xargs chmod -v 755 find $TMP | grep .gz | xargs gunzip find $TMP | xargs file | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded dir2xzm $TMP $PKG.xzm rm -Rf $TMP rm -Rf $PKG chmod 755 $PKG.xzm

Thanks Tonio !!

[SCRIPT] for creating martian_modem(Agere LT Modem) module

2011-01-12T04:24:50+00:00

Note: This script has been written for Porteus V1.0

How to make the script executable before use:

chmod +x martian.pbuild

How to run the script after making executable:

./path/to/martian.pbuild

Copy the text below and paste it into a text file, saving it as 'martian.pbuild'

NOTE: If you receive a stdin error from gunzip, try removing this line, near the end of the script: "find $TMP | grep .gz |xargs gunzip". Delete all of the associated files and try again.

#!/bin/bash PKG=martian-full-20100123 TMP=/tmp/martian$ # uncomment if you want wget to download source #wget http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/ltmodem/kernel-2.6/martian/martian-full-20100123.tar.gz #set -e tar -zxvf $PKG* mkdir -p $TMP/etc/rc.d/ cd $PKG/scripts/ sed -i '25 s|DEVICE="/dev/ttySM0"|DEVICE="/dev/modem"|g' martian sed -i '25 a /sbin/depmod -a\' martian sed -i '26 a sleep 3\' martian sed -i '27 a /sbin/modprobe martian_dev' martian #sed -i '28 s|echo "kernel module is not loaded!"|/sbin/modprobe martian_dev|g' martian cp martian $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.martian chmod +x $TMP/etc/rc.d/rc.martian cd ../ #cd $PKG make all make install mkdir -p $TMP/lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/ cp -ra /lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/martian_dev.ko $TMP/lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/ mkdir -p $TMP/usr/sbin/ cp -ra /usr/sbin/martian_modem $TMP/usr/sbin/ mkdir -p $TMP/usr/lib/debug/usr/sbin/ cp -ra /usr/lib/debug/usr/sbin/martian_modem.debug $TMP/usr/lib/debug/usr/sbin/ rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/martian_dev.ko # copy build script cd .. mkdir -p $TMP/usr/src/pbuilds/ cp $0 $TMP/usr/src/pbuilds/ find $TMP -type d | xargs chmod -v 755 find $TMP | grep .gz | xargs gunzip find $TMP | xargs file | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded dir2xzm $TMP $PKG.xzm rm -Rf $TMP rm -Rf $PKG