Re: [Astlinux-devel] Astlinux base system

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I think you know my opinion... I'm always one that likes to keep up-to-date
so I definitely support the move.  I am not concerned about filesize
increases, though it is definitely something to highlight and find out if
other users care.  I just don't know if this runs the risk of not working
on very old h/w.

I would also like us to look at what has changed inside the fs directory at
buildroot and figure out if it is an easy upgrade for us.
Specifically buildroot no longer uses genext2fs.  That is where my builds
fail with the ZFS filesystem and it looks like genext2fs has not been
updated in 7 years.  I don't know if what buildroot uses now fixes the
problem or not, but that is where I would start -- but will that open a
whole other mess?  For example, I think you have to now set a filesystem
size manually rather than have it auto calculated by the
fs/ext2/genext2fs.sh script (which is gone now).

Maybe we should fork a astlinux-next project on github and do a lot of
experimenting there before messing too much with the mainline.

David

On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 11:04 AM Lonnie Abelbeck <li...@lo...>
wrote:

> Regarding - Update the toolchain using a newer gcc and glibc
>
> I have been testing a new crosstool-NG 1.24.0 version.
>
> I settled in on a good update:
>
> glibc 2.27, binutils 2.29.1, gcc 6.5.0
>
> After a few package tweaks, and patches for the new glibc, it builds and
> runs.
>
> But, not after a day or so of frustration, the initrd with the new glibc
> crashed when called by the kernel.  I tested many toolchain build
> combinations, using versions much like our current it worked, but any bump
> in the glibc and gcc it crashed.
>
> So, if you are playing along at home, here are some clues ...
>
> Looking at initrd sizes:
>
> Current:
> eglibc 2.18, binutils 2.22, gcc 4.8.3
> initrd.img size: 2658045
>
> Testing:
> glibc 2.27, binutils 2.29.1, gcc 6.5.0
> initrd.img size: 4001609
>
>
> OK, I'll end the suspense, the problem is the kernel has a limit of the
> ramdisk size allowed, which needed to be increased.
>
> This kernel change:
> -CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=8192
> +CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=16384
>
> Or, passing ramdisk_size=16384 via the KCMD in the .run.conf
>
> allows the new initrd to run.
>
> The resulting astlinux image also runs, though bigger in size:
>
> Current:
> eglibc 2.18, binutils 2.22, gcc 4.8.3
> astlinux.tar.gz size: 50851434
>
> Testing:
> glibc 2.27, binutils 2.29.1, gcc 6.5.0
> astlinux.tar.gz size: 53732464
>
> Note that the astlinux.tar.gz contains two copies of glibc, one in the
> initrd and one in the run-image.
>
> More size info:
>
> Current:
> eglibc 2.18, binutils 2.22, gcc 4.8.3
> # ls -l /lib/*so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        120224 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/ld-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       1525336 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/libc-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         30856 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libcrypt-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         14528 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libdl-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        993504 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/libm-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         76608 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libnsl-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         22728 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libnss_dns-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         43384 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libnss_files-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        140676 Mar 31 15:01 /lib/
> libpthread-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         76400 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libresolv-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         31512 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> librt-2.18.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         10472 Mar 31 17:00 /lib/
> libutil-2.18.so
>
> Testing:
> glibc 2.27, binutils 2.29.1, gcc 6.5.0
> # ls -l /lib/*so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        157352 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/ld-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       1767720 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/libc-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         39064 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libcrypt-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         14584 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libdl-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       1648920 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/libm-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         84752 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libnsl-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         22712 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libnss_dns-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         47432 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libnss_files-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       2389056 Apr  8 21:54 /lib/
> libpthread-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         80528 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libresolv-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         31552 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> librt-2.27.so
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         10464 Apr  8 23:06 /lib/
> libutil-2.27.so
>
> You might ask why use glibc 2.27 vs. glibc 2.28 ?  OpenWrt uses 2.27, as
> many compatibility changes occur in 2.28 which would require additional
> package patches to fix.  It seems reasonable to stick with glibc 2.27 for
> compatibility with older packages.
>
> Finally, do you see the potential problem here ?  If you said
> "revert-to-previous to 1.3.8 (or earlier) will not work" you would be
> correct.  Since we only have one initrd.img file (not a separate initrd.img
> for each run-image, a revert-to-previous would use the newer initrd.img
> with the older kernel config ... crash.  Possibly we could create a
> temporary fix for that by automatically passing ramdisk_size=16384 to the
> kernel command line, at least with kernel-reboot.
>
> Lonnie
>
>
>
>
>
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