Longene kernel 0.3.0

I reported awhile back on the Linux Unified Kernel (LUK) also known as Longene:

http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/200905/linux-unified-kernel.html

Version 0.3.0 was released recently, as patches for the 2.6.30 and 2.6.34 kernels. Well, I couldn't resist it...

It has taken me several hours of hard work, but I have compiled Longene on Spup. This is the 2.6.34 kernel with Longene patch and all the usual patches used for Puppy. The Longene source tarball has three components:

1. A kernel patch
2. Source for a kernel module
3. Patched Wine 1.0 source

It took me quite a while to get everything working, due to missing symbols, but I got there.

I have not yet compiled Wine. I am just about to download dependencies -- thanks to green_dome and technosaurus for information about this -- and then I will compile Wine.

It is a rather old version of Wine, but the Longene developers have stated that they will move up to Wine 1.2 sometime.

As this is a rather quirky experiment, I might make this the next Quirky release. I might also move Quirky over to a Slackware 13.1 base, that is, same as Spup.
Main reason: the ready-made package repositories.

Longene home page:

http://www.longene.org/en/index.php

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Comments

Testing Longene
Username: BarryK
Well, so much for that. I followed the instructions precisely, compiled and installed wine, loaded the Longene module, then, as instructed, tried to run 'notepad.exe' ...huh, nothing at all happened, it just returned to the prompt. Tried a couple of other simple EXEs, same thing. Username: 26 Jun 2010, 18:55
"01680"114.129.167.148'Longene works"BarryK"Ok, I got it working. I went back over the instructions, and there was one small difference -- when I compiled Wine I configured it with the usual "--prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var", however the instructions showed no options to "./configure". So, I reconfigured without any options and now it works. It seems that the 'unifiedkernel.ko' module is hardwired to expect things to be in certain paths. I was able to run 'notepad.exe' taken from a Windows XP installation. Username: 26 Jun 2010, 21:15
"01680"114.129.167.148'You mention Quirkey"gcmartin"This seems to be the future direction for Quirkey based upon your mentioning "...the next Quirky release. I might ..." Sound good. One question: Will there be full SAMBA in the next version as I would like to integrate all Quirks into LANs easily so that I can share stuff from the desktop via CIFS (not NFS). Username: 27 Jun 2010, 3:51
"01680"99.102.199.13're Samba"BarryK"I really can't say anything about Samba, as I have never used it. Hopefully one of our Samba/CIFS experts can sort out any issues in the next Quirky. If I do base it on Slackware packages then perhaps there might be some differences, hopefully positive ones. Patriot is one of those guys. Also HairyWill. I think that both of those guys are pretty busy with other stuff though. Username: 27 Jun 2010, 8:26
"01680"114.129.167.148'Re Longene kernel"BarryK"A brief summary of why I'm interested in this Longene kernel: [b]1.[/b] Execute a Windows executable just like any Linux executable. [b]2.[/b] Windows application will run as fast as it does in Windows. [b]3.[/b] Windows DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries) and device drivers will work in Linux. ...point 3 is more a promise rather than actuality yet. In theory, it would mean that you could use a modem/printer/scanner/etc device driver from Windows, just like you can do now with Ndiswrapper and wirelesss drivers. A few negative points about the current status: [b]1.[/b] Kernel has to be configured with SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessing) turned off. [b]2.[/b] Kernel has to be configured for 32-bit x86 only. [b]3.[/b] Uses an old Wine (1.0). Username: 27 Jun 2010, 8:40
"01680"114.129.167.148'Worth a try"Terryphi"Go for it, Barry. For those of us who find a few Windows apps indispensable it would be interesting to test. Only one doubt: what are the dangers of inadvertently running Windows malware?"27 Jun 2010, 18:09"01680"93.89.132.150'Malware"Pizzasgood"Depends on the malware. If it relies on really obscure windows quirks, it may not function. More generally, if it relies on some element of windows that isn't being replicated, it may not function. But since the idea here is to run windows software just like if you were in windows, there is a good chance that much malware will still work. Stuff that infects files would probably only be able to infect windows files. It could try to infect linux files, but I don't know how well that would work. If we were just dealing with wine, it would only break the linux file. But with kernel support, it depends on whether it can handle a single executable that uses both linux and windows code. I have no idea how they handle that. Probably the file would just break, but maybe not. Basically, when you attempt to integrate windows into linux you have to take both the good and the bad. Any attempt to limit the windows aspects results in compromising compatibility or convenience for security. You can either mimic windows exactly and accept all the problems that entails, or you can try to selectively mimic it and even improve on it in some areas, but break compatibility with some of the software you might have wanted to run. I haven't read much about Longene yet, but I'm guessing they follow the perfect mimic approach."27 Jun 2010, 24:42"01680"71.88.199.69'Thanks Pizzasgood"Terryphi"Thanks for your comments, Pizzasgood. Very interesting. I think I would need to know much more before risking using Longene."28 Jun 2010, 13:35"01680"93.89.132.150'

Tags: quirky