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Linux kernel 6.12.12 configured without AVS and Xe

February 03, 2025 — BarryK

I have compiled the 6.12.12 kernel with these disabled:

Device Drivers -> Sound card support -> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture -> ALSA for SoC audio support
    < > Intel AVS driver (CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_AVS, snd_soc_avs.ko)
Device Drivers -> Graphics support -> Direct rendering manager
    < > Intel Xe graphics (CONFIG_DRM_XE, xe.ko)

This is a retrograde direction, so I need to justify it...

The 6.12 kernel has (apparently) dropped support for some legacy audio drivers, replaced with the AVS driver. However, AVS is still immature and doesn't work for me. See blog post yesterday:

By removing some legacy drivers, the kernel developers are trying to force us to use AVS (which doesn't work). This is most unfortunate, but testing on a wide range of computers, so far they work fine without AVS. So, decided to go with that, remove AVS from the kernel.

This avoids conflict, so that audio will work "out of the box", without the user having to mess around, such as blacklist the snd_soc_avs module.

Then there is Xe; I can't get that to work either. The xe.ko kernel driver is supposed to be the replacement for i915.ko; however, i915.ko is still being developed, and still, apparently, works with recent Intel GPUs -- confirmed for me on my Asus Zenbook S13 with Ultra 7 CPU and GPU. Probably the time will come when i915 falls behind and we will be forced to use xe.ko, but for now, decided to disable Xe.

Intend that the next release of Easy Scarthgap will have this kernel, and I invite everyone to test, boot it from USB-stick on your collection of computers, report back any failure of audio or video.

just thinking... would be nice if someone could figure out a patch to restore the removed legacy audio drivers.    

Tags: easy

Intel sound avs driver still too immature

February 02, 2025 — BarryK

Easy Scarthgap version 6.6 has the 6.12.11 kernel. Forum member anilraj reported that sound does not work on his laptop, see this thread, page-1:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=13731

Yes, Intel developers have been working on a replacement for the legacy sound drivers, named "Audio Voice Speech" (AVS). It has been under development for many years; however, now in the 6.12 kernel it is being forced upon us, see Phoronix post:

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.12-Sound-Drivers

I found one computer, my Acer Aspire 1 laptop, that hits the same sound problem that anilraj has reported. This is interesting, as I tested on my collection of seven laptop and desktop computers with Intel chipsets, and running with the 6.12.11 kernel they all load the legacy sound driver and sound works -- except one, the Aspire 1.

My Aspire 1 attempts to load the kernel 'snd_soc_avs.ko' kernel module, but "dmesg" shows that some firmware is missing. There is relevant firmware at /usr/lib/firmware/intel/avs in the "linux-firmware" package, but incomplete. However, I found the missing firmware here:

https://packages.debian.org/sid/firmware-intel-sound

But now it is very frustrating, as the snd_soc_avs module loads and dmesg reports all required firmware loaded, and the pulseaudio mixer shows the audio interface exists ...but there is no sound.

So, as was suggested in the forum thread, snd_soc_avs can be blacklisted. You can do this in the BootManager, that you can run by clicking on the deskup "setup" icon, then choose the "EasyOS" tab, then click on the "Bootup" button.

Or, you can do it directly. Open /etc/rc.d/MODULESCONFIG and edit the "SKIPLIST" variable -- make sure there is a trailing space. Reboot, saving the session.

If this is done, my Aspire 1 falls back to loading the "snd_hda_intel" kernel module, and sound works. Interesting, because according to the Phoronix article, a lot of legacy sound drivers have been removed. Yet, they are still there in all seven of my computers. The Aspire 1 has an Intel Broxton chipset, and from online reading I thought that this is one of the legacy drivers that has been removed.

Here is some more information about audio changes in 6.12:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/87wmje9oav.wl-tiwai@suse.de/

So, a solution is to blacklist "snd_soc_avs". Yes, could do that; however, given that all my computers still work with the legace sound drivers, same thing from tests in the forum thread and other online reports, I am tempted to recompile the kernel with AVS disabled. At least until the Intel developers get their act together.   

Tags: easy

More Russian translations

January 31, 2025 — BarryK

I don't always announce language translation contributions on this blog. Today received more ru translations from Dmitry (forum member Maybe). See github:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/8ce1e0ebb1343553af1f36738571bad71b83cba5

Right now, French, German and Russian translations are the most complete, followed by Turkish.

For anyone who would like to contribute, see the tutorial here:

https://easyos.org/dev/translate-easyos-to-your-language.html

And see this forum thread:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=8070   

Tags: easy

Fix again snapshots saving /var

January 31, 2025 — BarryK

See this blog post a couple of days ago:

Caramel reported a problem with that fix, so had another go at it, see github:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/c7d9770cf0140a154203a621b5d824e1e3adf0a0

I have also included a test if /var is a symlink; in that case, exclude all of /var. Earlier versions of EasyOS had /var as a symlink into /tmp/var, with /tmp a mounted tmpfs. Then subfolders in /tmp/var where symlinks to actual folders inside /root

A bit convoluted, but if I ever decide to go that way again, might as well have the code that detects that situation, /var being a symlink.

Note, the rationale for /var being a symlink was before changed Easy to run in RAM, when there were direct writes to the working-partition. This arrangement reduced writes to the storage media.   

Tags: easy

EasyOS Scarthgap-series version 6.6 released

January 29, 2025 — BarryK

Highlights since 6.5.6:

Release notes:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2025/6.6/release-notes.htm

Readme file:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2025/6.6/readme.htm

Download:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2025/6.6/

Fast download in Europe:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2025/6.6/

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=13731

Have fun!    

Tags: easy

EasyOS Daedalus-series version 6.5.7 released

January 29, 2025 — BarryK

Here are highlights since 6.5.5:

Release notes:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2025/6.5.7/release-notes.htm

Download:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/daedalus/2025/6.5.7/

Feedback is welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=13730

Note that Easy Scarthgap version 6.6 will be announced on this blog later today, and is the "main guy" recommended for newcomers to EasyOS.

Have fun!   

Tags: easy

Fix snapshots not saving /var

January 28, 2025 — BarryK

The problem was reported by Caramel, discussed here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=13700

Some parts of /var are not to be snap-shotted, some are. Github fix:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/fe9eee658069a0c18bd15ee2b777ce8f94bda1dd

...hmm, I'm assuming mksquashfs will accept paths in the exclude file.  

Tags: easy

Firmware updated for 6.12.x kernel

January 28, 2025 — BarryK

There is a script that I use, /usr/local/firmware/extract-fw-all. I copy the script to a working area, then download latest firmware from https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linux-firmware, then:

# tar -xf linux-firmware-main.tar.gz
# sync
# cp -a -f --remove-destination linux-firmware-main/* /usr/lib/firmware/
# sync
# ./extract-fw-all

# mkdir -p firmware_linux_all_k6p12-20250128/usr/lib
# cp -a fnd-firmware/lib/firmware firmware_linux_all_k6p12-20250128/usr/lib/

took out some big firmware, to firmware_linux_extra_k6p12-20250128

# dir2pet firmware_linux_all_k6p12-20250128

The PET is 110MB, very big. The previous one, used in Easy Scarthgap and Daedalus, is 103MB.  

Tags: easy