Dev1 Galaxy Forum / Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (zapper) — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 02:00:22 +0000

I am very glad that my oldest computer in my possession is 64 bit...

This being said, Debian devs really didn't need to change the framework so much that they needed to ditch 32 bit. What they should have done is stop bloating their system with redhat bloat and similar instead.

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (hdwolf) — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 19:43:15 +0000

Hello, I have used the refracta image (thanx to fsmithred) for a EeePC 1005HA ("Seafile") from 2010 and this works very good. There are some kernel issues concerning eeepc driver, but I cannot recognize a loss of functionalities. I think, that can be fixed, if the libre kernel is patched for the Eee. But for functionality seems this not necessary (but I'm still testing). Now I'm configuring the desktop with LXDE base and xfwm4 WM. The performance is low but stable. Using firefox is something for meditation, but the good keyboard welcomes for writing (libreoffice writer is usable). For me, the libre lts kernel seems the way to use in future 32bit hardware.

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Fri, 30 May 2025 20:11:54 +0000

linux-libre 6.15.0 with the current version of mount (2.41-5devuan1) is working correctly. Here's an iso in case anyone wants to play with it.
https://get.refracta.org/files/experime … 0_1739.iso

sha256sum

4d19d4a9f1f28eb5548fc3b141f83fece1a9df0640cdb6bbc63a528944b41306  refracta_13_minx_ndb_libre_i386-20250530_1739.iso

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Wed, 28 May 2025 00:10:44 +0000

About that size issue...
I poked around a bit. Most of the difference is in /lib/modules and most of that is drivers. libre has more directories and files there than debian and all the .ko files in the debian kernel are xz-compressed. That accounts for around 200mb difference.

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:17:55 +0000

Update. If I downgrade to the previous version of mount, the isos boot. (i.e. they can loop-mount filesystem.squashfs)

mount, fdisk libfdisk1 and uuid-runtime were all downgraded from 2.41-5devuan1 to 2.38.1-5+deb12u3devuan1

I filed a bug report against mount - https://bugs.devuan.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=892

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (MLEvD) — Mon, 26 May 2025 17:26:33 +0000

Can you please also ask why 330+MB rather than around 188MB?

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Mon, 26 May 2025 13:12:07 +0000

Update: I'm trying more kernels and I asked a question in #gnu-linux-libre (libera.chat)

6.12.30-gnu has the problem.

6.12.28-gnu and 6.12.24-gnu both work.
6.12.30-gnu.nonpae works.
6.14.8-gnu (non-lts) works.

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (MLEvD) — Mon, 26 May 2025 05:43:31 +0000

There's a 17 MB bios boot boost partition for eee pc xp too! I should put that online too.

One does wonder about the breadth of testing of new 32 bit kernels, so many million use cases, so fewer eee pc users ;_:

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Sun, 25 May 2025 22:07:12 +0000

Uh-oh. I upgraded my excalibur minimal-X system and made a new live-iso. It doesn't boot. Drops to initramfs prompt and says it couldn't mount the squashfs. This is with linux-image-6.12.30-gnu. I made another live-iso that includes the 6.12.24-gnu kernel and that boots normally. (Note: both kernels boot normally in the VM I'm using to make the isos.)

mount /run/live/medium/live/filesystem.squashfs: fsconfig() failed: unable to read squashfs_super_block.

Here's a screenshot that shows the error message in /boot.log
https://get.refracta.org/files/misc/mou … -00-38.png

Edit: Found an iso I made on May 12 with 6.12.28-gnu that works.

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (MLEvD) — Sun, 25 May 2025 17:35:25 +0000

If some good folk would be happy to compile kernels for eee pc I'd be not only happy, my obsessively compelled to try them out on many eee, though I hesitate to say test.
Been enabling zram on a few eee, it seems to help, especially when torturing the fanless ones with cinnamon desktop and browser action. On the 4G / 630mhz single core the name of the game is no fan even in high summer, so ram ceiling isn't important, so the question is, does zram not increase overall cpu and/or ram usage?

If you have a 128gb ssd then I bet you don't have the bios boost partitions, but never fear, I have put them on drop box, you can copy one of them with gparted and easily recreate the other using gnome-disks, make the fat partition 513KB instead of 7.84MiB if you like!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/koa3hdwa … 6wtxc&dl=0

Link changed to point to actual file >.<

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (Camtaf) — Sun, 25 May 2025 17:08:38 +0000

To get a more up to date kernel, maybe copy your kernel config file over & try running it with the modern kernel source code..... (?)

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Sun, 25 May 2025 17:01:44 +0000

Hello:

fsmithred wrote:

... added a 32G sd card ...

Fortunately, your eee model can boot from that size card.

Much to my chagrin, my 1000HE's BIOS won't see a USB storage device larger than 8.0Gb, that's (?) the limit for booting from USB.
I asked at Asus tech support but they 'don't know'.
Ventoy solves that problem.

The system, once up and running, can see and access a 64Gb USB3.0 drive without issues and (I presume) higher capacity.

fsmithred wrote:

... (or my win XP install which I keep only for nostalgia).

Glad to see I'm not the only one. 8^°

Best,

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (fsmithred) — Sun, 25 May 2025 16:34:51 +0000

Oops! My EEE has a 128G ssd, so I didn't think a lot about disk space. I recently added a 32G sd card so I could run excalibur without losing my daedalus install (or my win XP install which I keep only for nostalgia). The EEE sees it as a usb storage device, so it's bootable.

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (Altoid) — Sun, 25 May 2025 16:19:23 +0000

Hello:

MLEvD wrote:

... run fine on every kernel since 3.16 ...

I expect that it would be the same with my 1000HE which is ca. 2009.

MLEvD wrote:

... to just include all relevant new security updates ...

No idea, but I expect that it could be possible.

From what little I understand, it seems that the task would involve compiling a kernel from source but including only what you need for your netbook.
ie: tailored for your target hardware and compiled on it.

There's also the question of who is going to do it and then maintain it.
For starters, is there a large enough user base?
There used to be specific eee kernels / distributions but as the differnet models were mothballed, they lost all traction.

Interesting side note:
Asus does not have the eee series in theri tech support databases.

I have recently been able to get a very important boost for my netbook by enabling zram and generating a /dev/zram0 swap file.

MLEvD wrote:

... features or hardware that the asus eee pc will never know ...

The Asus eee series is not alone in this.
Absolutely every discontinued and perfectly working netbook / notebook is in the same situation.

All victims of the decades old WinTel consortium. (see what is going on with Win 11 these days)

Best,

Re: Debian not providing new 686 kernels in Trixie

dummy@example.com (MLEvD) — Sun, 25 May 2025 14:55:07 +0000

Yes they all (my asus eee pc fleet) still run fine on every kernel since 3.16, they just all have different esoteric messages on boot.
I mean, is there some way to just include all relevant new security updates to an old kernel without worrying about new features or hardware that the asus eee pc will never know or be able to run?

The poor little 2G surf, I just managed to get lmde 6 onto it with latest kernel and 300 MB free space of the 1.87MIB ssd. No room for newest kernel upgrade. They can run the new kernels, but can't install them!