Install an older distribution of Gentoo

MaxGentoo · n00b Joined: 17 Jun 2022 Posts: 3

Hi,

I'm not new to Linux, but new to Gentoo. I have a kernel module with a magic version number 4.17.4-gentoo, which was compiled with GCC 7.3.0 (Gentoo 7.3.0-r3 p1.4). I would like to install that kernel version. Does this mean I need to install Gentoo 7.3, but I cannot find any info were to obtain an older distribution.

Thanks!

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:34 am Post subject:

MaxGentoo,

Welcome to Gentoo.

Gentoo does not have versions. It's a rolling release that is updated every 30 min.

To keep the module happy you will need kernel-sources-4.17.4 and you will need to build them with gcc-7.3.0
Luckily, gcc and kernels are both 'slotted' which is Gentoos way of installing several versions at the same time.

Get the ebuilds you need from git and put them into your local overlay.
gcc is only tested to build one version up and one version down, so gcc-11 may not build gcc-7
Going back one version at a time is safe, two might be ... try it and see.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

cboldt · Veteran Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1046

FWIW, I run kernel 4.19.141, the last one that supports framebuffer splash screens, and (mostly) otherwise keep up with package advancing. gcc 11.3 builds this kernel fine.

My thought, if you are slightly unsure or not fairly experienced, is to first build to the current install. Keeping some parts stuck in the past can be confusing, takes some effort (sometimes in source code), and can lead down many blind alleys. Newer kernels run fine on old hardware. Get a Gentoo system up and running, and from there it's fairly easy to build more than one kernel for kernel experiments.

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21918

What is the purpose of this kernel module? For something that old, you may be better off finding a way to update the module rather than pin everything else in the past.

MaxGentoo · n00b Joined: 17 Jun 2022 Posts: 3

The module is called mods.ko. It's a kernel driver from NVIDIA that provides access to the PCI bus for user mode programs. It's required for tools that perform factory and quality assurance testing of NVIDIA graphics cards. The tools requires BIOS console mode, no framebuffer, otherwise results are erratic.

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21918

There is a general rule from the kernel developers that new kernel releases do not break older user programs. Most user programs do not guarantee that they work on arbitrarily old kernel releases. However, since you picked a user distribution that was contemporary with the target kernel, you have a very good chance that nothing in that install will rely on syscalls that are new in 4.18+.

immolo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 122

Pretty much everyone has answered you with the best advice of just using a modern Gentoo image with your old kernel however just to add you may need to downgrade the kernel headers to match and rebuild a few packages like sys-apps/shadow.

If you want me to go through this with you I'll be happy to talk you through it

grknight · Retired Dev Joined: 20 Feb 2015 Posts: 1744

immolo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 122

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21918

That shouldn't happen, and for the most part, cannot happen, since very few packages even notice when you downgrade the headers. Do you have an example of this failure mode?

immolo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 122

I didn't mean to overtake this thread so I'll apologies beforehand.

Hu,

My most recent experience of this was a 3.10.5 kernel will cause openssh, shadow and I believe net-tools as well to not build when using 5.x headers.

I know it's slightly older than the one brought up but it's the one I remember the most.

This was a PowerPC build for clarity however I can't think of a reason why this would be different on amd64.

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21918

I would call that more than slightly older. Even so, I would be interested to see an example of the errors shown when trying that combination.

immolo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 122

MaxGentoo · n00b Joined: 17 Jun 2022 Posts: 3

I obtained the source code of the said kernel module and it turns out that it won't compile on anything newer than kernel version 4.x. I don't have the error messages right now, but unless I disremember, they were about libc/glibc issues, probably requiring an older version like glibc 2.3.

Well, I was coming back here to read again what the story was about installing an older version of Gentoo. Something from around 2018 might to do. I really just need a minimum system to build a custom kernel, without a GUI, probably best with sysinit and not systemd. I'm not fancy Ubuntu and thought Gentoo might be a good idea, but I guess I'm out of luck. I'm going to try an older Ubuntu 18.04 server install.

immolo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 122

On the off chance you carry on with Gentoo, if you get the error message we can take a look if it it is an libc issue however I created this wiki article a while back to help for cases just like these:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Immolo/OldKernelInstall

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2023 2:31 pm Post subject:

MaxGentoo,

Gentoo from 2018 is fairly easy.

You need a 2018 stage3
A portage snapshot to match and off you go.
Finding sources can be a challenge but if you ask, there are several long time users here (including me) that keep old distfiles.

As to the method, see Historical Gentoo
You won't be going back to 2003 but the method is general.

Feel free to use the distfiles mirror there too.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.