Chris Dollin reported that Poplog could not be linked on FC 5, and
precompiled versions would not work.
I had the same problem using the most recent version of FC 4 + Software
Suspend 2 available from Matthias Hensler's download site:
http://mhensler.de/swsusp/download_en.php
I tried rebuilding and relinking poplog using Waldek's latest
version of c_core.c. It worked fine on Fedora core 4, using a kernel
based on linux 2.6.15-1.
When I tried it on a kernel based on 2.6.16-1 (still on FC 4) it would
not start, repeatedly printing access violation messages until killed,
which I assume is the same as the behaviour on FC 5.
Suspecting that this could be due to yet more security changes made by
RedHat as described in this file
http://dag.wieers.com/howto/compatibility/
rather than to kernel updates, I fetched, installed, and built the
latest stable linux kernel 2.6.16.5 from www.kernel.org (to download the
complete tar file (about 40 MB) rather than a patch file for upgrading
>From an earlier version, click on 'F').
After I rebooted (still using FC 4), Poplog started up normally using
that kernel.
So I conclude that all our woes are due to security measures introduced
by RedHat and inherited by Fedora Core, like the previous problem cured
using
sysctl kernel.randomize_va_space=0
Anyone interested in fixing this new problem will have to investigate
what RedHat have done (maybe they want to sell to GCHQ and the CIA).
Anyhow, for now anyone having trouble with poplog on FC5 has three
options.
1. Try reading the compatibility file by Dag Wieers, and experiment with
all the 'tweaks' he suggests. If something makes poplog run then let us
know.
E.g. one of the things he mentions is 'floating stacks' which sounds
like something that could kill poplog, which depends on a global stack
pointer. Or maybe someone obsessed by security decided to disable
anything that would allow compilation at runtime, which is a requirement
for poplog's incremental compiler.
2. If you can't find a quick cure, fetch the kernel source (e.g. version
2.6.16.5 or an earlier stable version) compile, install and use that,
and have a carefree life, especially if you do not need all RedHat's
anti-spy anti-hacker anti-virus precautions on your personal machine.
(Warning: use a partition with lots of spare space while rebuilding. My
source directory expanded to nearly 1.4 Gb after compilation. You can do
the compilation anywhere, after preparing the .config file using 'make
config' or 'make oldconfig' if you know what you are doing.
The 'make' and 'make modules' commands don't need root permissions.
You need root permissions only for 'make modules_install' and
'make install' which put things into /lib/modules and /boot, using much
less space -- at most a few hundred mbytes, mostly in /lib/modules.
If you use grub for booting, the 'make install' command will update
your grub.conf file. If you use lilo I don't know whether it does
something similar.)
3. Switch to a less security-burdened linux distribution. When I checked
out a recent version of ubuntu and a recent version of SuSe linux,
poplog version 15.6 just installed and ran.
If someone finds a way round (or over) the hurdles produced by
RedHat, please publicise them. I won't have time in the near future to
investigate them as I am way behind with too many other things.
Thanks.
Aaron
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/
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