godmachine81 / zotac-zbox-e350-linux-kernel Goto Github PK

These kernels are designed for the Zotac Zbox AMD E-350 series mini ITX
desktop computer. If you need LUKS/LVM2 you will need to generate a ramdisk.
If you don't intend to use LVM2 and/or LUKS then you should be able to boot
this kernel without the need of a ramdisk (initrd).  This kernel is provided 
free of charge however it may contain binary BLOBS/Firmware. By using this
kernel you agree that it is for non-profit personal use only, and you must
obide by all licensing provided by the source code.  The Source Code links
can be found in the SOURCE file under each directory. 

Here is a summary of Hardware support:

USB 3.0 - working
Legacy USB - working
SATA (AHCI mode) - working 
SATA (IDE mode) - working
eSata external port - (untested)
Radeon HD 6310 graphics - working (built in support for Radeon open source) use nomodeset kernel cmdline for FGLRX
HDMI Video - working
PowerNow! CPU Throttling - working
PWM Fan Control - Working
IT87 Motherboard Sensors - working
RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller - working
Ralink corp. RT2790 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R PCIe WiFI - working
High Definition Audio (HDMI) - working
High Definitition Auidio (Analog Stereo) - working
Multi-Card Reader - working

File System Support:
*Fuse
*NTFS (rw)
*CIFS/Samba
*Ext2/3/4
*vFAT


Overview of Configuration:

BFS (BrainFuckScheduler) is used in both PF and CK versions. In the Vanilla configuration Cgroup is used with CONFIG_SCHED_AUTOGROUP=Y
Other than those differences the rest of the kernel configuration is the same. The main difference in the PF patched kernel and CK
patched kernel, is PF kernel also supports TuxONIce. 

Why are the binary images so big? 
The binaries include the firmware needed for the Radeon HD 6310 that the Zbox uses, this adds aprox 2.5MB to the bzImage. This will 
eliminate the need for obtaining the PALM and SUMO firmware that the Zacate based APU needs to load for KMS to work. 


FGLRX Users:

If you intend to use the proprietary Catalyst driver provided by ATI a.k.a. FGLRX, then you will need to disable KMS in your boot loader
configuration.  This is typically done by appending 'nomodeset'  to the end of your kernel boot arguments (without the quotes) 


Is this all I need to boot Linux?  

To boot linux, yes. However if you are a developer and you compile software that will look for the kernel headers for your current
running kernel, you will also need to grab the sources (and patches if using CK/PF) and extract them to /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)
Don't forget to apply the patches to the source. Then create a symlink to /usr/src/linux like: 
	ln -s /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r) /usr/src/linux 
Create your modules directory if you intend to compile extra 3rd party modules for your kernel:
	mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)

Typically configure scripts will generate a Makefile to use your /usr/src/linux for compiling modules, if you run into a script 
that doesn't find your linux sources, you may need to edit the environment variables to search the correct path for your linux
source code. 

If you are using this binary kernel, chances are you know what to do with it if you are a developer, if you aren't a developer,
or you don't run a source based distribution, you shouldn't have to worry about your linux source code, with the exception
of building 3rd Party drivers such as VMware, Virtualbox, or FGLRX modules. 


Enjoy this fine tuned kernel for your Zotac Zbox :)