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In summary I am quite new to Linux, but have the task of writing some software. The software has to run on a particular hardware board and the manufacturers of this board have provided a custom build of the kernel that I am guessing is non standard. I have managed to install Ubuntu 8.04 onto a compact flash card on this board, and applied their kernel modifications. Now when I go to install g++ using 

    sudo  apt-get install build-essential

I get an error

    E: Couldn't find package build-essential

I have seen this error in other questions, and I am not asking here why I get this problem but I do want to know if it would be safe for me to update my version of Ubuntu to a more recent version and then apply the vendor kernel modifications. The vendor kernel is labelled by them as 2.6.30 so would it be safe to apply this on a version that has a 3.2 kernel version? If I cannot install g++ it will not be safe for me to develop an application but I simply do not know enough about the inner workings of linux to know the effects of using a newer version and applying the vendor kernel modifications.

ish
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mathematician1975
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3 Answers3

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The minimal kernel required for Ubuntu 12.04 is 2.6.24

Ubuntu 12.04 should install and run successfully on any kernel that is newer than 2.6.24. The root cause of this requirement is the libc libraries shipped with 12.04 -- libc is the basis on which every single Ubuntu binary/library depends. This requirement can be bypassed too.

For 10.04 (or newer), your manufacturer requires you to use a special 2.6.34 kernel

You must use the special 2.6.34 kernel DMP supplies here, which is required to install Ubuntu 10.04 (or newer, if possible).

This fact is made perfectly clear on their support page:

enter image description here

Can you use the 2.6.34 kernel with Ubuntu 12.04?

I see no reason why you can't. DMP's FTP directory provides the kernel source as well as all patches. Of course, no one without a Vortex86DX/SX can confirm if it will work out of the box, or what you will need to make sure it works.

I very much doubt the manufacturer is going to hand you official 12.04 support on a platter since they seem to be having problems even with 10.10 and are stuck on 10.04. Unfortunately, that's how proprietary embedded hardware often is.

Community
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ish
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0

Unpack the *.deb file containing the modification to see in what form the module is distributed. Also have a look at the content of the other package and see what files are shipped there. If some files are precompiled modules for a specific kernel version (*.ko files), then those modules will almost certainly fail to cooperate with a more recent kernel, and updating Ubuntu without updating the kernel is asking for trouble as well.

If, on the other hand, the kernel modules are distributed in a source format (*.c), perhaps containing some binary blob, then the deb package will likely use dkms or similar to have modules compiled for the current kernel, and the shell script might do some compilation for the current kernel as well. In those cases, you should see whether the modules do compile against the sources of a current Ubuntu kernel. You should be able to compile them on a test system, not using the target hardware just yet.

If they do compile successfully, chances are good that they will run as intended, although there are of course no guarantees. If they fail to compile, you can see whether you can locate a kernel version recent enough to support an upgrade but still old enough to be compatible with those modules. Or you could adjust the module sources to take kernel API changes into account.

MvG
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-1

I do not know of official sources, but from 3.2 to 2.6 kernel versions there is a huge leap. If you install an Ubuntu 12.04 on that board and then apply a 2.6 kernel on top of that you will surely run into incompatibility issues (hardware and software wise, libraries, etc). Essentially you might end up with a barely usable system. Newer versions of ubuntu rely heavily on the latest kernel developments.

Looks to me that you have a problem with your DNS server configuration in your 8.04 version. If you fix that you should be able to install build-essential without any issues.

Run

sudo apt-get update

and check what the output tells you.

If you do have internet connection, then you can go here: and download the .deb package of build-essential for ubuntu 8.04.

leousa
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