Making Buntu >= 12.10 work on a Pentium M-CPU without PAE.

[sudodus]

Congratulations to a nice tweak

I think we are many users that will be able to continue using our Pentium M CPUs with modern linux versions thanks to your tweak

[7bit]

I have built a .deb package that will install an upstart job to enable this at boot time so the user does not need to start the script every time before a new kernel upgrade is to be installed. Instead it will just work[TM].

Here is the deb (for direct download): http://ppa.launchpad.net/prof7bit/fa...in/f/fake-pae/ (use the deb with the highest version number or better just add the ppa (see below) and use apt-get)

or alternatively just add the ppa repository and use apt-get:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:prof7bit/fake-pae
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fake-pae

From then on you won't have to care about it ever again. All subsequent kernel upgrades will just work.

***

Details: When this package is installed it will automatically install and start the job and subsequently it is started also after every reboot. You can verify that when you cat /proc/cpuinfo there will be the pae flag in the "flags :" line.

If it is installed on a PC that already has the pae flag it won't do anything at all.

The above mentioned ppa also contains the source tar.gz for download if you want to look at how it is built and how it works. Its essential parts are these files

fake-pae.conf
debian/postinst
debian/prerm

The .conf file is the upstart job (containing essentially the script from post #1) that will be put into the /etc/init/ folder to be started on all runlevels except 0. The postinst and prerm are executed only during package installation/removal and will install and start or stop and remove the job, the rest of the files is only mandatory debian packaging stuff.

To temporarily disable it (for whatever reason) until next boot

sudo stop fake-pae

To enable it again

sudo start fake-pae

To uninstall it (which will also immediately disable it)

sudo apt-get remove fake-pae

[megrimm]

Hello,

I 'mistakenly' upgraded to 12.10 in my t42 without realizing the pae/non-pae kernel conflict. now my system is kind of broken. i can not install you .dep package because the package manager breaks when loading. anything i do with apt-get update etc give me "this kernel does not support non-pae" errors.

Can I install this a different way? I see you had an executable script at one point? might there be another way to fix my system with your script even though i have already upgraded to 12.10?

thanks!
m

[sudodus]

Hello,

I 'mistakenly' upgraded to 12.10 in my t42 without realizing the pae/non-pae kernel conflict. now my system is kind of broken. i can not install you .dep package because the package manager breaks when loading. anything i do with apt-get update etc give me "this kernel does not support non-pae" errors.

Can I install this a different way? I see you had an executable script at one point? might there be another way to fix my system with your script even though i have already upgraded to 12.10?

thanks!
m

Are your old kernels from 12.04 still there, or are they wiped? If they are there, and you find them in the grub menu, try to boot from one of them!

[megrimm]

yes, I can boot to another kernel but then no matter what, when i try to install fake-pae, I still get:

megrimm@megrimm-lubuntu-t42:~$ sudo apt-get install fake-pae
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic but it is not going to be installed
linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

... and 'apt-get -f install' meets me with:

This kernel does not support a non-PAE CPU.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic_3.5.0-25.39_i386.deb (--unpack):
subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 3.5.0-25-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-25-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 3.5.0-25-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-25-generic
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic_3.5.0-25.39_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


so i feel stuck.

m

[sudodus]

I would try to remove the 'too new kernel packages'

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic

and then re-write the grub boot information with

sudo update-grub

[megrimm]

all i get from the first two commands is:

megrimm@megrimm-lubuntu-t42:~$ sudo apt-get remove linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic
[sudo] password for megrimm:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package 'linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic' is not installed, so not removed
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic but it is not going to be installed
linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
megrimm@megrimm-lubuntu-t42:~$ sudo apt-get remove linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic but it is not going to be installed
Depends: linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

[sudodus]

Try the commands on this list, originally posted by oldfred. You need sudo to run them. But at this moment, avoid
dist-upgrade. Maybe the very last command will do the trick, but you might go through most of the list.

# This will reinstall if not current. (from my chroot procedure which does not have sudo on every line,
# so use the sudo -i first).
 
#if not chroot use: sudo -i

#houseclean
apt-get autoclean # only removes files that cannot be downloaded anymore (obsolete)
apt-get clean

#refresh
apt-get update #resync package index
apt-get upgrade #newest versions of all packages, update must be run first

#would upgrade you to the latest kernel in the repositories
#dist-upgrade is also able to remove existing packages if required
# apt-get dist-upgrade # avoid this command until you have removed the too new kernels !!!

# fix Broken packages -f 
sudo apt-get -f install
dpkg --configure -a

[megrimm]

So I "think" this is going to work (I have not rebooted yet).. but so far so good:

sudo dpkg --remove linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic
sudo dpkg --remove linux-image-generic
sudo dpkg --remove linux-generic
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:prof7bit/fake-pae
sudo apt-get install fake-pae
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic
sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic
sudo apt-get install linux-generic

...and i should be back to normal operating condition.

thanks for all the help!
m

[sudodus]

megrimm,

Please let us know your results (after reboot)