[Schemix-devel] Re: Some big changes in CVS

[David Suárez de Lis]

Hi all, 

Dr William Bland writes: 

> Hello all,
>         I have resolved the issue that meant Schemix could only access
> symbols that were exported from the kernel.  I had to find and apply the
> "kallsyms" patch to get this working, but it didn't seem too hard to do.
> Schemix now depends on the kallsyms patch (I'm not exactly sure to what
> extent - perhaps it will still compile without it, but the kernel-*
> special forms won't work without kallsyms).

I've tried to compile the CVS files under RH9 2.4.20 kernel and it didn't 
compile ( In function `dput': reference to `atomic_dec_and_lock' not 
defined, when ld'ing vmlinux) 

any particular place to get the kallsyms patch? I'm searching the kernel 
archives, but it's kinda noisy and hard to follow... 

> I have also changed things so that Schemix will now compile as a module.
> All you have to do is change the 'bool' in Config.in to a 'tristate' and
> it will now compile properly.

if I make 'make modules' and get schemix.o, is there any trick I can make to 
System.map, etc to get the module to be insmod'ed in my current kernel? (i'm 
having some symbol problems to compile this kernel under red hat 9, I still 
gotta get a fresh tarball from kernel.org :-(    I can do without the 
special forms for now, just to have a barely functional schemix would be 
enough for now... 

> Having got this all working, I took the opportunity to write a simple
> /proc style interface to the kernel.  If you look in the kernel source, in
> kernel/fork.c you will find a variable "int nr_threads" that holds the
> number of processes currently running.  I used this to make the following
> simple interface:

[...] 

This piece of code is simply wonderful! 

The power to talk with the kernel from userspaceland this way is truly 
astonishing, I need to get this working! :) 

> Enjoy!
> Best wishes,
>                 Bill.

One more thing: the biggest linux congress in Spain will be held in late 
September, VI Congreso de Hispalinux, which has become *the* linux event in 
Spain. The call for papers has been issued, due to June 13th, and I've 
thought to make a small presentation about schemix, developing some small 
'drivers' like the /proc one you just showed us (if you don't mind my doing 
so). 

I'm also checking the code to see if I can find out to which extent schemix 
is not R5RS compliant, I expect I will have some results before the deadline 
for papers, but having schemix working is a must, of course. The idea is 
being able to talk about how the module works, what it is for, and showing 
examples of its usefulness. 

BTW, have you or any of the members of this list, thought about presenting a 
paper for the virtual congress ("I cannot assist, but here's my 
contribution" section of the congress)? If it's held in Madrid, I will 
probably go without any problems (time and economy and lack of car would 
limit my going if it's held anywhere else),  being a helper in the last 
congresses (presenting and moderating conferences, registration, and so on) 
I'd be happy to be able to lend more technical help with a paper... :) 

well, thanks for all,
david