Which Gentoo kernel?

[whammoed]

I am giving Gentoo linux a try.  Which kernel should I install?  This will be solely for MAME.  Choices = gentoo-sources, valinlla-sources, development-sources or gentoo-dev-sources

thanks

[tj]

Go with gentoo-sources, unless if you have gaming-sources available, it -might- be a better option.  Not really sure if it helps with MAME though, plain only gentoo-sources should be fine.

[whammoed]

Allrighty...thanks for the quick answer!  

[barvaz]

"gentoo-dev-sources" is kernel 2.6.x (gentoo-sources is still 2.4.x) that for whatever reason still labeled as "dev". At some point they will switch to the 2.6.x kernel and call it "gentoo-sources".

Personally, I'd go with the 2.6.x kernel - I noticed a really nice boost in performance when I switched from 2.4.x to 2.6.x and so far the new kernel seems very stable on my machine.

- barvaz

[whammoed]

"gentoo-dev-sources" is kernel 2.6.x (gentoo-sources is still 2.4.x) that for whatever reason still labeled as "dev". At some point they will switch to the 2.6.x kernel and call it "gentoo-sources".

Personally, I'd go with the 2.6.x kernel - I noticed a really nice boost in performance when I switched from 2.4.x to 2.6.x and so far the new kernel seems very stable on my machine.

- barvaz

What kind of system are you running?...I have P4 2.6 prescott w/ Intel d875 MB, 512 dual channel ddr, 160Gb WD SATA hard drive.  I assume it probably supports the newer hardware like this better?

[barvaz]

What kind of system are you running?...I have P4 2.6 prescott w/ Intel d875 MB, 512 dual channel ddr, 160Gb WD SATA hard drive.  I assume it probably supports the newer hardware like this better?

I currently run Gentoo on two systems:

The first is AMD 1700+ on MSI board with 256Mb DDR, GeForce2 and 40Gb HD (this is going to be in my cabinet, once I get around to actually build it).

The second runs on P4 2.4MHz, 512Mb RDRAM, GeForce4, 80GB HD. I use this mainly for work but also play around with xmame and other things.

Both use Gentoo with 2.6.x kernel. The one on AMD was compiled with pretty aggressive CFLAGS and it runs like a charm. The 2.6 kernel offers better driver support (although a standard system runs fine on 2.4), ALSA, udev, SATA , better performance and other goodies. Now that 2.6 is considered stable, I don

[whammoed]

barvaz,

Wondering if you have any experience with gentoo and advmame?  I can't get it to recognize my mouse (mice).  From the documentation it says it looks for mouse devices in /dev/input/eventX but it seems gentoo has the mouse devices in /dev/input and ther isn't an eventX folder.

Any ideas?

[barvaz]

Personally, I never tried to use AdvanceMame with a mouse but I believe that in order to use the

[whammoed]

thanks, i do see a <> event interface option in the kernel that i did not include...i will try it out today.

[whammoed]

I tried compiling event interface into kernel and compiling it as a module.  Both ways give me event entries but mouse is still not recognixed.  (advm gives error)  I know the event entries are mice because when i plug in a ps2 mouse a new event entry is there.  Can you see if advm finds any mice on your system???maybe i need to compile something else in the kernel.

[barvaz]

Which kernel are you using?

Did you compile the kernel with

[whammoed]

i compiled event interface into kernel and did cat /dev/input/event1 and got junk on the screen but still no luck with advmame.  Have you actually got it to work?  I noticed I had to install kde before advmame would work.  Gave some oslang error before i installed kde.  suppose it installs something that advmame needs.  when i use advm i get:
unable to initialize the mouse driver.  the errors are:
event: no mouse found
raw: no mouse found

[seibu]

Hmm. Remember that if AdvanceMAME is running using the svgalib, then mouse support for the svgalib needs to be set up. If it's using X, then mouse support in X needs to be set up.

I believe there is a command line operator you need to use if you want mouse support using svgalib. Sorry, I don't have it to hand. It was mentioned on this forum, or the forums at http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

Sorry to be so vague, but this may give you a lead...