Introduction

Downloads

Instructions

FAQ

•  CFS-V20.3 patch for kernel 2.6.22.5: here
•  Redline-V1.6 patch against CFS-V20.3: here
•  Redline-V1.6 patch against kernel 2.6.22.5: here
•  SpecTools: here
•  Toy programs for testing: here

•  Kernel Installation
  Step 1: download Linux kernel 2.6.22.5 here, then download CFS V20.3 patch and Redline-V1.6 from Downloads section above. Extract kernel source into a local directory, say /your_source/, then apply patches using following commands:
  
                  $cd your_source
                  $patch -p1 < cfs-v20.3.patch
                  $patch -p1 < redline-v1.t.patch
  
  Step 2: compile your kernel. Here is an sample configuration file I used.
  
                  $make xconfig or make menuconfig
                  $make
                  $make modules_install install
  
  NOTE: Redline currently only works on Intel i386 platforms. However, Redline implementation does not touch any architecture specific part, except adding two system calls, which supports setting and getting specifications for applications. That is said, just adding proper system calls into other architectures in Linux kernel should also make Redline work.
  
  NOTE: You may have to disable following options in your kernel configuration file, even though by default they are disabled:
                  CONFIG_NUMA        /* For NUMA */
                  CONFIG_MC          /* For Multi-Core */
                  CONFIG_RT_MUTEXES  /* For Mutex Priority Inheritance */
                  CONFIG_NOMMU       /* no MMU, for systems have no VM */
   
•  System Setup using SpecTools
  Redline is specification driven, so you need to setup specifications for your system, and also manage them. SpecTools is a package that allows you to do these jobs. It contains a specification table, several binary tools for setting/getting specifications, and several scripts. For detail, please refer to README.SPECTOOLS in the downloaded package.
  
  Step 1: Before you can compile SpecTools, you need first add necessary system call interface, because Redline adds two system calls. You need to
          replace: /usr/include/asm/unistd.h   (or whatever suitable file in your system)
          with    : /include/asm-i386/unistd.h  (in your downloaded kernel source above)
  
  Step 2: Download SpecTools from the Downloads section above, and then decompress it using
  
                   $tar -zxvf spectools.tar.gz
                   $make
                   $make install       /* You need have root privilege to do this */
  
  This will setup a directory /etc/spec in your system, and generates proper specification files in that directory from specification.tab. You can do this manually using update_spec.pl script in the package. It also installs two binaries: set_pid_spec and get_pid_spec
  
  Step 3: The last thing you need to do is add one line in your /etc/rc.d/rc.local
                           /etc/spec/kernelthread_specfix.pl
  So that your system invokes this script after it boots up. This script will set specifications for kernel threads, which do not call do_execve() at all.
  
  NOTE: The sample system specification provided by SpecTools, i.e. specification.tab, is configured for KDE desktop environment. Currently I do not have specifications for GNOME, but feel free to work it out by yourself. Most GUI applications currently inherits a default specification from KDE, when kdeinit fork and exec a new application. Firefox, mplayer, gmplayer, vim, gvim has their own specifications, either because they need more than the default or I always launch them from a shell. You can provide your own specification for an application if necessary, and please see README files in SpecTools package for how to do it.
  
  Now, you are ready to reboot your system with Readline kernel. Enjoy it!
   
•  Setting Specification:
  Please read README.SPECTOOLS and README.SPECIFICATIONS to see how to provide specification for applications