i'm running debian stock kernel 2.4.25. The problem is that i am raving trouble with random hard freezes. Many people seem to point fingers at APIC or disk controllers. It seems to be a kernel bug. So i want to not just disable it but completely remove it. I tried removing it on the BIOS and at the boot, but the kernel messages still say "Located and activated local APIC!"

I have never gotten a kernel to compile and "just work". I have followed some "compiling a debian kernel for dummies" type articles, but always something doesn't work.

Question is: How do i get the kernel config options loaded up with how my system currently is? I don't want to go in and manualy select each item or disable each item from scratch. I don't know enough about what it is i need and what i don't. I'd like to have all the options loaded up the way they are and then "tinker" with it from there.

While i'm asking things: when i load a new kernel, like if i want to upgrade to 2.6, are the modules stored some place else other than the others? Do they over-write each other? That could get ugly.

Thanks for your replies.

When I ran Debian I used this kernel compile guide. Following it exactly never failed ->
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2949

Now this is another guide I use. I've got it printed out and it works just fine, also ->
http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ild-HOWTO.html

And then of course there's DrOzz' guide here on LQ ->
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=73436

If I understand your other question, no one can tell you every option for you comp
unless they have the specs for all your hardware. Kwan's guide gives you some
good guidelines for determining that in the Preparation section.

The convention is that there's a file called "config-<kernel version>" in /boot that stores the options for that kernel. It is in the exact same format as the ".config" file in /usr/src/linux after a make *config. Therefore, you can just copy the config file over from /boot and rename it to ".config". Then you can either do a make menuconfig to peruse the options (recommended if the kernel version don't EXACTLY match) or just a make oldconfig to use it without checking. Then compile as usual.

That's what i needed to know. Thank you, i'll give that a try.