Hello
I had to recompile my kernel to the latest to get some hardware support on a Toshiba laptop.
the problem is now solved on that behalf (I Hope), the other issue that has arisen is that the network card doesn't work under a kernel 2.6.20.4 while it worked correctly under a 2.6.18.4.. can I move the modules (r8169) from the old kernel to the new? simply copying pasting the module r8169.ko from /lib/modules/2.6.18.4/kernel/drivers/net to the 2.6.20.4/kernel/drivers/net.
doesn't seem to work maybe because modinfo r8169.ko.. says it's a 2.6.18 kernel..
thank you very much.

You can try the force option of modprobe...might work. Or, conceivably it will damage your installation.

The larger question is why a module wasn't compiled for your new kernel. It should have been. Is the source present?

yes, the source is present.. indeed i didn't add a option to it when i did make menuconfig as i assumed the old kernel recognized it, so this one would be the same but I was wrong.. I will try to recompile the kernel and search for it.

You could recompile the kernel using the config file from the old one withBe sure to clean out the build dirs first, by giving the commandThis removes all traces of the previous build, so effectively you're starting from scratch

what does exactly do make oldconfig? does it use the .config file of the 2.6.18 kernel or the config of the new kernel that has been freshly installed the new kernel has been customized for my laptop i just need to add support for the network card.
thank you.