hey guys, i just installed fedora core 1 on my sony r505el laptop via an ftp install. Everything is working great, except that it wont see my cd rom drive thats located in my docking station. Me and my friend figured that if we re-compliled the kernel to a newer version it would work out ok. I know that when i had SuSE on it it read fine, but im liking fedora alot more. My question is...i dled from kernel.org the lateset stable kernel 2.6.3. i unzipped it and all that unzipped was a 11meg file named patch-2.6.3 is this correct? i was expecting to get an xconfig file also..or at lease a readme....well any help would be greatly appreciated..thanks alot...ttyl

i figured out that i didnt download a kernel, just a patch, so now i got the latest stable kernel and it extracted to a folder called linux-2.6.3 and i have it in my /etc folder...now can someone please help me on how to compile a new kernel?...:-D..i've never done this before..and the readme sucks...thanks alot..ttyl

Let me point you in the right direction

How to Kernel

yea..i had found that and i was looking at it...all goes fine untill i get to the part where i hafta do : make xconfig...i've tried make xconfig, make gconfig, make menuconfig and no matter which i do..i keep getting these same errors:

HOSTCC scripts/fixdep
/bin/sh: line 1: gcc: command not found
make [1]: *** [scripst/fixdep] Error 127
make: *** [scripts/fixdep] Error 2

i have no idea whats wrong..i've tried this a bunch of times, all i want to do is get my cd rom drive working...any ideas?..please help me

try
make mrproper then
make xconfig

I am really not sure what this command does, I guess it cleans it up kernel source files.

i did all that too..but stiill gettin those same errors...i am at a loss..any help is appreciated

ah hah!..i figured it out, when i originally installed, i was in a bit of a rush..and forgot to install the development package, and the kernel compiliing one...whoopsies...so i just went back, reinstalled and i was all set...i can recompile my kernel now...so just one more question for anyone that has a sony r505el laptop, do you happen to know which cd driver i need to look for in the kernel in order to get my cd drive in my laptop docking station to work?...i know it worked when i had SuSE, but i like fedora much better....so any help is appreciated..thanks again