My Debian runs on Kernel 2.6.26.5 and I want to update to 2.6.31-rc7. The reason therefore is that I´m working on a ASUS Eee-Pc 1005HA and the ethernet device will only work with the 2.6.31-rc5 kernel and following (if you are interested: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Model/1005HA).

I followed the instrustions from http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ/HowToApplyAPatch

This is the result:

....?

I'm not completely certain what method you're following here, trying to go from 2.6.26.5 to 2.6.31rc7 however here's some general information that may help:

1) You generally need to patch in sequence, from one kernel release to the next, until you get to the version you want. Assuming you have a stock kernel archive from kernel.org, this would go something like:

2.6.26 > 2.6.27
2.6.27 > 2.6.28
2.6.28 > 2.6.29
2.6.29 > 2.6.30
2.6.30 > 2.6.31rc7 # not sure how this patch would work..

Now, that said, is there any particular problem with simply downloading the 2.6.31rc7 kernel from kernel.org/testing or wherever it is? Why do you need to do this using patch?

Finally, let's say you have a kernel archive, and you want to patch it to a higher version. You would do:

1) unpack the kernel archive.
2) copy the patch file(s) into the root of the unpacked folder.
3) execute: patch -p1 -i patchfile # as many times as needed to go from start to finish version.

I hope this explains a little bit but if there's still an issue here, please clarify what it is exactly, and why you need to go this route. Thanks,

Sasha

Well, that explains even more than a little bit

Because of the reasons mentioned above (ethernet chipset atl1c), I want to upgrade the kernel to 2.6.31.rc5 (or 6, 7).
I found two possibilities to do that: Either the "patching-method" (which I recognize as quite a laborious one, now understanding how it works, or to compile a new kernel, as described at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ/KernelCompilation. But this way surpasses my (at the moment very low) linux abilities.
So generally, which is the easiest way to upgrade the kernel. I download the the kernel I want from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ - and than?

Ok, maybe I should mention the problems I had with compiling kernel 2.6.30.5. I got as far as

Then I got stuck.
I´ll try it again and post the error messages (or whatever they are) later on.

Tobias

I don't know of a way to patch a "compiled, installed" kernel -- I don't think that can be done.

No matter which of the above methods you use, the kernel
*still* will need to be re/compiled after patching, or after downloading from kernel.org, and subsequently installed.

The exception to this, is IF you were to download a pre-built kernel, already compiled, packaged for your distro, via your package manager, but again, I doubt there'd be an rc-level kernel that fits this qualification, unless maybe you were/are running a VERY bleeding-edge distro.

If you download the rc7 kernel source you want, from kernel.org or wherever, put it into /usr/src/source/HERE and extract the archive, now you're ready to compile.

It's not as scary as it sounds; if you're determined, and want the device to work, this would be the way to go AFAICT. I can give you instructions on compiling it (which you can also find in 100000 other locations) but you may need to seek the advice of a Debian user to ensure proper installation after compiling it --- I use Slackware, so my installation instructions might differ somewhat, from what a Debian user would normally do.


Sasha