I know that my topic is rather vague, but it is the most accurate that I can think of.

anyway... as it says Iam a new user and have a few questions, so here they come...

1) There is much speak of compiling kernels what exactly does this sort of thing entail?
2) I know that Fedora is supposed to be replacing Red Hat, so should I go straight to fedora now or should I stick with red hat for the time being?
3) How exactly do I access the files on a separate SATA hard drive through red hat 9? (I know that I will need to update the kernel to add support for such drives which is one reason for the first question)
4) How do I update the kernel?

Thanks for any answers you can give to a new user (started using RH9 on Saturday there)

Check kernel.org for instructions on kernel compiling and other stuff.
I have heard that fedora is quite buggy. Its for people who LIVE ON THE EDGE!.
I suggest u stay with redhat for the time being, get accustomed to linux, then switchover to a much sensible distro like Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, etc...

Thanks for that man.

I should also say that my 3rd question has come across wrong...

it should read more like...
How do I get access to files stored on a separate partition?

I apologise for it being unclear.

Thanks again,
Graeme Nimmo

Ok, Minor update. I downloaded the newest kernel from kernels.org, but I couldn't find any guide as to how to compile or build the update, so if somebody could either share their knowledge with me or send me a compiled copy of the new kernel I would be very greatfull.

Thanks in advance,
Graeme Nimmo

This might help:

http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Kernel-HOWTO.html

and for accessing other partitions, u need to edit the /etc/fstab file. Add the following entry in it

/dev/hdXY /mnt/partition partion_type options


where X and Y are numbers. see this for example.
If u need to mount the /dev/hda1 (FAT32) on /mnt/win_c, then u need to add this to /etc/fstab

/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c vfat users,rw,exec,umask=000

Why dont u google, there are a lot of HOWTOs out there