Okay, have reached the desperation point here. Yelling at my kids and stuff (not good). So here's what I need to solve.

In order to get my autoloader to be properly recognized and work with my backup software, I need to recompile 2.6.* with multi-LUN support and add the sg / remove the st modules from the kernel.

Please give me idiot instructions if possible. I'm not a total newb, but I've never compiled a kernel before.

Start by reading the kernel rebuild guide;

http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ild-HOWTO.html

Building kernels for the Red hat family differs slightly the steps are;

make mrproper
make menuconfig (or gconfig or xconfig)
make
make modules_install
make install

If you rebuilding a Red Hat kernel from source then you need to prep the source before attempting to build it;

Install the source; rpm -Uvh kernel-<version>.src.rpm
Change location to the where the spec file is; cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
Prep the kernel; rpmbuild -bp --target $(arch) kernel-2.6.spec
Change to where the prepped source is; cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-<version>

TY Lenard for the prompt reply. I believe I can handle the basic recompile instructions, but where I am stuck is the adding of the multi-LUN support and the adding sg module in lieu of st. Any advice there?

That's in the SCSI section of the configuration, the menu is quite easy to follow;

#
# SCSI support type (disk, tape, CD-ROM)
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=m
# CONFIG_CHR_DEV_ST is not set
# CONFIG_CHR_DEV_OSST is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR_VENDOR=y
CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG=m
# CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SCH is not set



#
# Some SCSI devices (e.g. CD jukebox) support multiple LUNs
#
CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN=y
CONFIG_SCSI_CONSTANTS=y
CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING=y

Gracias! I think I get it now and will give it a try as soon as I can.

Well, I understand all the steps now, but of course am getting an error along the way. When I try to "make" (after menuconfig) I get:

CHK include/linux/version.h
CHK include/asm-i386/asm_offsets.h
/bin/sh: arch/i386/kernel/asm-offsets.s: No such file or directory
UPD include/asm-i386/asm_offsets.h
mv: cannot stat `include/asm-i386/asm_offsets.h.tmp': No such file or directory
make: *** [include/asm-i386/asm_offsets.h] Error 1

Near as I can tell, I probably don't have all the proper sources installed. However, system tells me "package kernel-devel-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL is already installed", so I'm not sure what I could be missing.

But I must wimp out for the night and get some sleep...

The kernel-devel package is not the kernel source, you need to download;

kernel-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL.src.rpm

Then do (as I said earlier);

Install the source; rpm -Uvh kernel-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL.src.rpm
Change location to the where the spec file is; cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
Prep the kernel; rpmbuild -bp --target $(arch) kernel-2.6.spec
Change to where the prepped source is; cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL

Yeehaw! TY again Lenard!

Everything is working great now.

The only teeny (and I mean teeny) glitch was needing to change the default kernel back to "default=0" in grub.conf. The "make install" command under CentOS/REL does a beautiful job of adding the new kernel to grub.conf, but leaves the previous kernel set as the default. This is probably sensible, but I just thought I should mention it in case someone else like me reads this thread.

Sorry about the brain fade last night regarding the sources. I had spent so much time reading and trying to assimilate so many things, that I simply overloaded.

I really appreciate your patience. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Your welcome glad to help........

Completely understand fustration and being overloaded causing brain fade (or even freeze), not a big deal.

Enjoy your custom kernel!!!