Choosing the right Kernel to Install (Slackware 10.2)
 

Toshiba Satellite A10, Celeron 2.4GHz, 512RAM, 40GB(original, but upgraded to 60GB)

All this Kernel stuff is getting me a little confused! I have Mandriva 2005LE in my system at the moment (my first linux dist), which uses Kernel 2.6.11.6. It worked good, execept for those rpm packages and missing libraries (I hate them:rolleyes: )... Anyway, I am just waiting for my torrent to finish downloading the iso's for Slackware 10.2, and I will be installing a new HDD in my system replacing Mandriva with Slackware. I don't really understand what's this Kernel stuff all about? Will it make a big difference installing the Slack default 2.4.31 Kernel? Here are some release notes on Slack 10.2:

"As you can see, Slackware 10.2 is still using a 2.4 kernel (2.4.31)
for the default system kernel."

"The 2.6 kernel series shows a great deal of promise, but it's
still undergoing heavy development and the stability of any given
release can be hit-or-miss"

So, considering that I'm using a laptop, and may need support for some extra drivers etc, should I install the Kernel 2.6 in Slack or stick to the default?!

Thanks

You can stay with 2.4.31 Kernel. If you find some devices are not properly supported, you can upgrade to 2.6 later.
On slackware is very easy to install a custom kernel.
Ciao

Odd question... if all the hardware in the box works with 2.4.x
just use it. If some devices aren't supported, switch to 2.6
anyway.


Cheers,
Tink

i am running the test26.s kernel on my dell inspiron, works great, acpi works.
i would use the 2.6 first, and if you had problems to go back to a 2.4.

I agree with what's been said above. If your hardware works for both, then use the 2.6.x one because many things are better, like the scheduler.

I'm new to all this and still haven't gone trough my quota of stupid questions :):newbie: ! I didn't know it was easy to install a custom Kernel in slackware or swich after I have installed! So, if that's the case, no problems, I'll just give it a try and I'll post here which one worked best when I'm finished (hopefully tommorow)!
Ok, thanks everybody for clarifying the issue!

Is there a way to check if my hardware is supported by the 2.6 kernel? Is there some sort of HCL that I can check? Or better yet, is there a test program of some sort that I can run against my laptop to ensure it's compatible?

Try Googling for the hardware + "linux-2.6".

Otherwise, if its supported by 2.4, there'e a 99.99% chance it'll be supported by 2.6.

I use a recompiled version of the 2.6.13 kernel I installed from Slack CD 2. I use it because I had some prolems with laptop fan control, which I found easier with the newer kernel. If not for that, I would have stuck with 2.4.31, which seemed a bit faster to me.

I have to use the 2.6 kernel because it's on a laptop and the wireless requires at least 2.6.8. I tried googled on the kernel and the hardware, but there's always a chance that I could miss something in the system. That's why I was looking for a program to run against the hardware.

Thanks

I finished installing Slackware 10.2
I do have a lot of questions but that is a topic for a different thread. I installed the 2.4 kernel. Everything seems to be working. The only problem is that during installation I could not create all the partitions I wanted. I tried using cfdisk and fdisk but I could not create more then 4 partitions. So the partiton I wanted to create to be accessible by both windows and Linux is still not happening... Still lost with all the commands but happy with the results so far!

That is a PC limit. To create more than four partitions you have to make one of the first four partitions an 'extended' partition and then you can create as many logical partitions as you wish in the space of that logical partition. In cfdisk, you do this by creating partitions after the first 3 (after the first or second will work also) as logical instead of primary.

Personally I would stick to the 2.4 kernel until the 2.6 becomes offical. All the offical packages are compiled with the 2.4 kernal and if you start to mix and match headers thing can go broke.

The 2.4 is very stable and I'm even using it for my IBM laptop R31 with no issues. I'm using APM so I don't have all the advances of ACPI however it's rock solid.