Hi all, I'm a Slack newbie and have followed the instructions for compiling a kernel and installing it and I think I followed everything to the letter.

When I boot into the new kernel there are messages in the boot process that weren't there with the huge kernel... for example:

pcmcia_core: version magic '2.6.24.5-smp SMP mod_unload CORE2 ' should be '2.6.24.5-smp SMP mod_unload 686 '

in a whole list, replacing pcmcia_core with yenta_socket, rsrc_nonstatic, pcmcia, e1000, there are about two dozen of these identical error messages.

When I startx and get into Xfce my trackpoint AND usb mice do not work...

Any ideas?

which config file did you use?

I used the config from: http://slackware.mirrors.tds.net/pub...p-2.6.24.5-smp
and changed a few things using xconfig (processor type, 4GB, dynamic tick, timer, and the filesystems i have installed)

Also... while building the kernel after doing make bzImage modules and it is compiling, I am seeing this warning pass along every now and then: "passing argument 1 of "_memcpy" discards qualifiers from pointer target type" and a few other similar ones.

Is this normal?

Yep, its normal.

The reason you are seeing the boot messages described above is because the kernel is referring to modules from a different compilation or because the local version string doesn't match.

I recommend deleting all directory trees in /lib/modules before doing a "make modules_install" in the kernel source tree, and then also copying /etc/rc.d/rc.modules-<version> to match the module directory name (relink rc.modules to the new file, as well).

Pay attention to the General Setup->Local Version String variable in the kernel configuration, remove the -smp if you disable SMP. That will ensure that the directory name in /lib/modules and the files and references in /etc/rc.d will match.

Of course, you also need to re-run lilo (if you use it) after making any of these changes.

You could change either the LOCALVERSION variable to something other than the Slackware 12.1 default to prevent overwriting /lib/modules/2.6.24.5-smp, or you could edit the Makefile and change the EXTRAVERSION option. Alternatively, you could use a newer kernel version and avoid the problem altogether.

I re-built the kernel again and was a bit more careful and it's working now. I think the problem happened when I installed the kernel and edited lilo.conf... it was as raconteur described.

All appears to be well now!