Are there any current instructions to upgrade the kernel from the source to 2.6.5? I've been trying for the better part of 2 days now to do this, and have not yet suceeded. The instructions I've found here and there seem to get me close, but also seem to be lacking. No matter what I do, I end up with errors after boot. Before I post the errors and get into specifics, are there any current step by step instructions available? I have a clean install of slackware 9.1 with the 2.4.22 kernel. Yesterday I tried to upgrade to the 2.6.4 kernel, and I guess the 2.6.5 just got released so I tried to upgrade to that today, without success.

I'm getting real good at reinstalling 9.1 from scratch I must have done it 5 or 6 times now in an atempt to undo the mess I make. Help?

With 2.6.x you no longer need make dep and make clean, so for example:

make menuconfig
make bzImage
make modules
su if not already root
make modules_install

should work fine.

/usr/src/linux-2.6.x/arch/i386/boot/bzImage is where your new kernel will be located upon build. Copy this to /boot/ and also copy the System.map from /usr/src/linux-2.6.x/ to /boot/, I recommend renaming both of these ie.

mv bzImage 2.6.5
mv System.map System.map-2.6.5

then ln -s /boot/System.map-2.6.5 System.map

now edit your /etc/lilo.conf and under the linux section make it something like this for example:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/2.4.25i
root = /dev/hda1
label = 2.4.25i
image = /boot/2.6.4
root = /dev/hda1
label = 2.6.4
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Of course modify to your own needs, and make sure not to delete or remove from lilo your old kernel, because you may still need this. Good luck

OK, this is what I just now did:

Clean install of Slackware 9.1 with kernel 2.4.22. I installed all options. Boots OK, so far so good.

Download linux-2.6.5.tar.gz from ftp.kernel.org to /usr/src
Unzip into /linux-2.6.5 (tar -xvzf linux-2.6.5.tar.gz)
Change symbolic link linux to point to this directory instead of linux.2.4.22
cd linux (puts me in my new 2.6.5 directory

> make menuconfig
> make bzImage
> make modules
> su if not already root
> make modules_install
>
> should work fine.

Does - so far so good

> /usr/src/linux-2.6.x/arch/i386/boot/bzImage is where your new kernel will be located upon build. Copy this to /boot/ and also copy the System.map from /usr/src/linux-2.6.x/ to /boot/, I recommend renaming both of these ie.
> mv bzImage 2.6.5
> mv System.map System.map-2.6.5
> then ln -s /boot/System.map-2.6.5 System.map

Done. I now have System.map for 2.4.22 and 2.6.5, with System.map pointing at the 2.6.5. I copied bzImage to vmlinuz-2.6.5, and vmlinuz pointing to this file. I also noticed a config ->config-ide.2.4.22, which looked like that config file that menuconfig makes, so I copied my config over and pointed config to that file.


> now edit your /etc/lilo.conf and under the linux section make it something like this for example:

Done.
Reboot.
I get:
FATAL: Module agpgart not found
FATAL: Module ide_scsi not found
FATAL: Module snd_pcm_oss not found
FATAL: Module snd_mixer_oss not found.

Also, it doesn't boot in 50 line mode. However, it does seem to boot to 2.6.5. At this point, I'm not sure what is working and what is not, at least the above is the only inication I get that something is not right. I think the next step is to figure out how to get it back in 50 line mode when it boots, and what to do about the above FATAL messages.

Those FATAL lines mean that Slackware is trying to 'modprobe' kernel modules that are not there, most probably since you are not building them. You can add them in the kernel configuration and recompile. The ide_scsi one is SCSI emulation support, which I think is no longer necessary with 2.6.x kernels. The snd_ ones are OSS related modules, also not necessary since 2.6 kernels use ALSA. agpgart is related to graphics hardware, to use Direct Rendering support etc. Your computer should run perfectly fine without them, and those except agpgart are there because Slackware boot scripts are not up to date with 2.6 kernels. You can remove them from /etc/rc.modules (just a comment will do) if you want to clean the FATAL lines.

About the 50 lines thing I don't know much but this sounds like a framebuffer issue many people have while upgrading to 2.6 kernels. Perhaps a google'ing or fellow forum members can help you out on this one.

OK, I'll edit the rc.modules.

Um...how do you edit rc.modules? I see the file in the etc directory, but I try to edit it I get a blank file.

Another question - I've lost network connectivity with 2.6.5, but I still have it if I boot to 2.4.22. I've ran netconfig and entered the appropriate settings, and even rebooted, but I still have no network connection. Is this a menuconfig issue?

Umm, you are either missing important things (ethernet card driver etc) from the kernel configuration, or including them as modules (if so you need to modprobe them to get them to work) and not loading the modules. You can add lines such as:

/sbin/modprobe XXXXX

to rc.modules to load modules. Actually, rc.modules should be full of such lines, most of them commented out, and some of them (that you want to be loaded) uncommented.

For your networking, if you can paste your 'ifconfig' and 'dmesg' (only parts relevant to networking) output here, we can try to see what is wrong. But I am pretty sure that it is due to missing things in your kernel. I'd advise you to play with your kernel configuration a bit and recompile. Be sure to include important things (ethernet card drivers!), and build them right into the kernel (not as modules) so that you don't need to worry with modprobe's. Here is a procedure that may come handy:

Boot your 2.4 kernel, run 'lsmod' and write down all the module names.
Next, boot your 2.6 kernel, and run

/sbin/modprobe XXXX

for each module you have written down (and is missing from 'lsmod' in 2.6)

See if this works. If it gives you a FATAL line, and the module turns out to be something important (ethernet card driver ) you need to go back and recompile your kernel with that included.

To edit any file type it is done the same way, " vi /etc/rc.d/rc.modules" as in this case. Go to the line in question and put # in front of the lines that you no longer want to be modprobed. Of course you can use a lesser editor :-)

Hi,

Touching rc.modules may be unnecessary. You seem to have a problem with your kernel config.

Try to recompile your kernel using diferent options (compile agpgart as a modules, check the network card drivers...). For unexperienced users this might be the most painful part.

Bye

SnOp