make clean doesn't (in my experience) hurt anything.

make oldconfig restores your current .config, and you shouldn't need it unless you have a worthwhile .config in the current directory.

running make menuconfig/xconfig w/o make oldconfig 1st sets everything back to the default kernel settings.

so if you're using the same source directory to repeatedly tweak your kernel 'make oldconfig' is _nice_ 'cause you don't have to go back through every option.

if you want it moved you can just report it, but I really doubt anyone is that worried about it. especially since its more of a kernel compile problem.

if nothing else, I've found the gurus here are very patient with n00b problems and etiquette missteps...

me thinks our community is awesome too.

I'd be nowhere with slack/linux w/o the members here.

hi i av just downloaded azureus but its askin fof a installation code do u know it please

Update!

Ok, I finally just reinstalled Slack and that took care of kernel compile error. Now I'm just working on figuring out what options I need to get a working kernel. My laptop uses SATA and I think something is choking out on that. I get a kernel panic when it tries to mount the root file system, (something about not syncing VFS or something like that. Probably just picking the wrong options in config screen. Trial and error I suppose. But at least I know what I need to do now!

It doesn't have to be all trial and error, check the kernel compile link in my sig (especially chapter 7), it may help.

@Biggen- 'trial and error' ?

there is help available

you can post two things to query some recommendations:

1) what filesystems you are using

2) what SATA controller you have

If you know these, then the simple route is to make sure they are compiled into the kernel image, and not just selected to be modules.

If for some reason you want them to be modular, you can man mkinitrd and go from there.

Also, you can find/copy the sata.i kernel .config and compare it to your own.

Got it! Apparently I have a Silicon Image controller. I had to trace down why the huge.26 kernel works and why my custom kernel did not. Looking through the /sys I was able to trace down the correct driver while I was running the huge.26 kernel. Kinda a pain in the ass but I figured it out. That is one of the problem with buying these "mass production" computers. They never have complete documentation on hardware specs and the users are left to figure it out on their own devices...

Now to do some final tweaking on the kernel (got a couple module sound errors as it boots up) and I should be able to shelf the "kernel project" and move on to something else in slack. I'm just excited I got it running and I can see a blinking command prompt. Never thought I would be excited to see that! :-)

Hey, do you guys know if the Slackware book on the slackware site is "up-to-date"? I know that online book is revised, but I am wonder if the hard copy is. I e-mailed the folks at slack and haven't gotten an answer yet. I'd love to have a hardcopy slack reference around but I want to make sure it is "current" before I fork over $30.

Wanna say again how much help you guys have been. I think I have learned more in the past few days playing around with Slack than I have in the last few months playing around with other distros. One thing about slack, it forces you to get your hands dirty...

you'll find most everything you need from have you run alsaconf & alsamixer yet?

Took out sound temporarily from the kernel as I don't know what kind of sound card is in this thing. Looks to be a sound blaster of some type according to lspci. Haven't ever tried to get a sound card working so that may take some extra reading on my part.

Also trying to decide if I want to upgrade to the latest kde or try another windows manager. Decisions, decisions... :-) But at least I'm up and running now!