My understanding is that there isn't a whole lot of programs that rely on the maps anymore. I think klogd does, to name one. But from what I've read it will pick them up if they are named like System.map-2.4.22, System.map-2.4.23, and etc. Not sure about the ide being there, as I think it uses "uname -r" to determine it. I name mine this way and don't use the links at all, haven't had any problems. You could also write a short sh script to redo the links for you when you boot the system, based on what kernel you boot, which would probably be an all around better solution. I don't think the configs are used at all, basically just there for your own benefit in knowing what kernel contains what and for being able to easily recompile it if you happen to lose or change the one in the source tree. And I think lilo is the only program that cares anything about the kernel image itself, so you could use any name lilo will accept for it. Here's mine for reference:
Code:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 593K Nov 26 15:48 System.map-2.4.22
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 840K Nov 26 16:30 System.map-2.6.0-test10
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 842K Dec 1 21:34 System.map-2.6.0-test11
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Oct 25 21:57 boot.0303
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25K Nov 26 04:19 config-2.4.22
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25K Nov 26 15:54 config-2.6.0-10
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 26K Dec 1 21:34 config-2.6.0-11
-rw------- 1 root root 64K Dec 5 01:19 map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3M Nov 26 15:49 vmlinuz-2.4.22
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.8M Nov 26 16:31 vmlinuz-2.6.0-10
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.8M Dec 1 21:35 vmlinuz-2.6.0-11
Anyway, interesting topic, maybe someone who knows more about the subject will respond.
