I recompiled my kernel for support for sound and it caused a bunch of other problems which have been all fixed except one. When i boot the screen resolution sucks. It looks like almost 640x480. I have a 17" monitor and i would like to make use of it with my new kernel. The resolution is fine in X however in the command line its two low.

List of what i have done:
1) checked that i had the proper stuff in the kernel.
Code maturity level options --->[*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
Then under: Console drivers --->[*] Video mode selection support
Frame-buffer support --->[*] VESA VGA graphics console and...[*] Advanced low level driver options
<*> VGA 16-color graphics console
2) checked the /etc/lilo.conf and VGA = 773 which it 1024x768
3) Booted the original slack kernel and every thing was fine.

This leaves me to believe only one thing: Something is missing from the kernel. But what?

As for the options in Frame-buffer support
I'd suggest you first check whether there
are specific drivers for your card, and if
not, only tick VESA, not the VGA one.

Cheers,
Tink

I think i have already done that. I have an ATI Radeon 7000 VE PCI with 32 mb. I enabled the option under Support for frame buffer devices that is called ATI Radeon display support. I would guess thats the best one for my card ... right? Would zlib compression under library routines have any thing to do with it? Screen savers that used to run fine under x now run really choppy. However the graphics are fine when i boot the original slackware kernel ... but when i do that i have no sound grrrr.
Thanks for your response.

Your original slack kernel compile options probably reside in the file /boot/config (or whatever that is symlinked to). Your own compile options most likely in /usr/src/linux (or wherever you compiled from).
Perhaps a comparison of these two files would show up what is different to affect you video?

Thanks thats the info that i have been looking for. Never thought that the config file used to make the original kernel would be on my own hd. Now i just have to read through those two long files. O well now i think that i can figure it out. Would it make a dif if i was to use the slackware kernel source instead of the kernel.org source? Wouldn't that have the stuff that the original slack 9 kernel had enabled by default so that i could simply add and remove the stuff that i do and do not need?

You can use the default's install config file and only make the changes that you need.

To expand on BittaBrother's post, copy the original slack configfile to your /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 dir, (or wherever you are compiling from), then when you 'make xconfig' (for instance - I prefer the graphic version) you can load the copied configfile ( I always rename it to config1 etc) make your changes, then 'save as', 'load' etc until you get what you want. This way you can make miniscule changes to your kernel without the 'damn, what did I do last time?' Of course you have to recompile to see the results, but you seem to have already mastered the recompile part.

tobyl

Thats a good idea tobyl but i was not sure if that would work when i am trying to compile 2.4.21 with a config file that was from 2.4.20.

Would using the slackware source (that i asume is 2.4.20) and then using the config file under /boot/ and then applying slackware's 2.4.21 patch to that source then compiling? (Sorry 4 the run on sentence) Or is my idea about the slackware source way off from the truth? Is there even an official "slackware 2.4.21 patch"?

Thank you every one 4 your input.

That is a good point. The config file may indeed vary between kernel versions, and I think you may may run into problems trying to use an old config file in the way I suggested on a different kernel. I am not an expert, but I would advise against this.
Although the ftp site has a patches section including a kernel directory, they are the new 2.4.21 kernel. They are patches to Slack 9.0, rather than to the kernel (if you see what I mean). So if you install the newer slack kernel, download the accompanying config file as well, and go from there.
Please correct me anyone if I am incorrect...
tobyl

I know this has already been asked because i have seen it b4 in LQ forums but where is this slackware patch and also the slackware kernel source that every one speaks of? I have looked all over the place on ftp.slackware.com but i am not sure if i am looking at the right thing. Could some one please link me to the slackware patch and source. Am i correct in think that the slackware source is 2.4.20 and the patch upgrades that to 2.4.21?
Thanks

ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.sla...atches/kernels

the standard one is in /bare.i

this is my mirror, but the path is the same on any mirror.

Read versions.txt:
All of these kernels are version 2.4.21.

I copied the config file from /boot to /usr/src/ new kernel directory and used it as the config file when I upgrade to kernel 2.4.21 and didn't have any problems.

Yaaaaaaa! Woo Hoo! ITS WORKING!
Every thing seems to be working thanks to tinkster, bittabrotha and tobyl.

As a recap hear is what i did. I used the kernel config from /boot/ and compiled 2.4.21 kernel source from kernel.org. I then ran "make menuconfig" and made the appropriate changes to get my sound card working and also to optimize it for my processor (athalon). For me what i had to change to get my card to work was not only enable nforce audio in the menuconfig under sound but also uninclude all of the sound cards. I also enabled my sound card not as a module but compiled in with the kernel (do not know if that was necessary but its what i did). A bunch more stuff was enabled then i had been enabling b4 because now i used the config from /boot/config.

-this shows that yes you can just use the config file from 2.4.20 on 2.4.21 kernel source. (at least it worked 4 me)

Again this is for the on board audio on the FIC au13 mobo with an nvidia nforce2 chipset. (Not sure if this is the same for all nforce2 chipsets.)

Looks like every thing is wrapped up now. Thank you every one for all of your help.

for you guys information you can easily use the older .config file safely by copying it into the new sources directory then running

make oldconfig

you will be prompted to address any changes that have occured in the config file. this is also valid if say you wanted to try a 2.6 kernel. however that entails other issues like needing new module utilities