I am new to slackware. I just installed 11, and choose kernel 2.6 huge. But after that I couldn't get my mouse, or ethernet card to work. I couln't find anything to help by running menuconfig. So I did a re-install using kernel 2.4. Everything works just fine with it. But I would really like to use 2.6. What is the best way to get it? Do I have to do a re-install again, then try and get my hardware to work?

Thanks.

Edit:

By the way, I am using grub because I already had it booting other linux versions. And I am used to it. I have noticed in the instructions to upgrade the kernel it does something with lilo. I am not sure how that will work with grub.

You have to install the kernel modules for the 2.6 kernel.

Log in as root and place the 2nd cd in the drive and do this:
mount /mnt/cdrom
cd /mnt/cdrom/extra/linux-2.6.17.13
installpkg kernel-modules-2.6.17.13-i486-1.tgz
/etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug restart

You might have to reboot. Then you are good to go.

thanks. I am using 2.4 right now(did a re-install just to see is that was the problem). Do I need 2.6 before I do that? Is re-installing the easiest way to get 2.6 back? And should I use huge, or is there a normal one?

Thanks
Sorry for all the questions.

If I were you I would just go to www.kernel.org and download your 2.6 kernel from there. Reinstalling is definitely over kill just for a new kernel. There are plenty of guides out there on howto configure and install your own kernel.

The kernel is for the huge26 is on the first cd, in the /mnt/cdrom/kernels/huge26.s. There is a file named bzImage in there. Just copy it to your /boot and rename it something like vmlinuz-26. Then set up grub with that as a boot option. I use lilo so I do not know how to set up grub for that. If you installed your kernel modules, you should bee good.

Thats a piece of mine for an example. Everything after "root=/dev/hda3" is for framebuffer and is totally optional. Don't put that in there unless your kernel includes framebuffer.

Thanks guys. I can't believe how easy that was. I am now running 2.6 without any problems.

No problem

sorry, I have one more question. I ran make menuconfig in /usr/src/linux, and when I was done, I noticed it was configuring my 2.4 kernel, and told me to run make dep (which I don't think you do with 2.6). How do I get rid of my 2.4 kernel, and how do I configure my 2.6 kernel?

cd /var/log/packages

$ ls | grep kernel

kernel-headers-2.4.32-i386-1
kernel-sl_ac-2.6.16.20-i486-1
kernel-source-2.6.16.16-noarch-1

What *you* experienced likely was your 2.4 kern-source from when U had installed using the 2.4 kernel.

# removepkg (likely be kernel-source-2.4.something)

# installpkg (kernel-source-2.6.something from same spot on cd disk where you had installed the kern modules from)

Others can verify/add/correct on this.

They say don't ever install the 2.6.something kernel headers due to I guess gcc and glibc needs the same headers onboard that glibc had been compiled with (has to do with system calls, etc.)

P.S. the above ls is a now outdated Slack Current that I'll soon save my data and settings and do a fresh install of Slack 11.

--
Alan.

Just FYI, the 2.6 kernels that Pat packages with Slackware are the same exact kernels you would be getting from kernel.org.

You might need to change /usr/src/linux which is a soft link so that it points to /usr/src/linux-2.6 rather than /usr/src/linux-2.4

something like:

cd /usr/src
rm linux
ln -s linux-2.6xxxx linux

here is what I get when I type ls | grep kernel

Do I want to remove all the 2.4 stuff, then install the 2.6 stuff (all except the headers)?

the prblem with that is that I don't have any linux-2.6xxx in there.

here is what I have.

You need to install the 2.6 kernel source. I think it is on disc 2 in /extra/kernel-2.6