Hello,

I have compiled my own custom kernel (3.2.5 back when that was the new one) and it works great, I have my filesystem built-in to the kernel, required drivers, etcetera.

There are however a few questions I had regarding upgrading to a new (custom) kernel:

1. From these forums I've found that aaa_elflibs need to be upgraded and so I should remove or comment aaa_elflibs from /etc/slackpkg/blacklist, that is done. There are also the kernel-header, kernel-generic, kernel-generic-smp and a list of other kernel-whatevers in /etc/slackpkg/blacklist. Should those be upgraded as well (since -current is up to 3.2.7 now).

2. Does the kernel from kernel.org not come with those required kernel-header, kernel-other packages/files?

3. If I used "make oldconfig" after untarring the new kernel source and following the directions on Alien Bob's custom kernel page, will it use the old settings of my custom kernel?

3a. How exactly does "make oldconfig" work? Will holding down <Enter> just use the same settings (including drivers) that I had from my custom kernel (if the settings of the custom kernel apply to the new kernel)?

1- You only need to do this when you upgrade your Slackware from one major version to other (Like from Slackware 13.1 to 13.37 or to -current).
2- No, you do not need to upgrade kernel-headers when you upgrade your custom kernel at all.
3- It should.
3a- it uses the .config file you copied before to create configuration. But check with make menuconfig before compiling.

If you have access to the /proc/config.gz (defined by a setting in the kernel config) you can simply enter the directory of your kernel source and

you will have the config of your running system. I think this is default on Slackware. Then either

it will ask about everything which is different from the version you are currently running. If you hold down Enter then, it will set everything new to the default. Or you run

instead of make oldconfig, you'll see a (NEW) tag next to each new option. Make sure you find all of them in the menu, I am not sure how the behaviour is when compiling an option which is not set.

1- As has been said, aaa-elflibs only get upgraded at major releases

2 - The kernel-* packages are repackaging the source as well as the kernel, that way people who didn't build their own can still build things that require the kernel headers and such. You don't need them if you're using a custom kernel (I've actually got them all blacklisted, myself)

3 - It should

4 - It reads the old config file you put in that directory, and presets all the options defined therein. Any new options introduced inbetween the two kernel versions, you are then prompted for. Holding down enter will give you the defaults for all the new options.

Thank you for taking the time to answer. All of you have answered questions 2 and 3(a) for me, but I'm still a bit confused on #1.

Suppose I am running Slackware-current, when do I need to upgrade aaa_elflibs and in order to do so, should I comment it (or remove the line that contains it) from /etc/slackpkg/blacklist?

If I was using Slackware-<stable>, would aaa_elflibs automatically be upgraded somewhere in the list of UPGRADE.txt's instructions, or would I need to upgrade that the same way as Slackware-current by removing it from /etc/slackpkg/blacklist?

Moment you need to upgrade aaa_elflibs is the moment change log says you to do so.

And UPGRADE.TXT does not uses slackpkg so it won't make a change. and Yes' aaa_elflibs gets upgraded some way in the UPGRADE.TXT.

In Slackware, UPGRADE.TXT is old way to do an upgrade. IT is still used by a lot of people and it is still a nice way to upgrade. Other way is to use slackpkg to do an upgrade. To upgrade your Slackware from one major version to other one using slackpkg, you need to remove aaa_elflibs from /etc/slackpkg/blacklist.

I see, that answers my question. Thank you!

'slackpkg' is a great tool for automatically following updates in patches/ but I don't think I'd be comfortable letting it do a full stable->stable update. And I wouldn't label UPGRADE.TXT as "the old way" either. It's still an essential read come upgrade time.