I have ubuntu 9.10 installed on an acer aspire one and a normal sized laptop. I've compiled kernels for both from source. I use awn-navigator rather than gnome's panel/menus although problems existed using default gnome.

1. When I choose restart from the logout options it'll restart but it'll restart the current installed ubuntu provided kernel rather than the running kernel I compiled myself.

2. When I boot from cold on the aspire one the boot process freezes and I have to turn off the netbook by holding down the button. This only happens when the netbook has been off for an hour or so, not when I've had it running shutdown and then started up again.

3. Awn-navigator applet doesn't show an option for logout, only - shutdown, hibernate, sleep, restart. I've had to add a menu shortcut to gnome-sessions-save --kill

The questions possibly cover different areas but I thought I'd just put them in the one post. Any one any ideas?

Have you changed entry or created new one in your menu.lst (if you are using Grub) that refers to your newly-compiled kernel? Are you sure you have installed the kernel?

uname -an before selecting "restart" from logout menu:
Linux presario 2.6.29.2 #1 PREEMPT Tue Apr 28 12:56:47 IST 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

uname -an after selecting "restart":
Linux presario 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

I've noticed that when I do a restart jaunty doesn't "rewind" all the way back to the start of the boot process. Ubuntu shutdown animation bar goes all the way down and then back up again. Could possibly be a kernel config option I'm messed up or a configuration file needs altered somewhere. I think there's an option in the kernel config for replace current running kernel with another kernel or something like that.

Yes, you need to modify your menu.lst. Well, post the content of your menu.lst then.

Also make sure that the kernel you are installing is located in /boot .

This is the contents of my /boot directory:
abi-2.6.28-11-generic memtest86+.bin
abi-2.6.28-9-generic System.map-2.6.28-11-generic
config-2.6.28-11-generic System.map-2.6.28-9-generic
config-2.6.28-9-generic System.map-2.6.29.1-gs1
config-2.6.29.1-gs1 System.map-2.6.29.2
config-2.6.29.2 vmcoreinfo-2.6.28-11-generic
grub vmcoreinfo-2.6.28-9-generic
initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic
initrd.img-2.6.28-9-generic vmlinuz-2.6.28-9-generic
initrd.img-2.6.29.1-gs1 vmlinuz-2.6.29.1-gs1
initrd.img-2.6.29.2 vmlinuz-2.6.29.2

and below is my complete /boot/grub/menu.lst :

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically
## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa
## e.g. indomU=detect
## indomU=true
## indomU=false
# indomU=detect

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##
title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.29.2
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.2 root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.2
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.29.1-gs1
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.1-gs1 root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.29.1-gs1
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-9-generic
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-9-generic root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-9-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-9-generic (recovery mode)
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-9-generic root=UUID=a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-9-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid a01380f8-cc8a-4cfd-8cf5-9da4393d13ec
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

Having reading your last post, it seems that menu.lst is OK.

Just in case any one is interested or encounters the same problem. I did a bit of trawling through the init scripts and I ended up at /etc/default/kexec and had a look at man kexec

environment variable were set so $KERNEL_IMAGE="/vmlinuz" and $INITRD="/initrd.img" in /etc/defaut/kexec

I changed the whole file to whats below to get the current running kernel:


# Defaults for kexec initscript
# sourced by /etc/init.d/kexec and /etc/init.d/kexec-load

# Load a kexec kernel (true/false)
LOAD_KEXEC=true

# Kernel and initrd image


KERNEL_IMAGE="/boot/vmlinuz-"`uname -r`
INITRD="/boot/initrd.img-"`uname -r`
# If empty, use current /proc/cmdline

APPEND=""

and now "restart" works as I wanted. Problem could be self-inflicted as I used the make, make modules_install, mkinitramfs, copied files manually method to install my kernel rather than any specific ubuntu howto. But there ya go

For future reference, you may be interested in this tutorial for compiling a kernel for Ubuntu:
http://www.howtoforge.com/roll_a_ker...ian_ubuntu_way