For and AMD XP-M which is the best kernel version? i386 (which I have now), i686, or K7? I tried installing K7 and I got a checksum error on bootup. It will boot with i386 but I just want to make sure I'm getting the best support, thanks.

I started with the i386, then went to the k7(I'm running sarge). When you get comfortable enough with linux download the kernel source for 2.6.8 and do a custom kernel. For the powernow setting on the athlon xp-m make sure you have acpi working(mine doesn't at the moment). Other questions?

yes... what is acpi and do I have to actually alter the K7 kernel to make it work or should it work right off the batt? If it should work, then I'll feel ok trying to mess with it to get it to work. Thanks all.

ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. It is basically an interface so you can control some hardware settings and power settings (for example, automatically powering down your pc after it shuts down). The K7 version should work, strange it gives you errors. I would suggest trying to build a custom kernel, and carefully selecting which features you want/need (of course ACPI turned on and configuring for a k7 processor), and yes, if you want to build a custom kernel you will have to alter the options to suit your needs, otherwise you'll get a suboptimal, or worse, a non working kernel.

it helps to know exactly what hardware you have. I tried building a kernel once and I'd left out a part of something that I needed. Making the compile a waste of time(other than to give me a rude awakening when I found something was wrong) use kernel-package, to build your kernel, it's a set of scripts that build the kernel for you into a .deb file. then you can use
to install it

I'm still not following, I tried looking up how to do this kernel building buisness but the guides I found were all giberish. Right now, when I try to load the K7 kernel I get a kernel panic and it stops. Where and how do I get this kernel package, and how do I go about messing with it? lol

if you were to post the error message given, that would be helpful. I probably won't be able to help you because I'm also a but someone else most definitley will. Sorry I can't be of more help