Well i have one problem that i've been trying to solve and my attempt has let me to discover another. My system spec is :
Compaq Presario
Intel P4 2.8Ghz with hyperthreading
512MB ram
128MB Ati radeon 9200
Debiad Sid with kernel 2.6.10

The first is that i need to have a display resolution of 1280x1024 on my 17" TFT monitor. I get this ok on windows and now i want it on linux ( its a dual boot system) I tried entering the vertical and horizontal freq as per the monitor's user manul in XF86Config-4 but the monitor freaks out and displays a message displaying completely different freqs fron the ones i entered. After reading all the how to's i came across and trying all without success, i desided to install flgrx.

It meant i had to recompile the kernel. The problem with that is, without any changes to the official .config file at all, compiling the kernel with gcc 3.3 gives me loads of errors and the resulting kernel panics when i try to reboot it. I therefore tried to remove gcc 3.3 and install gcc 2.95. Trouble with that is, using synaptic, removing gcc 3.3 will also remove so many other packages.

My first question is, is it ok to install gcc 2.95 side-by-side gcc 3.3? if so how do i specify which ver to use when compiling the kernel?

Secondly below is my XF86Config-4 file, i'd appreciate any help to get a 1280x1024 display please. Thanks.

# XF86Config-4 (XFree86 X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the XF86Config-4 manual page.
# (Type "man XF86Config-4" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xfree86 package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xfree86
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following commands as root:
#
# cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.custom
# md5sum /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 >/var/lib/xfree86/XF86Config-4.md5sum
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "ati"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 30-57
VertRefresh 43-72
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

you can have both, but you don't want to put the older one near the 3.3 ( don't have 3.3 in /usr and 2.95 in /usr/local). Personally, I like to keep a 2.95 compiler around ( statically compiled - this uses more disk space not only with it, but anything it compiles also. But it does make it easier from a library standpoint) in /opt/gcc-2.95.3, and just switch between them by manipulating PATH.

gcc 3.3 can compile any kernel. Most distro's use gcc 3.x to compile their kernels. did you start over on the kernel build or try to build the kernel with an already used source tree?

Thankx. I installed the latest debian kernel 2.6.10-5 source, then cp /boot/config-2.6.10-1-686-smp /usr/src/linux . After which i use make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-xxxx kernel_image . Then i get all these errors but its builds the kernel package anyway so i install with dpkg which update grub as well. I then reboot and select the custom kernel but it panics during the boot up process. thnx

About the monitor resoluton problem. You could try the 'gtf' program to generate a modeline. I think you want to use a refresh frequency of 60 Hz however.

gtf 1280 1024 -x

This will generate a modeline that you could try. I believe that it is best to run this command on an unloaded machine, such as starting out in init level 3.

---

I don't have much experience on compiling the kernel. Did you run 'make mrproper' to clean out the old object files. Also, after changing .config, run 'make oldconfig' to verify your changes. Something illustrative might show up.

i just finished going through another ordeal of trying to compile kernel-2.6.10 with gcc 3.3. As usual i got loads of warnings but the package was created anyway so i installed and rebooted. Again the kernel panicked. i did the compile witha new source tree. The exact panic message was:

Kernel panic -not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown - block (0,0).

I should mention that i have two harddisk, one for windows and the other for linux. My root filesystem is ext3 and home is reiserfs. Thanks.

I met the same warnings when I compiled the 2.6.10 kernel. Most of them are "deprecated" messages and you don't have to worry about them. I don't think you need the 2.95 compiler.

About that "kernel panic" message: have you updated properly the bootloader's config file so it points to the new vmlinuz as it should, on the right partition?

Below is the relevant entries in the grub menu list:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.10-1-686-smp
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1-686-smp root=/dev/hdb1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-1-686-smp
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.10-1-686-smp (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1-686-smp root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-1-686-smp
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.10-07mar
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-07mar root=/dev/hdb1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-07mar
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.10-07mar (recovery mode)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-07mar root=/dev/hdb1 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-07mar
savedefault
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows NT/2000/XP
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda2
title Windows NT/2000/XP (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
chainloader +1