i went to the KDE control panel and under system, i clicked on the kernel thing. it gave me this strange error saying that it can't access some file, and that my discs either had problems, or that KDE has a bug. i am new to linux, and am still trying to get my modem to work, so im on XP right now, thats why i havn't pasted the error code in exactly, i'll get that soon. but does anybody know what the heck is going on?

b

With Linux a user is restricted in what he can do to the system and root can do anything that he wants. This protects you somewhat by limiting the damage that a user (or a virus running as user) can do to Linux.

So to make your changes you will have to log in as root. Whatever you do as root, think it through first and leave yourself an escape route so that you can fix your mistakes without having to do a reinstall.

i did the same timg as root. it gave me the same error. i took a screenshot of the window with the error (while i was logged in as root) here is a link to it:

http://www.yarrgh.net/misc/snapshot1.gif

for those of you who don't want to see the pic, the gist of it was that it said it can't open "usr/src/linux/arcn//config.in" for reading.

this seems like bad news to me. can anybody tell me whats going on?

b

"can't open "usr/src/linux/arcn//config.in" for reading. "

This could be caused by a variety of possible problems. First check to see if the file exists and if your permissions allow the file to be read. Try:

ls -l /usr/src/linux/arcn/config.in

no, it doesn't exist.

I guess the next step is to find out how much you are missing. The kernel source is supposed to be at /usr/src/linux. Are you missing the entire kernel source or are you just missing /usr/src/linux/arcn/config.in ?

Missing the entire source is easier to fix than missing one small piece of the kernel source. If you are missing the entire kernel source then install your Mandrake kernel source rpm. If you are missing just one file then you will have to find the correct version of the kernel source and install that.

1) directory 'linux' in /usr/src/ is completely missing! apparently that means also that i dont have a kernel? how exactly im running linux without a kernel im not sure of yet...

2) modules/common.mak does not exist either. apparently this file contains info about the source of the kernel?

now, i already ran the KDE control panel and installed a bunch of different kernels, the security one, etc... and uninstalled them all again, so now i just have my normal kernel again... but still no /usr/src/linux/ and still no modules/common.mak

i even found the specific kernel rpm on the mandrake disc, copied it to the HD, and then installed it... still no usr/src/linux ! how do i install this kernel source?

"that means also that i dont have a kernel?
i already ran the KDE control panel and installed a bunch of different kernels, the security one, etc... and uninstalled them all again,"

The kernel source and the kernel binary are two different things. You have been installing kernel binary code.

Source code is what a programmer writes. Then he runs a compiler called gcc against the source code and the compiler creates the binary code. The binary code is what you actually run.

You are missing the source code for the compiler, which does not affect how your computer runs at all. Mandrake supplies two different rpms for every program, the source code and the binary. What you need to do is find the rpm that supplies the source code for the kernel and install that, not one of the kernel binary rpms.

Exactly where Mandrake keeps its source code rpms, I don't know. I would guess that it would be on the last install CD.

When installing Mandrake if you use "Individual Package selection" you can install the Kernel source.

ok, i found it manually on the CD and installed it. thanks everybody!

your welcome hehehehe