BTW: When using a previous config file from an older version kernel, do make oldconfig before make menuconfig

One other thing: remember to clean up with make mrproper before starting a new build. This also deletes the ".config" file, so make a backup of it outside the source directory and then copy it back afterwards.

Okay, I'll try that. I can see how it may be important.

Not disagreeing but I have never had to do any of this. It seems like it adds steps that are not needed and therefore complicates things unnecessarily.

Yeah, I don't particularly need to clean my build environment. It's actually useful to have my old config file unchanged.

I've made no major breakthroughs on Google... best I can tell, what I've been trying would work on another distro.

I don't know why I missed it but I have only just seen your edit to yesterdays post. It is possible that Ubuntu is the problem, they have a lot of added extras in the kernel but I'm not sure how you would be able to prove it. Give Debian a go if you feel like it, I prefer Debian now, and I started with Ubuntu in 2007, because it is actually easier to work with after it has been setup.

Yeah, Ubuntu's generally easiest in the short term, but that has caused issues previously. I wouldn't be very surprised at all if that's my problem now, and I'm running out of ideas. So, I guess I'll get myself a Debian installation, retry the kernel build, and report back. This will take time, I may be done tomorrow, assuming nothing goes wrong.

That's fine Ryan, I'll help where I can. Ubuntu shouldn't be a problem but it is looking as though we have covered all the bases that are the usual suspects.

Thanks.

You can pretty much follow the debian way to do it.
To use your working kernel config:
one important thing is don't forget to set the variable for multicore processor:
If you follow the steps from there you will get it working, still some other things might not work and it is the way Ubuntu set things up.

Here the Ubuntu page about it: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile

Regards

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately, that didn't work. I tried it, but got an error, "not in control info". A quick Google search reveals it's a bug.

Okay, I've got good news.

I tried compiling Linux 2.6.32 (the version Ubuntu 10.04 uses out of the box these days), and I got to the login screen. After login, though, the computer crashes. But at least it boots.

Also, while working on it, I figured out how to make an initrd image. Now, I'm going to try Linux 3.2 again, this time with initrd. If that fails, I'm going for version 2.6.35, the version Ubuntu Maverick uses. Maverick has never failed me yet, but as it is going to loose support I migrated to 10.04, which is a little more stable on my computer. But the audio doesn't work well. So, I thought I'd try a custom kernel to see if I could coax the sound to work right.

Well at least things have happened differently this time around. I have to be honest and say I don't understand why you don;t just enable backports and use the kernel from something like Natty. That's what I did for my fathers laptop with 10.04 and it's running well.

I haven't tried the Natty kernel, but I know the Oneric kernel (one of the two I have now) causes random crashes for me. And because audio doesn't work with the Lucid kernel, my best idea is to get something else. But I wish it was as simple as typing something like "sudo apt-get install working-linux-kernel-3.2-generic". Maybe I should look for (or just make) an app that scans your computer, and creates a kernel config file with everything you need. Maybe it even compiles and installs the kernel for you. That would be nice...

Have you tried KernelCHeck?

Now, that sounds like an interesting project. I'd never heard of it until now, but I'm going to have to check it out, weather or not I get it working myself. KernelCheck could save me some time.

Edit:

Meh. KernelCheck depends on kpkg, which, as before, died with "error 2", whatever that is.

Linux 2.6.35.13 won't boot, maybe it has something to do with it having 30+ selection mismatches.

I'm going to have to scour the Ubuntu repositories a bit, then I'll try another compile.