i just recompiled a new kernel (2.4.21) following DaOne's *superb!* instructions, and it all seemed to go pretty well. i was surprised at how fast it took, only about 4-5 minutes, whereas i was expecting something like 15-20 or more. (hope that doesn't mean i missed a step or anything...)

a few things did go wrong, though (e.g., forgot to use M for the modules, unselected some choices i probably should have left, etc.), and i'm wondering, what do i do now? can i just recompile it again from the same place (/usr/src/linux), this time using the correct options (hopefully )? if i use M will the new kernel automatically read the old modules (nvnet, audio, etc.) or do i have to reinstall the drivers or do a depmod -a or anything?

also, i thought make menuconfig scanned the current config and used that as the default to start from. however, i got the choice for pentium CPU whereas i have an Athlon, ext2 whereas i am using reiserfs, and some other differences. why is that? should i just ignore them and select the right choices?

i was only booted into the new kernel for a minute or two, but apparently it did not read my fstab or rc.local file, and i don't get that at all. what possibly happened there? a win partition i had set to automount didn't, and the commands in rc.local to turn on swap and to hdparm my hard drives didn't happen, either. since the first thing i would do to automount a drive would be to put it in fstab, wtf do i do?

finally, my old boot used the "vesa framebuffer" (i guess it's called) to produce the nice, smaller text while booting and using the terminal (and also had the kewl penguin at the top ). the new kernel uses the big, "DOS" text that is super ugly, and no penguin. where do i set that in the new kernel?

i know that's a lot of questions, but i'm a kernel virgin so i hope y'all can be patient as i go through this. i'm really encouraged that at least it boots, but i think there must be a few things i'm missing post-compile. appreciate!

Yes, just use make menuconfig and go back thru everything and add/subtract what you want and don't want.

first things first, get the kernel set up the way you want and we can deal with the fstab, rc.local next.
<edit/> there is an option in kernel config to turn on or off the support for hdparm, you could have turned it off without knowing.
just look for it and enable!!

Yes, i do this all the time. you mention you used menu config, may i suggest xconfig? you can use that to load and save configs from other locations too.
if you said n or y to options and not m then the module will not have existed in the first place. dont forget to do do make modules_install to install the modules



make sure you have the support in the kernel for windows partitions, either as modules or compliled into it

edit your lilo.conf and make note of the extra options values for your old kernel and new kernel
whats different?

d@mn! now booting the new kernel in Lilo goes to a blank screen, and the slack.old choice boots the new messed up kernel! what happened??? i heard the sound card give the little noise it always makes during start up, so i guess something's booting -- no video, though. a lilo boot disk i had from before boots to the dreaded 99s. did i lose my old kernel???

yep, i did that, thanks. i'll try xconfig, but i think i might still need the menu at this point. plus i lost the original config, and only have the modified one to work from. so i have to try to remember what i changed, and so on. d@mn!

you mean MSDOS/FAT, etc. support in the filesystem section?

nothing. i think it was something in the video section of menuconfig, and i think that's why the video isn't working, either. but there are only two choices there, and no submenus. i remember both were selected, and i unselected one the first time. the second time i set it back, though, so w-t-h ? thx.

yes, those are the ones, if you have any NTFS you can put NTFS in there too. NTFS does not automaticaly have write support, the kernel says it is dangerous, that can be added in or left out as config time.

i am sorry to hear your kernels have gotten mixed up, nice to hear you have a boot disk though !

keep at it, and you'll get there, make sure you read all the documentation ( kernel how-to etc ) and it will help you on your way

normally for the text size is an option on the boot loader either by typing or put into the lilo config file
when i compiled a 2.4 kernel last week and left something off the kernel gave me the option of wither pressing return for a list of modes, or either pressing space or waiting 30secs to proceed and use default

i tried recompiling, and this time it bumped even the semi-working 2.4.21 from the "slack.old" position -- each new compile seems to bump the previous one to the .old position. now i can't boot to any screen to get to menuconfig, they're all blank. any suggestions? #1 preference would be to restore the original kernel, if possible.

i tried booting from the slack CD and got a kernel panic error -- it said something about not being able to read the reiserfs or something. and as i mentioned the lilo boot disk doesn't work. don't even tell me i'm going to have to reinstall slack!

i suppose i could boot the knoppix CD and then mount the slack partition. what would i do from there, however? run the slack /usr/src/linux make menuconfig from knoppix?

my thinking is that you have over written you normal working kernel, not to worry you could do as you have suggested by booting from knoppix and re-doing it.

however i have never installed lilo from another linux on the same system, my guess on that is you may need to chroot to your linux system on your harddrive, otherwise when you type lilo you will install the lilo and its configuration settings from the knoppix cd


when you come to re-doing you kernel, dont over write your existing kernel when you go to copy the bzImage over do something like below:
( presuming your in the /usr/src/linux directory )
cp ./arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage.antken

and make the oppropriate change in lilo, that way then you'll have an old working kernel there to use if your new one failed, that what i do
also if its a production server ( live, mission critical ) i would say the above is a must, then if your new kernel does not have a required feature or it just generaly messes up you can switch back to one you know works

thanks for all the help. i finally was able to boot from the slack disk (the first time i forgot the partition number after hdb), so i am just going to copy the bare.i kernel to /boot and use that while i mess around with getting the new one configured properly.

i thought each new kernel compile would just overwrite the previous new one, but now that i understand the process better, i realize what was happening with the .old kernels getting overwritten (duh! ). so that was a dumb n00b mistake not to make a copy of the original vmlinuz, but at least i learned something. thanks!