I'm using Suse 8.0 with the 2.4.18 kernel and wanted to upgrade to the 2.4.23 kernel. The kernel build seems to have run normally and I tried to follow the (sometimes conflicting) info from 3 different sources. The problem is that the 2.4.18 keeps booting instead of the new kernel.

My setup is a little strange. Linux is on the second drive of a 2 drive system with Windows ME on the first drive. I use Lilo on a floppy to boot because I'm still doing this on an experimental basis and didn't want to mess with my first drive until I worked the bugs out in my head.

Per the instructions in one or two of the sources I read, after building the new kernel (including the dependencies, modules and module install), I moved my new kernel to the /boot partition, making a backup of my old one. I edited /etc/Lilo.conf also per instructions and ran Lilo. Oh yes, and one of the instructions I had said to move System.map also to /boot. It didn't seem to make any difference in the final result whether I did or not.

I went to the Kernel Howto, but it has been offline for at least a week now for revision (was it really so bad that they had to yank it completely before putting the updated version on?).

What I'm thinking is that something needs to be changed on my floppy with the Lilo startup stuff, but there is nothing even visible on that disk.

- Jon

Yup, if your using the floppy to boot, its always going to boot with your old kernel. You will need to either create a new floppy with your new kernel configuration or install it to your MBR or the such to boot from your hard drive.

Lilo actually has no problems booting any Windows OS's.

Thanks. You have probably spared me hours of tinkering with something that wouldn't work. I'll poke around at the Lilo howto to see what I need to do to either create a new floppy or else put it on the mbr of hda. Just off hand it seems like it's going to be tricky to do since I have no way to boot the new kernel to make a new floppy, but we shall see.

Yeah, I know Lilo boots Windows fine. I'm just a little extra careful about how I mess with this computer because my wife uses it too. She's a very patient soul with her husband, but not with computers so I try to minimize her having to interact with new stuff.
- Jon