Hi, I've been using Mandrake 9.0 with my onboard HPT370 controller thanks to Sharkyrulz precompiled kernel and drivers. Now I am sick on Mandrake as it is sloooow compared to source distros, so I want to give sorcerer a shot. The gentoo user base looks kinda dodge and i like the sorcerer tools.

However, I've tried both using kernel raid support and the highpoint drivers but to no avail. Basically I'm really stuck and i'd like some advice.

How can I go about setting up a precompiled kernel from scratch and booting in with everything? Sharky???

I don't know if sharky is still a regular, but here's what you can do:

Take the sharky-esque moded code, compile your bzImage small enough to fit on a floppy, just size wise, ignore the message at the end of the kernel compile where it states that the image is too big for a standalone floppy, that's referring to the old zImage boot style, not the syslinux disks that Slackware and RH use, and pretty much everyone else.

If Sorceror comes with a floppy boot to CDROM as root type of installation, go with that, create the boot floppy, then mount it and over-write their kernel with yours. Be sure to create a rescue disk when given the option and again copy over that disk's kernel with your own. This is because one of the things that the source distro is going to do is compile a kernel for you based on their source package, not yours, so no HPT370 help... So the first time you boot into your new distro is going to have to be using the rescue floppy, or possibly the original boot disk... Then you recompile the normal onboard kernel with sharky's hacks.

Did that all make sense?

Cheers,

Finegan