Ok, I tried reading some books here and there on installing another kernel but seem to be stuck. I setup everything, but when I reboot and select the new grub entry for 2.6.18.8's Kernel line the screen just goes black. (oh by the way, I have other distros running on the 2.6.18.8 and I really wanted to use Mepis wirelessly. Seems 2.6.18.8 works good with ndiswrapper 1.51) Any help would be appreciated...

Here are my steps below...
downloaded kernel.bz2 for 2.6.18.8 from www.kernel.org
unpacked it in my home directory... /home/linuxpatriot
->?tar -xjf kernel-2.6.18.8.bz2 , it made a directory linux-2.6.18.8
went to my /usr/src directory and created a soft link to the new linux kernel directory in /home/linuxpatriot/linux-2.6.18.8
->?ln -s /home/linuxpatriot/linux-2.6.18.8 linux
changed the directory so that I'm in the soft link.
->?cd ./linux
->?make clean; make mrproper
->?cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/defconfig /usr/src/linux
(this copied the default config file defconfig to my soft link linux directory. Then ran the following string of commands together...
->?make defconfig; make modules; make modules_install; make bzImage
They all seemed to run ok after 1/2 hour or so.
->?cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8
->?cp /usr/src/linux/System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.18.8
->?/usr/sbin/mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd-2.6.18.8
This made the initrd-2.6.18.8 in my /boot directory.

So I figured I'm almost there and begin to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst...:

Added a line like something similar below...
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8 blah... blah...
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.8 you know the rest....
(I know how the grub command work, i'm just to lazy to look at my menu.lst now because i'm on another pc that has access to the web, yes i'm ashamed to saw a windows pc :-((
I then rebooted the computer and got a blank screen. I tried this a few different times. The instructions seem to make sense to me in various tutorials, I think the mkinitrd command may need tweaking, but I can't seem to figure that command out. I don't want to give up on this... but i want to make this work!

Hi

When compiling a kernel, you don't need an initrd. It's safe to remove that line from menu.lst. Secondly, you might have forgotten to compile in framebuffer video drivers. You'll either have to recompile the kernel selecting the VGA driver under Device Drivers -> Display drivers or something like that, or you can remove vga=791 (or any other number it may have) from the kernel line in menu.lst.

Hey Thanks! I'll try those suggestions when I get home. I created a simple BASH script to try and automate all of the commands I was entering. If I have trouble booting on the new kernel after your suggestions, i'll paste the script in my next response.

Ok, good news and bad news...
Good news is that when I removed the initrd /boot/initrd.blah from my /boot/grub/menu.lst file, the Kernel started firing up!! I was at the edge of my seat waiting and then...
The Bad news, got an error with my video nvidia card!!! Desktop won't appear. I logged in as root and tried to startx, but got an error like this...: :Failed to Load nvidia module.

So I will run my little Mempis Kernel Automation Script again, but this time I will pay attention to the endless questions that they ask when configuring the kernel ( i.e. make oldconfig). By the way, where is menuconfig, xconfig located???

============================================
***I wanted to share this with anyone who is trying to rebuild their Mepis Kernel. It works for me
I don't have any parameters built into this script below, but you can just alter your own username in the /home directory to suit your needs. (By the way, this only builds the kernel and copies the files to /boot directory. You'll have to add the "kernel /boot/hda5/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8" entry yourself to /boot/grub/menu.lst)

Instructions before running the BuildMyKernel Script...:

Copy the Bash Script below and save it in your home directory, name it BuildMyKernel. Then type on the command line chmod +x BuildMyKernel, this will make the file executable.

Next Download your kernel to your /home/username directory (i.e linux-2.6.18.8.tar.bz2 from www.kernel.org).

Then just type ./BuildMyKernel (yes, you need ./ before BuildMyKernel).

Here is the Bash Script to copy (just change the kernel versions throughout the file to suit your needs and also the /home/username. Again you can easily use variables throughout the script, I just threw it together and it works for me. I ran it more than 4 times already because i'm trying to configure the kernel properly.
This Script takes about 45 mins to an hour, that's including you choosing which items to install to your kernel. Once that's done, the script continues on by itself.


#!/bin/bash

echo Removing the Previous Kernel stored on your /home/linuxpatriot directory...
cd /usr/src/linux
make clean; make mrproper; cd ..; rm linux; cd /home/linuxpatriot; rm -r linux-2.6.18.8

echo beginning to upgrade your kernel...
#script myBuildLog
cd /home/linuxpatriot
pwd
echo
echo
echo Extracting the LinuxTarKernel....
tar -xjf linux*
#echo Placing a Delay Here about 5 mins...
#sleep 5m
cd /usr/src
ln -s /home/linuxpatriot/linux-2.6.18.8 linux
cd /usr/src/*2.6.10*
pwd; ls
echo
echo
echo Copying .diffs and .config from older kernel....
cp .config /usr/src/linux/
cp * /usr/src/linux/
#cp *.diff /usr/src/linux/
#cp .config /usr/src/linux/
echo
echo
echo Ok Building the Kernel Now....
cd /usr/src/linux; ls -a
make oldconfig; make modules; make modules_install; make bzImage
echo; echo; echo Ok Copying the Compressed Kernel to /boot....
cd /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot
cp bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8
cd /usr/src/linux
echo; echo; echo Copying the System.map to /boot and rename it....
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.18.8
#cd /lib/modules/2.6.12-1-586tsc
#cp -r .* /lib/modules/2.6.18.8/
echo; echo; echo Final step trying to create initrd.img ....
mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18.8 2.6.18.8
echo Ok, hopefully you are all finished here...
exit

Hey Dinolinux, Great news...
(I don't know if I really had to recompile the kernel again, but I did it anyway)
After recompiling the kernel again (i.e Running my BuildMyKernel script above), I used the forcevesa option in my /boot/grub/menu.lst for the new Kernel Entry. The new Mepis Kernel booted right up into the login screen!! I'll have to fix the nvidia module problem later, but at least I got my Desktop working again on the new Mepis Kernel 2.6.18.8 (Good Old forcevesa to the rescue!!) Here's how one of the entries looked like in my /boot/grub/menu.lst file...:

#==========================
Title New Mepis Kernel(2.6.18.8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.8 root=/dev/hda8 forcevesa
#==========================

Tonight I'm going to work on installing the ndiswrapper-1.51.tar package. The whole purpose of me rebuilding my Mepis Kernel was so that I could use a stable version of Ndiswrapper-1.51 that matches the Kernel it needs 2.6.18.8(well the one that worked for me on other distros, TinyMe .etc).

Hopefully after installing and configuring ndiswrapper on my new Mepis Kernel, i'll get the soothing words on the screen after running iwconfig (wlan0 connection established!!)

Hi Dino:
I posted this in another forum (Mepis I think).
Would you know how I can try to fix this ndiswrapper issue??

Mepis iwconfig not recognizing wlan0...
Hello:
I've upgraded my Mepis to the 2.6.18.8 kernel in order to use ndiswrapper-1.51. I keep getting errors on boot that state the ndiswrapper.ko module is invalid or missing. I manually copied the file from another distro to my /lib/modules/kernel/3rdparty/ndiswrapper directory. Any help would be appreciated. ( I pasted my lspci -v, ndiswrapper -l, uname -rsv and lsmod data below)...:

lspci -v (I just copied the wireless PCI card for brevity)...

0000:02:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.: Unknown device 8185 (rev 20)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.: Unknown device 8185
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
Memory at fd201800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

root@1[/]# ndiswrapper -l
installed drivers:
net8185 driver installed, hardware (10EC:8185) present
root@1[/]# uname -rsv
Linux 2.6.18.8 #1 PREEMPT Tue Jun 10 02:09:59 UTC 2008
root@1[/]# ndiswrapper -v
utils version: 1.9
driver version: 1.51
vermagic: 2.6.18.8.tex5.lgc mod_unload 586 REGPARM gcc-4.1
root@1[/]# lsmod
Module Size Used by
soundcore 8160 0
ipv6 241888 10
parport_pc 32196 1
lp 9288 0
parport 21056 2 parport_pc,lp
rfcomm 34972 0
l2cap 21252 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 46308 4 rfcomm,l2cap
binfmt_misc 9224 1
c4 18180 0
b1pci 7936 0
b1dma 14340 1 b1pci
b1 21504 3 c4,b1pci,b1dma
capi 15296 0
capifs 4232 2 capi
kernelcapi 37152 5 c4,b1pci,b1dma,b1,capi
ip_conntrack_ftp 6640 0
ip_conntrack_irc 5872 0
ip_conntrack 41076 2 ip_conntrack_ftp,ip_conntrack_irc
af_packet 17032 2
pcmcia 32164 0
yenta_socket 24844 0
rsrc_nonstatic 11392 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 35984 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
8250 20388 0
serial_core 18560 1 8250
sbp2 23048 0
ohci1394 32688 0
e100 33032 0
mii 5120 1 e100
p4_clockmod 4620 0
speedstep_lib 4100 1 p4_clockmod
thermal 12040 0
asus_acpi 14872 0
processor 24236 1 thermal
fan 3972 0
button 5392 0
battery 8964 0
ac 3972 0
floppy 55332 0
dm_mod 50872 0
aes 31552 0
evdev 8448 0
uhci_hcd 21772 0
ohci_hcd 19460 0
tsdev 6336 0
root@1[/]#

I don't know if this is still useful, but MEPIS "7.073uce" solved my nVidia (GeForce 7600) problems:
Mepis 7.0 live CD's with updated 7.3 Xorg available here

BTW I am seeding both the 32- & 64- bit versions.