I am playing around with the kernel as a newbie, and for some reason all tutorials that explain how to do it, have a weak-spot after the compilation, where they explain how to make the new kernel actually work. Anyway what I have done is:
1. Downloading the kernel to /usr/src/linux-3.14.2
2. Inserting a printk somewhere in the code
3. 4. reboot the system

All I saw was a black screen.

What have I done wrong?

System setup:
* The Linux system is in a virtual machine using VirtualBox
* Guest Linux Mint 16 x86_64 with kernel 3.8.0 - 20GB hard disk
* Host Windows 7 64 bit

Hya,

I think you need to run lilo or something equivalent.

cheers

P.S.
I am a lilo user.

I think the MINT kernel is patched (at least to support splash)... So it might have problems working with original unpatched kernels.. Also, please be more precise where the failure is.. Have you passed the boot-loader stage (GRUB).. Is it created with an initrd image? Did you create an image or made sure it uses the original MINT one? .. What does the last line that you see, say?

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I don't know much about grub and lilo and how they work together (if they work together). That is exactly the weak-spot I mentioned in the tutorials.
I tried in the past running "update-grub" but I noticed that the last output lines of "make install" are the same, so I figured this is already done.

So now I have new questions:
1. Where can I find relevant info about boot loaders? (or just tell me what I need )
2. What distro has a regular kernel without patches?

Also, "a black screen" doesn't really say much. You could simply be looking at a mis-configured XWindows screen being put up by a perfectly running system. More information is needed to find the root cause of your problem.

You are right that "black screen" does not say much, so here are screen shots of the grub and the so called black screen.

OK, I downloaded Fedora Lite, did the exact same thing and it worked. So probably Mint are not using the standard kernel as suggested by Smokey_justme.