Yup :) exactly, it should be a file with a name something like
linux-2.6.17-noarch.tgz
or something like that..
I put mine in a folder at /usr/src/source/HERE
where HERE = 2.6.20 in my case.
Typically, like almost in all cases, nothing, or very little, will screw up when upgrading a kernel. Now, that's not a guarantee, but most of the time, especially if going from a 2.6.x to another 2.6.x, complete success is likely.
The problems will be caused by such things like omitting a necessary module for some piece of your hardware, or neglecting to compile in support for your root filesystem. Stuff like that.
A good idea, for your first compile, is to use the default .config file that comes with your kernel. Usually you can do this by extracting the kernel archive to your work folder and in a konsole from there type 'make defconfig'. This should run menuconfig using the default settings. Alternately, if you use 'make xconfig' you can open and load files to use, so like, I have a whack of config files I saved, so if I want to revert or rebuild a version of some kernel I made, I load THAT config file, and start there.
You can also type 'make --help' or 'make help' or 'make -help' and it will tell you what make options there may be.
AND BESIDES: You ALWAYS keep a WORKING Bootable kernel in your system and in your bootloader, so if something DOES go wrong with your new kernel, or it wont boot, you just reboot the original kernel.
Depending on which bootloader you use, you can have like 16 or more different menu-selectable kernels to boot from :)
EDIT - Im kinda suprised if your kernel source isn't on the disk though, but no matter. Just put your new source somewhere, and we'll update the symlink later :) this means you will make a symbolic link in /usr/src pointing into the source folder you make, so that at later dates, when you go to compile or install stuff that wants to know where the source is, it can find it. This requirement may be obsolete, but better safe than confused.

Sorry if I keep asking you to go into greater detail; a lot of these things are just new to me. For example, I don't know what a .tgz file is (some sort of compressed archive?) or what the source to a kernel looks like - shouldn't it be lots of different files?

So I've found this on my Ubuntu CD: linux-libc-dev_2.6.17-10.33_i386.deb

It's in the "linux-source-2.6.17" directory so I'm guessing that's the file I need.

So here's what I need to do:

1. Copy that file from CD to something like /usr/src/source/2.6.17
2. Open a terminal and go to that directory and type:
make modules
make modules_install
3. Somehow edit the loader (lilo? grub?) so that it defaults to the newly compiled kernel and has the current stable one as an option

It seems like I'm missing some things (like something about symbolic links) ... could you help fill in my blank spots?

Thanks!

Hunter

A final update here, before I'm off for a snack and bedtime (it's like 3am here)...
1) Be prepared to spend a few hours with xconfig, if you want to go thru ALL the options of the kernel you are making, if you want to really read all the information and customize the kernel for your computer specifically.
2) If you are going to make the default .config as it is, you can probably accomplish it in about 15 minutes, depending on how fast your machine is.. It takes me about 10 minutes from the time I exit xconfig and type 'Make' (which actually builds the kernel binary) until it finishes compiling. Then another 5 minutes moving the completed kernel to /boot and configuring LILO (my bootloader).
3) Going back for a moment to where this thread started: a new kernel may or may not enable you to read those discs. I can't say either way, but keep in the back of your mind that you may yet need to finalize the DVD's under Windoze to get them to read with Linux, unless of course we succeed in getting the udftools package to work (which I haven't yet, I've started another thread under Hardware about it).
Likely I'll check in here again before bed (I'm addicted :P) but otherwise, if I don't see you, have a great night, take your time reading, and see you tomorrow or so.
;)

OK, let me reply to your newest post, THEN I'll go to bed.. Let's see here..

OK, A .tgz is a 'tar g-zipped archive'
TAR is an archiving program. Type 'man tar' in a console for info on tar. There's also .bz2 .zip .gz and likely a few more.
If you are using the desktop, you should be able to right click an archive and select 'extract here...', and if not, in a console something like 'tar -xzvf <filename>' will extract the archive. The flags (xzvf) mean x=Xtract, Z=Zipped file, V=verbose, and F = <I forget, lol>.
Now, first, That file does not look like the kernel source. that looks like C-compiler library of some sort.
PLUS - if all you're gonna do is recompile the modules, make sure you use the SAME release of the kernel that you are running. Otherwise it is recomended to compile the whole thing.
Now, the kernel source contains hundreds of files, all zipped into an archive. After you extract it, you'll have a new folder, and inside it will be all the source files for the kernel.
As for the module compiling part, you got it right! Make modules, then make modules_install.
If that's all you're doing, you don't need to do anything to lilo or grub, because you havent changed the kernel, only some modules.
OK, now, symbolic links..
Let's say I am in the folder /usr/src and I wanr to make a symlink pointing to /usr/src/source/HERE
I would open a console (I dont think you need to be root, but you might)
and type ln -s /usr/src/source/HERE <link-name>
and what would happen is the command ln would make a symbolic (-s) link pointing to /usr/src/source/HERE, and named <link-name>
:)
PS - of course, you can type 'man ln' for the manual pages on the ln command too!
And hey, no need to apologize, I like helping out; I got my share of help when I first joined up in December, and don't mind sharing what I've learned ;)

Thanks! Goodnight!

@Grapefruit, greets from Atlantic Canada [New Brunswick]

@Hunter, cheers for going in swinging. That was my approach... but I was egotistical enough to avoid the forums (until now).

I don't think anyone mentioned this yet, but i915resolution is a program that runs on startup performing a temporary hack to the VESA information so that you can get native resolutions on a widescreen display.

By default, the Intel '[8|9]..' series only report capabilities of 4:3 resolutions. I assume one could just ignore the EDID information and it would work, but this is a much simpler approach.

If you can get the Debian system working with a custom kernel, you are better than I. Slackware is so EASY in comparison with Debian to do that. And easy to patch, since Slack kernels are vanilla (methinks Ubuntu already applied some patches). In all honesty, the fastest approach is to finalize the DVDs using a new Nero on your friend's XP system.


P.S. This is pig-headed of me, but [FYI] in the command "tar -xzvf" the z is quite specific to the GZip format. If the format is BZip[2], you'd use "tar -xjvf". F is for file, and a tarball is just a single uncompressed file containing a manifest and all the files back-to-back without compression. It's just that GZip and BZip2 are so commonly used that the tar program can run off the output of the gunzip/gzip and bunzip2/bzip2 programs without having to invoke intermediary stages. This is also why the files are named ".tar.gz" instead of just ".gz"

Hi there ORBItrus :) Greetings to N.B, you're the first person I've seen even remotely near me around here!
Thanks for the FYI on tar et al. As is often the case, I was going from memory for the most part, but never neglect to mention the man pages for clarification ;)
For the moment, I tend to agree that it may be simpler to finalize the disks to use them, however it doesn't address the issue of actually doing packet-writing under Linux, which I haven't gotten to work yet. I'd like to have the same functionality reading/writing CD's like floppies that I had with Windoze, though it isn't a big deal. So far I'm getting errors trying to just link the pktcdvd device to the CD device in preparation for the packet-session, let alone even getting to the writing stage.

RE: kernels and Debian vs Slackware, I was playing with Knoppix 5.1.1 for a while, I had installed it from LiveCD and found it very impressive, and not really hard to use, just 'different', but of all the Linux's I've used so far, I'm stuck on Slackware, and like it this way. I feel connected to it, maybe 'cause I'm pretty slack too :P
Take care!
Sasha

@Grapefruit
I was going to comment that this was practically Instant Messaging, but then I realized that you put your MSN in your profile, so I added you to MSN. Apparently you read the forums like crazy, but not MSN. Then I decided to post this message, and realized I needed to say something else so as not to highjack the thread. :P
--
The annoying thing about building your own kernel on Debian is that when you use the Debian system it first runs "make clean && make mrproper" which means you have to recompile the WHOLE thing AGAIN if you forgot an option. I hate that. The other option is to build it vanilla, but Debian invests a lot into the initrd, and you get a few warnings and/or errors seem worse than they are.

You know, this UDF stuff never really bothered me. I've always just used multi-session CDs, or in the case of regularly occurring writes a SD memory card.

Hey guys (and gal <waves>).
I know his is old, but I don't like to leave this dead-ended like this.

So - for others who are joining us, here are some things to consider:

1. Ubuntu does not come with the linux source code - users are expected to install this via apt-get or syanptic

2. Vista uses modified file formats and drm by default. One needs to consider the possibility that vista has drm'd the data on those dvds (probably just because they're dvds right?) Reburning the data is the preferred approach (this is another way MS are trying to lock people in.) Do not use vista. Vista = bad. I bet there would be trouble reading that data in XP too <checks> yep. (of course, there's always transferring to another media...)

3. The file Hunter found was not the kernel source code. It was a C library.

4. Why not trial the mounting with the mount command instead of getting the poor guy to edit the fstab command all the time (sudo mount -t udf /dev/cdrom0 /media/cdrom)? The successful command gets added to fstab just the once.

5. What was wrong with "sudo apt-get install udftools"? This is ubuntu. There is no program called udftools in there, the program he wanted would have been pktsetup... which set the device for packetwriting. However - we want udf 2.5 ... I hear that kernel 2.6.20 has udf 2.5 support built in.

(I see some indication that vista burns udf 2.5 with drm indeed... but I'd like a concrete link.)

Does anyone know a solution for that problem, yet?

Thanks

Several solutions have been suggested already.

1. install udftools
ubuntu: apt-get install udftools

2. reburn the disk on a vista machine, but without drm and using a standard format (i.e. not udf2.5).

3. use some other means to transfer the files (cdrom, memstick, network etc)

4. install the very latest kernel with udf2.5 support enabled

...just to name four.

vista dvd
 

Thanks for this link.. It solved my problem too. I'd burnt a dvd with fista and it made my fedora laptop spew purple. The solution was - when burning a disk with Vista's in-built software - to select the advanced options before formatting, and select "Mastered" format.