I got the patch, and I want to run it before I install the nvidia 3d-accellerated drivers ... but how do I install the patch? It's called "patch-2.4.20", the latest patch for the kernel.

cd /usr/src/linux
patch -np1 patch-2.4.20.patch

Try that.

Thanks for the command! But how can I test to see that it's the updated version? 'Cause it looks the same to me. I remember using a version command, but I don't remember the command. Thanks guys.

Oh, btw, there isn't a linux directory on my computer, just a redhat directory instead, so I put the patch there. It contains the directories

BUILD RPMS SOURCES SPECS SRPMS

Was that on ok thing to do?

well if you've not got that directory then you haven't even got the source installed, so install that rpm

lol ok. Damn this forum's great. I post someting, finish a HW assignment, and there's already an answer posted!

I extracted the kernel stuff with a tgz file under /usr/src/linux and followed the instructions ... so far so good ... but it said to replace the old bzImage file with the compiled one that I created. ... But I can't find the old one anywhere, and my "Search for Files ..." prog can't even find the one I am looking at right now, kinda weird.

the bzImage will normally be under arch/i386/boot/ when you have compiled your kernel, but it won't exist until you have already compiled the kernel

I did compile the kernel and it's there ... but it said that the new kernel will not load unless you replace the compiled one with the old one. Where's the old kernel?

Kernels should be in /boot. But maybe it's called something else (vmlinuz, kernel, linux...). I'd recommend to leave that one in place and just copy your newly compiled one to that directory, than add it to lilo or grub (whichever you're using).

Oh nice! It's right there ...

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd1,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I'm going to follow your advice ... here goes nuttin ...

Wait ... the file initrd-2.4.18-14.img is listed in the configuration file, and the file exists. I can't just change the bold line above to the updated kernel with that line below it, can I?

This seems to be such a hassle, should I just skip this whole thing or am I almost there?

ttt

Has anybody else upgraded their kernel? This seems to be a lot of junk to go through. Although I did spot the USB MIDI support in the new kernel install, and I own a USB MIDI keyboard for I'm an electronic artist. And if I could get my kb to work with Linux, that would be uber.

Really dude, I am upgrading Linux Kernel four years now. It really isnt that much of a hassle. You should read Kernel HOWTO.