hello there, newbie here
I found a linux kernel 2.4 cd and would like to install it on a amd7 computer.
How do I install the kernel ?
Will I lost my existing windows ? or can I have dual boot ?

answers to your both questions ("how do I install a kernel?" and "how do I dual-boot?") are found in here, please use the Search page to find the threads. similar questions have been asked numerous times, so the first step in finding a solution is using the Search before posting...and it's easy to press the check-button when writing the subject of a thread to see similar ones..

Welcome to LQ!

You cannot install just the kernel. Perhaps you should browse that
CD and see what else is there. You can also read some information
such as http://tille.soti.org/training/tldp/index.html which will really
give you a basic understanding of Linux.

You could also browse to http://www.linuxiso.org/ and then to
http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/introtolinux.html

There is a big difference between a kernel and an operating system.

The kernel itself handles various house-keeping tasks, interaction with external hardware and other such devices. Without an operating system to put on top of the Linux kernel, you won't have much success.

My advice would be to download or buy a Linux (a.k.a. “GNU/Linux”) distribution like SuSE, Debian, Mandrake, etc. and install that. You'll find plenty of getting started guides and further information on this site and on http://www.tldp.org/

You can certainly dual-boot a Linux based OS with other operating systems. In the specific case of Microsoft DOS or Windows, make sure that the MS software is installed first.

Actual instructions for installing a kernel from source go like this:
Backup your existing kernel, and add a new entry for it in /etc/lilo.conf
Unpack the archive to /usr/src/linux
Run “make xconfig modules modules_install install”

For this to work, you'll need at least the following software set up and installed:
- The GNU C compiler (the only compiler that will actually compile the Linux kernel)
- Tcl/Tk for the xconfig (or Qt-devel for 2.6 series kernels)
- GNU make (or compatible)
- Lilo, a Linux bootloader (it can also be configured with GRUB with a little more effort)
At least two of these won't work on Windows, so I suggest that you get a GNU/Linux distribution first.

I think you mean "How do I install linux?", "Can I dual boot to Windows?", and "Will I lose my Windows if I install linux?".

I think it is easier if you go to website specific to the linux distribution for a step by step installation guide (or just use google for that). Because there are already lots of guides to installing linux out there, so there is no point discussing the very same thing. Yes, you can dual boot to Windows and Linux, and you'll need to partition your harddisk before that (if you haven't do so.

Come again when you have specific problem not covered in the guide(s).

[We don't mean to be rude. We're just easily irritable. That's probably because of prolonged computer usage and hypertasking (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...6&tid=98&tid=1).]

hi

for compiling ur kernel u need to go here

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=73436

for choosing ur distro u need to to go here

distrowatch.com

kernel is like the heart of the OS ,u need other tools and packags to work on ur OS
so get urself a distro and then u can compile/change ur kernel

regards

thanks all for replies.
I think I got my question answered by chinaman.