Installing New Kernel
 

Ok i'm sure you linux guru's get this all the time.. but hey we have to start somewhere right :D

ok i installed slackware 10 RC2 and well i want to update the kernel to 2.6.7 and well... i downloaded the linux-2.6.7.tar.bz2 file... and well can someone guide me step by step on what to do now i'm totally lost :(.... and btw can someone help me fix my internet with slackware.. i got it configed in ifconfig.. i can ping my GW but i can't access the internet... any ideas


sorry for the two different problems in one thread.... thanks for helping me

About accessing the internet, maybe the OS can't find any nameservers to interpret ip addresses. Try

ping 204.147.80.1 -c4

and if you have no packet loss, this is almost definitely your issue. Check in /etc/resolv.conf (at least in Debian and Mandrake, don't know about Slack, but I'm guessing it's the same). If the file is empty, that's the issue. Mine has this in it:

nameserver 204.147.80.1
nameserver 205.171.3.65

You'll need root access to write the file. Your isp should provide your nameservers for you. I don't know if you could just add my nameservers to your file, but you can try. Good luck. Sorry if this isn't the solution.

thanks for replying so quickly... i tried the command and i got 100% packet loss... so i'm lost lol

what does ifconfig report?

Edit: run ifconfig as root. And maybe try pinging 64.114.43.114 (a google address).

About step-by-step kernel configuration, I found http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ml#WHY-REBUILD really helpful.

heres about compiling a new kernel

first off, copy the .bz2 to /usr/src (as superuser of course..)

# tar -jxvf kernel-2.6.7.tar.bz2

list of files will pass by

ln -s kernel-2.6.7 linux
this will create a symbolic link to the kernel sources directory

now

# cd linux

now, we need to configure the new kernel before compiling it
if you're running Xwindows (you most likely are)
do a
# make xconfig

here, you get to select what modules you would like to install in the kernel, along with other options..

if for some reason, you can't run make xconfig, do a
# make menuconfig

this will give you a ncurses based menu driven app which will help you select which configuration options you want.


then
# make dep
and
# make clean

this prepares the stage for the kernel compilation

# make bzImage

note the capital 'I` in bzImage

then do a
# make modules
and finally a
# make modules_install

the kernel is now complete, but we need an initrd image to go with it

# /sbin/mkinitrd initrd-2.6.7.img 2.6.7

finally copy the arch/i386/bzImage and initrd-2.6.7.img files to /boot and add your entries to the grub conf file

# cp arch/i386/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.7.img
# cp initrd-2.6.7 /boot/initrd-2.6.7

add the following lines to /boot/grub/grub.conf

title Kernel 2.6.7
root (hdx,y) -- where x is the hard drive number, and y the partition number . You can use the entry from the original kernel entry
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.7.img
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.7

reboot and select the new kernel to boot into it

compile time :
Heavily depends on your system
on my P133 with 32 mb of ram, it took a little over 5 hours to complete.. on my Duron 1200 with 256 mb, it took about 15 minutes..

Best of luck !
Srichand

thanks a bunch sirchard, i followed the steps.. and it seems to work... just when it finishes booting it says still kernel 2.4.25 but when you go into the kernel it says 2.6.7 any thought?

what exactly do you mean by "when it finishes booting" ?
and, whats the output of uname -r when you boot into the new kernel?

Srichand

I think by default Slackware only comes with LILO, so you probably need to update /etc/lilo.conf.