Kernel Config File Questions
 

If I were to have a 2.6.7 kernel running well under slackware, would I be able to take the working .config file, and transfer it to a Debian machine and use that as my config file? If I can, what are the chances of it working on one machine and not the other, assuming all hardware in the machines is identical, or that they are the same machine. Also, I have heard Debian kernels have some sort of "patches". What does that mean? Does that mean that if I get a vanilla kernel and build it from source, I have to patch it?

it depends what kernel versions they are. but assuming you mean the same version, then again it's how much the distro vendors have changed it, many will apply custom patches etc. Then again, these are normally very subtle, and at worst a nice added extra isn't there on the system you copy it to. generally it should work fine, especially if it's pure kernel.org vanilla material.

The main worry is that you shouldn't transfer a .config file from one kernel version to another without using make oldconfig . This probably includes "patched" kernels. Just do:

make mrproper
copy .config into the kernel source
make oldconfig
make menuconfig (if you want to look things over)
make

and so on.