I have Slackware 12.1 installed .. I decided to create a new kernel for experimentation so I acquired latest source from kernel.org (2.6.24.5) OK, built the kernel, modules etc. Upon 'make modules_install', I realized, when completed, my current system's libraries would be overwritten .. which is what I didn't want.

I found a few ways of renumbering the kernel in include/config/kernel.release & KERNELRELEASEVERSION contained in system Makefile.

Thus my questions ..

1. What should my 'experiment' kernel number be to avoid conflict with my 'running' system? (i 2.6.24.rc?)

2. Are there any other files, beyond what's listed above, that need to be changed?

3. Upon renumbering, will the make/install automatically deposit files in the appropriate place?

thanks in advance !!!!

You only need to have a different kernel version from the running one to avoid conflict.

Slackware 12.1 ships with kernel 2.6.24.5, so there's not really a point in getting those sources from kernel.org again.

When configuring the kernel sources, you can easily append a kernel suffix to distinguish your different kernels. What kind of suffix you choose doesn't matter.