Well, I installed Fedora core 1 onto my computer. It is currently dual booting with windows xp pro. I'd like to ditch windows altogether but I'm having a couple of problems.

The most pressing problem that I'm having is that my network adaptor (onboard 3Com 3C940) isn't recognized by the kernel Fedora Core 1 uses. I did some research on this and discovered that the best solution to this problem is to update my kernel to the latest version, 2.6.7 I believe.

Now the problem with this is that from what I've read, updating kernel is not exactly something for a newbie. I'm really at a loss as to what to do at this point. Linux is pretty useless to me if I can't get online, but updating the source code seems beyond my abilites. The simple solution would be to go back to windows but that's simply not going to help me out in the long run.

I've tried searching but everything I read just makes me more confused and uneasy about trying to update the kernel. Am I making this process harder than it actually is or is there something I don't know that makes this alot easier. Keep in mind that I haven't really done anything with linux at all.

Thanks for the help.

it isn't so hard at all..first thing you can try is this, for a stock kernel:

- get a rpm-packaged version of the 2.6.7 kernel from somewhere, for your distribution. then just install it, I guess..

and the second way, which I prefer:

1) get sources from kernel.org
2) decompress them to /usr/src/linux-2.6.7/
3) cd into the directory
4) read the README file in that directory for instructions, which I guess are these (I'm running 2.6.6, so they shouldn't differ):

make menuconfig
(now check that you have everything you need, change if you want)
make all && make modules_install

5) after the kernel is compiled, assuming you got no errors, copy System.map from where you are, and arch/i386/boot/bzImage (or perhaps zImage?) to /boot but DO NOT OVERRIDE THE OLDER FILES THERE. instead, rename the old files to another name, then copy those I said above
6) edit your bootloader's config so it recognizes the new kernel. also, edit the old kernel section so that it points to the renamed files - now you have two kernels
7) reboot to the new kernel. if you get a failure, reboot and select the old kernel - this is why you didn't override the files. now you can do this again, and check that the kernel config is correct...

these are the instructions, mainly...README-file in the directory, after you decompress the sources, tells you everything you need. this isn't so complicated, not nearly as it might sound after the first time you'll want to do it again, and again, and again... heh..

did you look here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...hp?product=516

if you decide to build another kernel - this thread has all the steps:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=73436

configuring it may be a bit confusing at first, but it's not difficult - if you read that thread and do some other background reading - there's tons of doc's on it - and take your time and follow each step you'll be ok...

Install a different and compatiable NIC. Upgrading the kernal is easy with Fedora 1. The only
problems I had were when I ignored a message from the Updater about a corrupted or faulty
RPM, and when I tried to update more than the kernal during a kernal update. I'm a big a Newbie
as they come/