Trouble Upgrading Kernel

PaulyWally · 06-27-2006, 10:12 AM

I'm not exactly sure where this question belongs, but I think this might be the best place. I also searched forums and newsgroups with little luck.

I've been dabbling in Linux for several years, but now I'm trying to get into the meat of it. So, I figured I'd install an old verson of Red Hat (6.1) and upgrade it (that alone might be a bad idea... I'm not sure).

The first issue I encountered was upgrading the kernel. 2.2.12 is what Red Hat 6.1 installed. 2.6.17.1 is what I'm trying to upgrade to.

The exact file I downloaded is ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kerne....6.17.1.tar.gz

I saved it to /tmp/linux-2.6.17/linux-2.6.17.1.tar.gz

I then did a:

Code:

# gzip -d linux-2.6.17.1.tar.gz

I then went to /usr/src and did a:

Code:

# mkdir linux-2.6.17
# cd linux-2.6.17
# tar -xvf /tmp/linux-2.6.17/linux-2.6.17.1.tar

After it finished unarchiving, here's what happens:

Code:

# cd linux-2.6.17.1

# make menuconfig
Makefile:266: /scripts/Kbuild.include: no such file or directory
Makefile:403: /arch/$(SUBARCH)/Makefile: no such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target '/arch/$(SUBARCH)/Makefile'. Stop.

Same thing happens with # make config.

Any help would be appreciated. Especially if I shouldn't even be attempting this.

Thanks.

unSpawn · 06-27-2006, 10:36 AM

So, I figured I'd install an old verson of Red Hat (6.1) and upgrade it (that alone might be a bad idea... I'm not sure).
Yes it's a bad idea. Any common and current distro is easy to download or packaged with magazines. There is no reason to run a RH release that has been EOL'ed ages ago, and especially not the series that's famous for having more security holes than swiss cheese. Get a current one that runs 2.6.x (most do by now).

unSpawn · 06-27-2006, 10:46 AM

//this reply shouldn't be a dupe.