Hi,

I'm currently running Debian Sarge 3.1r1 with Kernel 2.4.27-2-386. This version of the kernel doesn't support some of the drivers I want to use.

Could someone please take me through the steps of upgrading my kernel to 2.6.xx? Nice and comprehensive though please - I'm quite a newbie!

Thank you very much in advance.

Marcus Shirley.


P.S. Otherwise, any webpage which could take me through the process would be much appreciated.

It is a pretty easy process, honestly.

You download the new kernel and untar it. Put it in you /usr and the run "make xconfig"(the easy way, you could also "make config" or "make menuconfig", but it isnt as easy for gui liking people.)

The you "make && make modules_install". That will create most of what you need. Then you copy your new bzImage over to /boot and remap you lilo or grub.

As for sites with long details, there are plenty around, and plenty of walkthroughs around here too. If you want details you just have to look for kernel installation and you should find plenty of guides.

Maybe that's easy for someone who has done it several times before, but taking the time to search and find out what kernel modules you do and do not need is not easy for a newbie.

marcusshirley, it may also work for you to just apt-get install linux-image-2.6.whatever.architecture.youre.on
You may want to do some apt-cache searching if apt can't find it, and if you can't find it between the search results, you may want to add some extra sources to your sources.list.

If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, try google: "apt-cache search" and "sources.list +kernel" or something. Good luck.

When I installed Debian Sarge, just a couple of months ago, it put a 2.4 kernel and a 2.6 kernel on the system. It also set up GRUB so that I could choose between them. I've been using the 2.6 kernel since I installed Debian. Look on your system. You probably already have it. I don't remember if I had to make any particular selections in the Debian installation to include the 2.6 kernel. Maybe it is available as an apt package, or maybe if you reinstall Debian over the net it will offer you the chance to install both the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.

Anyway, all I remember is that I had both kernels available when the installation was finished.

This article was quite useful when I first performed the upgrade: http://kerneltrap.org/node/799

I disagree about ease of module finding. All you need is basic hardware information about your computer, and from there it is not a difficult process. So long as you are knowledgable about your own compter, you are fine. If all you know is "its a dell", sure kernel compiling could suck. But using apt or another method to get kernel installe for you can work pretty well. But it will certianly not optimize your kernel for you. In SuSE, you have the option of using YAST fora generic kernel, but honestly a fresh kernel from kernel.org always out performs the precompiled ones noticably. Though it is certainly not as easy to install.

Hi,

Thanks for all the advice. I have found that I do not have 2.6.xx available on my system so I will have to download it. I built the machine I am using so I have a good idea of the specs and versions for configuration.

I will download the kernel at work tomorrow. Is there an HTTP link I can download the latest version from? If not, what is the easiest way of downloading?

All advice is very much appreciated - I'm on a steep learning curve!

Thanks,

Marcus

You can download the kernel image directly from: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...e-2.6.15-1-686

However, it is easy to do with apt. Just add an unstable repository to /etc/apt/sources.list. To do that:Add a line:then doAfter you are done, you probably should remove the unstable line from /etc/apt/sources.list and re-run apt-get update. Otherwise, the next time you upgrade, it will try to upgrade all packages you have to the latest unstable versions.

Thanks for the link. I will download it tomorrow. I am having problems installing the drivers for my Intel dialup modem - apparently due to not having 2.6.xx so my linux machine is currently an 'offline' machine.

Is 2.6.xx an 'unstable' kernel? I have 3 pieces of driver software that don't seem to run under 2.4 (Intel 536EP modem, BTTV [BT 878] video capture device, zoneminder webcam software for trust 120 spacecam).

It seems odd that these fairly basic drivers require resorces from an unstable kernel. Am I doing something wrong? Should I download older versions of the drivers?

Ta,

Marcus

I have just been on the link for the 2.6 kernel. There seem to be two versions for the 686. There's the normal one and the 'SMP' one. What does SMP mean? I have a P4 with HyperThreading. Do I need the SMP version?

Ta, Marcus

The 2.6.15 kernel is stable, it is "unstable" according to Debian, because it hasn't made its way to the "stable" release. If you go to www.kernel.org, you will see that the 2.6.15 kernel is a stable release.

The "SMP" version is for systems with multiple processors. You don't want that. The 686 version is for Pentium 4. If you download the *.deb file of the kernel, you can transfer it to the offline linux pc and install it using dpkg (dpkg -i <kernel name>.deb)

SMP= Symmetric Multi Processing. You use it for hyperthreading, X2 processors, and dual processing systems. You can also get a vanilla kernel(vanilla as in untainted, no distro tampering) from www.kernel.org.

Ok.

I have downloaded 2 kernel images:

kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686-smp_2.6.8-16sarge1_i386.deb (14.6mb)

linux-2.6_2.6.15.orig.tar.gz (47.4mb)

The first one is from stable, the second from unstable. Also the file sizes are quite different.

Now... which one do I use?

Go to kernel.org and get the latest 2.6.15.3

That's what I'm running on mandrake, suse, slack, debian, whatever...

I agree, vanilla is better. Get the stock kernel for www.kernel.org and find a little basic install guide. But as I said if you know how to untar, and know your computer parts, it is a simple process.

untar

move untarred folder(or move tar and untar there)

make xconfig
select settings, modules, etc.

make && make modules_install

cp the bzImage over to /boot

change grub or lilo config file to read new kernel.