I am upgrading my RedHat 9 kernel from 2.4.20-6 to 2.4.20-24.9 (Intersect Alliance custom kernel for SNARE). If the base part of the kernel ("2.4.20") is the same, I shouldn't have any problems with software or hardware becoming incompatible should I? I'm just not sure what is entailed in the upgrade process.

Can I upgrade a 2.2.xx kernel to 2.4.20-24.9? Might I have compatibility issues then?

u won't have any software /hardware pronlem untill u compile their support i ur kernel as it was in ur previous kernel

so use the config file of ur older kernel to build ur configuration for the new kernel

regards

I'm not really sure what that means. I guess I may have asked the question wrong.

What I'm asking is, for any normal system, is there anything that you need to consider when patching the kernel (only changing the EXTRAVERSION).

The VERSION, PATCHLEVEL, and SUBLEVEL (a.k.a. "2.4.20") is the same - the only thing changing is the EXTRAVERSION ("-24.9snare") at the end of the kernel version, making it "2.4.20-24.9snare".

changiing the kernel extraversion won't make any different to kernel
only that when u run some
make modules_install

u will have modules install in different directory
this is usefull if u want to make a new kernel code and not overwrite the existing kernel
and do take care of proper configuration in the kernel

regards

If the new kernel is a precompiled kernel provided in an RPM file you can easily install it alongside your previous kernel.
Since you are using RH9 I presume you are using grub as you bootloader and the new kernel RPM will add to your bootloder configuration without manual intervention. Both kernels will be available for booting, in case of an issue with the new kernel.
If you have kernel modules that need to be compiled against your kernel source, (such as nVIDIA display driver) you will have no X windows until you install the matching kernel sources and compile the driver against them.

Even if the VERSION, PATCHLEVEL, and SUBLEVEL (a.k.a. "2.4.20") is the same - the only thing changing is the EXTRAVERSION ("-24.9snare") at the end of the kernel version, making it "2.4.20-24.9snare", IF you have kernel modules that need to be compiled against your kernel source, you will need to recompile them in order to install them in the new running kernel.

Thanks guys. You've been very helpful.

man i have been wrapping my head over this and cant seem to figure it out but thanks to you i have