so, Im trying to learn how to configure my kernel. I dont know how so I am looking up old posts to get ideas. one of them said to type make xconfig in a terminal window. Doesnt work. all I get is the error:No rule to make target `xconfig. What do I do? (in KDE)

"make xconfig" is used for building or rebuilding kernels. You need to be in the directory that contains the source code of the kernel when running those commands. What exactly are you trying to achieve? If you give more details of your intentions, you may get accurate responses.

I'm attepting to learn everthing I can about linux. I figured a good crash course would be to rebuild my kernel(yes I know I'm playing with fire), so I found a couple of guides(both outdated) and was attempting to follow them, but basically I am just trying to find a starting point. One of the reasons I am doing this is because 3d wont work on my ATI rage 128 card, Have another post on this with no responses, but probably because I didn't specify very well what the problem was. But, on to of all that I just really like figuring out new things!

If you have the kernel source installed, you can start with "make cloneconfig" to copy the contents of your current
/proc/config.gz to .config in the source tree. There is also documentation in the kernel source itself on what to do, as well as a section in the SuSE Administrators Manual.

Make sure that the kernel-docs package is installed also. It contains the kernel hackers guide. "man 9 <topic>".
You can view a manpage for a particular device then, to determine whether you need it or not.

I would recommend reading the documentation that comes with linux. For example the bashref manual, and the manual for core-utils to learn more about using linux. For the most helpful ones, I install the source rpm, apply the patches, and in the /usr/src/packages/BUILD/<package>/ subdirectory, I do a "make ps" to produce nice looking, print worthy documentaton for packages such as sed, coreutils, bash, etal.

Linux does not have 'cloneconfig' target. May be 'oldconfig'?

I guess you are right
Make cloneconfig is the same as:

zcat /proc/config.gz >.config
make oldconfig

Well, I've been doing some studying and have made the file .config (wasn't there already) in /usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15.8 And I think I have found the file I am supposed to copy to .config at /usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15.8/arch/i386 . Called defconfig.
Now, I tried to copy the file by right clicking on 'copy to' - and then finding .config . . , but the file will not copy. I'm making the assumption that I probably have to be root, which probably means being in a terminal, and I have no idea how to copy 'defconfig' to .config.in terminal. So . . .
1. Is what I am doing to make this work even correct?
2. can somebody walk me through copying the file? (i.e, where do I have to be in order to start this, and just what do I type?).

Ok, Is this the right way to do this? I'm getting an error message so I'm obviously doing something wrong, but what? All I get is this 'omitting directory .config' What does that mean?



sleekmason@linux:~> su -
Password:
linux:~ # cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15.8
linux:/usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15.8 # cp .config /arch/i386/defconfig
cp: omitting directory `.config'