Hi,
A really stupid question. I have mandrake 9.0 installed on my desktop. While trying to configure my ethernet card, the installation failed because the source code was not found. Is it because the directory /usr/src/linux is missing ?
Besides, I am not clear about one thing. If the source code is supposed to be there in /usr/src/linux (which is missing in my case), how does my computer manage to boot linux at all ?

Regards,

sanjiv

A newbie I guess :-)

The linux sources are on your install cd.
Open the Rpmdrake, and type 'source' into the search box, then install.

If you are thinking of recompiling your kernel, whatever you do, don't use the 'make install' command. Read the 'Kernel how to' and make sure you have a complete list of all your hardware, chipsets etc

Good luck

"If you are thinking of recompiling your kernel, whatever you do, don't use the 'make install' command. Read the 'Kernel how to' and make sure you have a complete list of all your hardware, chipsets etc"

Does this not work on Mandrake or something? Just curious...

The reason your system boots with-out the sources is that the sources are only needed to create the executables. Onces you have the executables to boot you don't need not the sources unless you want to recompile something or make changes.

i.e you will have your kernel (and the initrd thing) executables in /boot partition.

As most users on here will tell you, using the 'make install' has a habit of doing the opposit to what you expect. More than anything it will mess up your lilo configuration, which will cause a kernel panic at boot up. This usually results in reinstalling your operating system. If you know what you are doing then go ahead, if your a newbie then follow the 'how to' and install manually.

This way if your new kernel doesnt boot, you will still be able to boot your original configuration. This isnt Mandrake specific, it goes for all operating systems.

Always backup, then backup again.
You are lucky, unlike windoze, that a fresh install only takes a couple of minutes.

I use it and it works fine but I use Red Hat and Grub... the only problem I've ever encountered is having to point grub to /dev/hda5 (example) instead of the default that RH specific kernels use (LABEL rather than /dev/hda5) after a kernel panic. It's good to keep an extra working kernel hanging around. .

I forgot that mandrake uses LILO which I know very little about

In Slackware make install works very well... but it copies the files to the / directory, I just edited the Makefile and ucommented the line BOOT_INSTALL_PATH and now it goes directly to my /boot directory, and it places copies of the old kernel file like *.old

Ah! If you really plan to recompile the kernel for any reason:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=49035

really good how-to about recompiling the kernel - made for newbies

It seems you have both had to change something for it work

Would a newbie know how? or where to start?

My first experience with linux resulted in about 20 fresh installs within a two week period, lol

no, no, not al all.... it always worked ,but I just didn't like to copy the files from / to /boot. You could think it's not safe, but as it makes copies of the old ones is not an issue in any way.

I really appreciate your help in this regard.

Sanjiv