Thank you

semac, not sure if it is a wise thing to use this if you already have the /etc/modprobe.conf file, or if it's not empty. it is generated on kernel only and will not have any additional driver modifications that you may have added...

.
Agreed--but the nvidia installer gave me an error and would not compile a kernel interface until I copied /boot/config-2.6.10 back to /usr/src/.config. (See the thread "nvidia install error" where we worked out the problem.) I don't know if any other programs would ever need to see this or not.

Looking back at the guide, the optional step doesn't appear to include making a symlink to /usr/src/config. It does have you make one for /boot/config, however. I haven't tried to see if a /usr/src/config link would work with the nvidia installer as opposed to /usr/src/.config.

Also--how different would this guide have to be for other distributions? It seemed to work smoothly enough to me that anyone could follow it step by step and get a new kernel compiled. Maybe people outside the Slackware community could benefit from such a thing. (Admittedly, I haven't checked to see if they exist in other places as well or not.)

I made sure all the items in the old one were included in the new one, so no harm done.

Thanks for the concern though.

Samac

Another way is to just do;
the new kernel will be /boot/vmlinuz

this guide has now been submitted to the HOWTO section of the site.

thank you all for the inputs,

cheers,

aj.

Great guide, it looks very similar to the way I've been compiling 2.4.x kernels in Slack for what seems like forever.

You have a code line: /boot# pico /etc/modprobe.conf
It might be simpler to just dump the file to screen using cat /etc/modprobe.conf or even less /etc/modprobe.conf since there is no editing done in that step

For the symlinks and backups in /boot:
I do the same steps you do of renaming the old files and symlinking to the new ones. I see the same thing in "other distros" and assumed there was something besides LILO that used them. Whether or not there are other things need them I don't see much of a reason to leave the steps out of your guide. Things like this will likely be followed strictly by the inexperienced user and will do no harm, while the kernel vetrans may still use the guide but can safely chose to skip this step if they wish ;-)

For compiling as root:
OK so Linus says it's a bad idea, there are probably good arguments either way. I think in the strict Linux philosophy we wouldn't run a kernel compile as root, but how many of you do almost nothing as root? For new users IMO, it's likely you will introduce more chance of mistakes by moving stuff around to compile as a user than you would risk by compiling as root.

NVidia drivers and other schtuff that needs to compile against the kernel:
Here is where those symlinks in /boot may be needed, hard to tell. With NVidia drivers I make sure that all of this is in place, most if it is probably overkill but I prefer the shotgun to the scalpel in this case:
- /usr/src/linux symlinks to my currently running kernel's source tree /usr/src/linux-2.x.xx
- System map left in the source tree and a copy placed in /boot by version number, with generic symlink (just like your tutorial)
- .config left in the source tree and a copy placed in /boot by version number, with generic symlink (just like your tutorial)

As a note, you can use the /boot/config as a good starting guide, even using the 2.4.xx one with make newconfig for a 2.6.xx is preferred to starting from scratch although using Patrick's 2.6 configuration is probably the best place to start.

In your SATA section you may be able to word it so it's understandable that whatever bus your boot device is on has to be left in the kernel, not just SATA but for those with SCSI or people who don't understand that they need a non-modularized IDE driver. An interesting note is that RedHat and some other distros use the initrd to have those modules available at boot. That seems so un-Slack and I wouldn't suggest doing it, but it's helpful to know why you have to compile this way in Slackware and not other distros.

Maybe include a list of other things that Slackware needs in the kernel. I know when I was newer to Linux I've unchecked things like devfs and then wondered why it didn't work. This will probably mean some work to find everything, maybe we can start with stuff people have personally left out and had problems with and build from there.

Well I tried your guide. (thanks to all)
It took me a couple of trys to get my .config just right,
But I'm up and running fine.
I've got TV, Alsa, Internet, The Works!
Performance is vastly improved over 2.4.x on my
kt600 based board.

I did have to make one change, however.
As "GRX" mentioned I had to copy my /usr/src/.config
instead of moving it, in order to get the NVIDIA driver to build.
(version 6629)

real glad this was of help.

i posted this as tutorial, but nothing came out... maybe it needs approval. oh well. at least i see that it's still here

cheers,

aj.

It's up...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...iewcat&catid=6