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I compiled the newest kernel, all went better than I expected. I installed it using make install. This apparently over writes the existing kernel. Not quite what I expected. I expected it to install it with the other kernel files and then I would add a lilo entry to test it. When I compiled the kernel I apparently didn't handle adding ext3 properly because I now get a kernel panic at boot which says something to the effect that it can't load the file system on root. There is nothing of importance on this machine so re-installing wouldn't be an issue, however I would like to know if there is a way to restore the previous kernel without having to be so drastic. Additionally how can I install a new kernel so that I do not disturb the current working kernel and I can add a lilo entry to test the new one.
Using make install for your kernel is probably not the best thing to do. What I do is copy /usr/src/linux-your_version/arch/i386/boot/bzImage to /boot (giving it an appropriate name so as not to overwrite the old kernel) and then add a stanza to lilo.conf for the new kernel (and run lilo, of course). That way you still have the old kernel available.
Your kernel panic is probably because you have built ext3 as a module. In this case you should make an initrd for booting (personally I just compile the filesystems directly in the kernel).
You do not need to reinstall the whole system. If you only have one partition (not counting swap) it is quite easy. Boot with the install cd. Then mount your root partition. Then reinstall the default kernel by doing "installpkg -root /mnt/your_mount_point /path/to/slackware_cd/a/kernel-huge...tgz". (kernel-generic is better to run, but you would need an initrd and since you plan to use your own kernel you might as well just use -huge as the temporary kernel). You'll then need to re-run lilo. "lilo -r /mnt/your_mount_point".
Alternatively, once you have booted the install cd, you could just mount your partition, chroot, and then create the initrd (or recompile your kernel). But if this is all new to you, it's probably best to have a "known good kernel" in your lilo.conf.
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