As far as compiling new drivers, which ones need to be recompiled? Like for instance I recompiled the emu10k1 driver for my soundcard, after installing Slackware 9 (which came with 2.4.20), so I could get bass/treble controls. If I install 2.4.21, would that driver need to be recompiled, and if so would that be the only one?

when you installed Slackware 9... if you installed drivers afterward from lets say Alsa then yes, those would have to be reinstalled. If you installed Slackware 9 and you're video card worked right off then probably no those would not have to be reinstalled.

For an example:
I originally had a 2.4.18 kernel:
this had a special driver (compiled post-kernel) for my winmodem, external USB hard driver, sound card, and video card.

This means that when I installed a new kernel 2.4.19, 2.4.20, etc that I had to recompile and reinstall the drivers for my winmodem, usb hard drive, sound card, and video card.

basically anything that you (kernel module-wise) installed after you're last kernel rebuild or initial install, will be best recompiled / reinstalled.

jpbarto

but the file isnt tar. its just straight kernel-2-4-21.bz2, once i unzip bz2 will it just simply turn into a tar file or what??

You sure, isn't it kernel-2.4.21.tar.bz2?

Just move the file to /usr/src and do tar -xjf kernel-2.4.21.tar.bz2.

Run ls, you should see a linux-2.4.21 directory there.

Type ln -s linux-2.4.21 linux and you will have a symlink called linux pointing to linux-2.4.21.

Then type cd linux and follow the steps shown at the top of this forum to guide you in compiling your first kernel.

Good luck!

thanks a lot, after a lot of IRC and forums you so far are the only one who has actually understood what im trying to figure out. well thanks for all the help, hopefully my new kernel will be up and running tonite

PS. u can look at www.kernel.org and see, its patch-2-4-21.bz2 w/o the tar.

No problem Slackz0r... compiling my first kernel was a bitch... There seems to be so many way to do it that it confused me big time. In actuality it wasn't really that hard.

The patch is only useful if u have an unmodified previous version of the kernel. It will save you time because you don't need to download the full kernel source (which is massive!), however, patching is not for the faint-hearted.

Glad to be of help

What do I have to change in my LILO config?

add the new kernel into lilo.conf with the following lines

image=/boot/my-new-kernel ### full path and filename of new kernel
root=/dev/hda1 ### this should point to the partition containing your root directory
label=new kernel ### the label or name you want for your new kernel
read-only

then rerun lilo and you should be good to go for a reboot.

OK, thanks to you guys I got 2.4.21 compiled and was able to boot into it. Only thing is, it doesn't recognize my ethernet card, and god knows what other hardware. I saw a lot of things that didn't make sense when I was looking around when I ran make xconfig. I think there were maybe several default values chosen for me that caused these problems. Is there a way to start up xconfig with the values you have set for your previous kernel? For instance, would copying over my .config file from the /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 directory to the /usr/src/linux-2.4.21 directory work? Would it set up xconfig with the same values I had previously? Or are there too many differences between kernel versions, that xconfig wouldn't know what to do with it?

Copy the .config file from your 2.4.20 kernel and run make menuconfig (or xconfig if you prefer) and work your way from there. By default, everything you've selected under your old kernel will still be selected in this new kernel config, you can proceed to add any additional modules you want.

Awesome, I thought that might work but I didn't know for sure.

Edit: Wait though. I downloaded the 2.4.20 kernel source package from the Slackware page. Would the .config file included with it be the right one for the 2.4.20 kernel that comes with Slack 9? I would assume so.

If you have never compiled your kernel before then the safest thing that you can do is to grab the default config file in your /boot dir. It should be named to something similar like 2.4.20-ide-config... I really can't confirm at this moment because I'm at work (and typing this on Windows... arrgghh!), but I am almost certain you can tell just by looking at the /boot dir.

Another good thing to do after you successfully compiled your kernel is to copy your .config to /boot and name it descriptively so you can use it as a base for future kernel compilation. eg. kernel-2.4.21-config.

If you got any other queries just give me a shout out.

I copied the one from the kernel source, which I had downloaded from the Slackware page, and all went well. Happily running 2.4.21 right now, much thanks to you and jpbarto for de-mystifying this whole process. I been using Linux full-time for over a year now, on and off for a year or so before that, and never tried to compile a kernel before. Now I am kicking myself for not learning how to do it sooner!

Before I go any further I will copy the config file from 2.4.21 to /boot so I have a snapshot of it in case I decide to do any tweaking.

definately do some tweaking... trimming the kernel down to the bare essentials... only having loaded in memory what is needed for your specific hardware is a good feeling.

think you'll try writing your own kernel module next?

LOL, that may be a little further down the line, I wouldn't know where to begin. Sounds interesting though, if you got any good information on that then feel free to slide it my way.