Howto - 2.6.10
 

I'm assuming you have a working system, and are in X. You should also know somethings about your hardware. Preferably the type of hardware you will be using (IDE,SCSI,ISA,PCI etc) and any specific chipsets (motherboard and soundcard etc).

Open up a console. Goto your 'downloads' folder, or where ever you want to download the kernel source to. su to root.

[Download the source]
- wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...2.6.10.tar.bz2

[Extract the source]
- tar jxf linux-2.6.10.tar.bz2

[Move the source]
- mv linux-2.6.10 /usr/src/

[Change directories]
- cd /usr/src/

[Remove old symlink]
- rm -f linux

[Create new symlink]
- ln -s linux-2.6.10 linux

[Change into source directory]
- cd linux

[Setup lilo for the new kernel]
- vi /etc/lilo.conf

Add this above your current boot entry(changing /dev/hda1 to your root partition):

image = /boot/2.6.10/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda1
label = 2.6.10
read-only
append="hdd=ide-cd"

Note: The "append=" line is only needed if you have a IDE CD/DVD Burner. If you do, change 'hdd' to it's location (hdb,hdc etc.).

[Make your boot directory]
- mkdir /boot/2.6.10

[Edit the Makefile]
- vi Makefile

Goto line 546. You should see "#export INSTALL_PATH=/boot". If not, search for "boot". Uncomment this line and edit it so it looks like this:

export INSTALL_PATH=/boot/2.6.10

[Make your kernel config file in X]
- make xconfig

Take your time here. Read over everything and make sure you have what you need selected. If you're not sure about something, google it. Here are some notes:

To get OSS Emulation working properly with ALSA, you need to set "Sound System Support" (soundcore) as BUILT-IN.

To get lm_sensors working, you need to build I2C as BUILT-IN. Be sure and select your chipset modules.

To use Power Mangagement (power saving modes), enable ACPI.

Disable anything that you obviously don't need, such as PCMCIA, RAID and SCSI if you don't have those devices.

If you want Frame Buffering support (nice looking boot up console), be sure and build it as BUILT-IN, as well as VESA and others in this tree.

If you're going to use SAMBA, enable SMBFS support. It's disabled by default.

If you're using ReiserFS, enable it. It's disabled by default, build it as BUILT-IN.

Disable LEGACY PTY (BSD) support. It breaks things(less & man) and isn't really needed. **If you have udev-050 or newer, you can leave Legacy PTY support enabled**


Once you're sure you have everything you need set, save the file and close the window.

[Make the kernel]
- make

[Install the kernel]
- make install

[Make the modules]
- make modules

[Install the modules]
- make modules_install

[Uh..reboot]
- reboot

If everything goes well, you should be running 2.6.10. If you receive any errors, or it fails, reboot back into your old kernel from the lilo prompt.

Don't forget to reinstall your graphics drivers before starting X. You only need to reinstall the kernel module if it's Nvidia, use the -anK options.

[Edit - Thanks for the lilo tip, forgot make install does it.]
[Edit - The append line was needed for my burner to work, remove it if you don't need it.]
[Edit - Removed 'make mrproper' as it's only needed on recompile]
[Edit - Added note about udev & Legacy PTY.]

Surely this isn't needed? My DVD-ROM and DVD burner work fine without any such line.

What does need to be done though is to make sure any line that says 'append="hdc=ide-scsi"' or some such is removed or at least commented out, otherwise people scratch their heads and ask "Where has my drive gone?"

It breaks them because the udev rules in the 10.0 package are wrong/broken and need fixing (or upgrading to a newer udev package, such as one in -current)

ATi drivers also require rebuilding, but they are extremely fussy. Therefore, remove the fglrx package and remove the directory /lib/modules/fglrx, then reinstall the fglrx package, patch it for 2.6.10 then rebuild and load the module.

This part isn't needed for a 2.6.* kernel

Doing "make" makes the boot images and the modules at the same time.

...also...this is not needed :

---------------
[Remove old symlink]
- rm -f linux

[Create new symlink]
- ln -s linux-2.6.10 linux
----------------

that link is never used.

edit : also ...why issue " mkmrproper " on a fresh kernel-source ?

and.....you should run " lilo " after the new kernel-image is in place

egag