I have read the guides in this forum but I seem to be slow, or the authors assume something that I don't know.

Before I go thru all the make commands I'll have to put the kernel source (2.6.0) in the right place a.k.a replace the old one ... what commands do I write for make this happen?

PS I have unpacked the kernel under /tmp/linux-2.6.0

Where do I go from there

You really don't "remove" the old kernel source...rather create a new sym link to the new source. Unpack the new source to /usr/src

You then have a new directory for the source.../usr/src/linux-2.6.0 or similar.
Then just remove the existing /usr/src/linux link...


cd /usr/src
rm -f linux

Then create a new link to the new source...

ln -s linux-2.6.0 linux

Then you can descend into the linux directory and start the config/compile process.

cd /linux
(or you can provide the entire path)
cd /usr/src/linux

Make sense?

I have followed all the descriptions here (and in DaOne's tutorial). Everything is alright - no error messages during the whole process.

When I reboot I can't see any lines in LILO besides the old kernel (2.4.22). The 2.6.0 entry does'nt show up at all. What could have gone wrong?

Did you properly edit /etc/lilo.conf? Also, did you run make install or manually copy the new kernel and System.map to /boot. If you ran make install, did you remember to first uncomment line 450 in /usr/src/linux/Makefile? Lastly, if you manually copied your new kernel image and System.map to /boot, did you run /sbin/lilo afterwards?

These are the only things off the top of my head that should cause what you described...

i had the exact same problem and i wasn't compiling it right. here's the guide i used to compile my kernel.

move your kernel source into /usr/src:

mv linux-2.6.0.tar.gz /usr/src

cd /usr/src

tar -zxvf linux-2.6.0.tar.gz

rm /usr/src/linux

ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.0 /usr/src/linux

cd linux

make menuconfig

If you are running X-Windows you may want to run xconfig (or gconfig in gnome) for the nice graphical interface instead of menuconfig.
When finished exit and save the new configuration.

make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6
cp Sytem.map /boot/Sytem.map-2.6
rm /boot/System.map
ln -s /boot/System.map-2.6 /boot/System.map
pico -w /etc/lilo.conf OR vi /etc/lilo.conf ( whichever editor you're comfortable with)


# Linux bootable partition config begins
***********(change your existing info to this)*********
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6
root = /dev/hda1
label = Linux-2.6
read-only
Where /dev/hda1 is the location of your boot partition.

/sbin/lilo -> run this to commit changes to your boot loader

If no errors occur then you should be ready to reboot and start using your new kernel!

and also, instead of doing tar -zxvf linux-2.6.0.tar.gz do :

tar -jxvf linux-2.6.0.tar.bz2

i think the source file is in bz2 format, so use this command instead of the one that i just posted.

Thank you guys for your input !!

I am getting closer now. When I reboot and choose the 2.6.0 entry there's a kernel panic message:

VFS: Unable to mount root fs on hda2

Is there something I have forgot when I was browsing in menuconfig ???

What filesystem are you using - did you include support? - actually just post the full contents of lilo.conf and the output of

fdisk -l

Here's my output of "fdisk -l"

/dev/hda1 1 243 82 Linux SWAP
/dev/hda2 * 244 2675 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 2676 14593 83 Linux

and here's "lilo.conf"

boot = /dev/hda

image = /boot/vmlinux-2.6.0
root = /dev/hda2
label = 2.6.0
read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz.old
root = /dev/hda2
label = 2.4.22
read-only

Type 83 is reiser...make sure you have support for reiserfs in your kernel.

OK, I'll check it out ... but before I do anything ... how do I check that
Should I run menuconfig or ...

Yes, just cd /usr/src/linux and run make menuconfig.
Check it out, and see what you have. You'll have the option to or not save the configuration when you exit. If you made no necessary changes, choose no...if you found what you need and made the proper changes, save the config. You'll want to re-compile afterwards "IF" you made and saved changes.

This should lists the filesystem currently supported by your current kernel:
Hope this help ..

Slight correction...

cat /proc/filesystems

Oppss...

Anyway, thanks for your kindly correction...human error, copy and paste..