I've been running the 2.6 kernel on my Slack machine ever since the 2.6-test3 series.

A bit of advice: although the .config file from the 2.4.22 kernel source will work, I find that you get a better build with fewer errors if you build your kernel from the base 2.6 .config (just run menuconfig or whatever you prefer against a clean 2.6 source). It's really not that difficult to do, and so long as you keep a lilo entry for your old 2.4 kernel, you can always go back and fix anything you might have missed.

Just keep in mind these things:

1.) To prevent the "blank screen" that most new 2.6 kernel users often get on their first build, make sure that the following options are enabled:

# Graphics support
#
CONFIG_FB=y
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
#
# Console display driver support
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_PCI_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FONT_8x8=y
CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y

#
# Logo configuration
#
CONFIG_LOGO=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_MONO=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_VGA16=y
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224=y

Note: these settings are not default in 2.6 and often do not carry-over properly from the 2.4.22 config file and must be double-checked!

2.) Kernel panic: this is because Reiserfs (if you use it) is not enabled by default. Make sure it is enabled under "Filesystems".

3.) AGPGART is compiled-in by default. If you plan on using the NVIDIA AGP drivers, then I suggest either selecting AGPGART as a module or unselecting it alltogether.

4.) If you plan on using modules, take note that module unloading is not enabled by default. You won't be able to unload modules (like AGPGART mentioned above) when needed. Select the option under Loadable Modules Support.

5.) Sound: here's where everyone has problems: if you're scared of Alsa, then deselect it and select OSS. I've tried both and I can't tell which sounds better (if at all). All I know is that OSS works with all 4 channels of my SBLive! and that controlling the mixer levels with rexima is simple and hassle-free (no alsamixer settings to have to set and store). It's OK, nobody's gonna hate you for using OSS over Alsa.

6.) Firewall/NAT: if you plan on using an iptables firewall, note that you need to select Network packet filtering and (to make it easy) everything under IP:Netfilter Config (I select them as modules).

7.) IDE-SCSI is no longer necessary with 2.6...you can use /dev/cdrom when using cdrecord or whatever CD-R software you use. I have a Plextor drive, and it works fine WITHOUT SCSI-EMULATION set in the kernel.

8.) Install correctly:

a.) make bzImage && modules && modules_install
b.) cp -v arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6
c.) cp Sytem.map /boot/Sytem.map-2.6
d.) rm -rf /boot/System.map
e.) ln -sf /boot/System.map-2.6 /boot/System.map
d.) mcedit /etc/lilo.conf
e.) Make an exact copy of the entry for your 2.4.22 kernel just below it, and then change:

image=/boot/vmlinuz ----to---> image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6
and...
label=Linux ----to---> label=Linux-2.6

f.) /sbin/lilo

If there are no errors, then you're ready to boot.

Try the manual installion:

1) download:

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg0.run (nvidia)
NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4496-2.6.diff.bz2 (minion.de)

2) install the kernel module (as root):

# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg0.run --extract-only
# cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg0
# cd usr/src/nv
# bzcat ../../../../NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4496-2.6.diff.bz2 | patch -p1
# ln -s Makefile.kbuild Makefile
# make install

The instructions assume that you are running the target kernel. If that
is not the case, you can still build the kernel module for that kernel,
but since the KBUILD Makefile only respects the KERNDIR directive when
it builds the module, you'll have to install the module manually; as an
example (instead of 'make install'):

Copyed from http://www.minion.de/files/NVIDIA_ke....0-4496.README

While this is true, the "current" stable cdrdao does not, which software like K3B uses. You can get around this by downloading, compiling and installing the latest cdrdao CVS off of sourceforge.

DaHammer... Thats EXACTLY what I did... And next, I even tried to copy nvidia.ko manually, and run depmod and stuff, like the next part in the readme... neither worked!!! I'll post the EXACT error messages sometime tonight, when I get back into Linux...

Thanx for the reply Tino27. I tried messing with LILO and settings things there but it doesnt help. Nothing happens. I actually might have forgotten something important in my kernel so I'm compiling a new today using the tips from Jymbo. I did it 3 times yesterday so at the end I might have been a little too tired to think with stuff like that. When I get the framebuffer to work in console, I'm gonna give the Nvidia deal a try, which I also found out about a little before I went to bed...

If u ever wanted to know about system.map I'd stucked with it:

http://www.dirac.org/p/linux/system.map/

DaHammer, ok, I just recompiled the 2.6 kernel, without the agpgart, and with some other inclusions I needed, and tried the nvidia install from minion, and it worked.... everythings setup now, and Im thinking of deleting all my other kernel compilations.... system is faster too now... thanks for ur help... c ya round...

I have a DVD/CDRW drive. After compiling the new kernel, I did change my "append="hdb=ide-scsi"" to "append="hdb=ide-cd"", re-ran lilo, rebooted, re-sym linked my /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd to point to /dev/hdb. I could play CD's using KsCD. However, when I tried to play DVD's using Ogle, it would play the opening "Warning" screens, but when it went to jump to a point further into the disc, Ogle crapped out with a "seek error" and just quit.

The question is, do I still need SCSI emulation to play DVD's?

I managed to "fix" everything by returning to the "ide-scsi" version of lilo, but I want to make sure I have to indeed have it in order for all my CD/CDRW/DVD functionality to work.

karthikrr, glad you got it worked out and yeah, I thought the 2.6.0 series was much faster as well.

one last question ... any idea how to get that damn boot logo working?

Hmm, not exactly sure what you mean by "boot logo", you mean the pengiun that sits atop the screen while the boot messages scroll? Or are you talking about a custom lilo boot logo? If the former, then check jymbo's post above. If the later, I'm not sure as I've never played with that much since I'd rarely see it anyway..hehe...But I do know that for the custom animated ones, you need a special version of lilo, I think the Suse version.

This is exactly what is happening. It was driving me nuts and made me think I did something wrong with compiling. I get a few errors on boot from iptables (iptables a lot) aswel as some other drivers (damn, can't remember which and I just did a clean install from the slack roms to get going from scratch again) complaining about the .ko extention. I use guarddog so that could explain the errors in booting and not working of the firewall? Is such a script editable? Like can I fix it (as soon as I reinstalled it ) or do I need to wait for another newer version of guarddog which support 2.6.0? Are there other programs looking for the 'old' extentions that I should know of? I'm following the above (jymbo) guide to get 2.6.0 in shape, I guess I should do a slapt-get --upgrade after (current)?

Regards

no no... The 2.6.0 kernel has a 'Bootup Logo' section in it during the config! Three logos, b&w, 16 colour and 256 colour (I think) are available... I chose all three, but none appear... I do have the penguin which comes when u enable fb during the bootup...

there are no modules loaded. When I try
insmod, lsmod, modprobe
QL_MODULES - function not implemented
What's this?

Do you have module-init-tools (at least version 0.9.10) installed?