Thanks to this forum, I am starting to get the hang of compiling my kernel.
I'd like to continue to experiment and hopefully further optimize my system,
but want to do it in a way that doesn't cause me to "backslide"
I have the boot issues handled, in my case, the kernel is installed
on hda (slack is on hdb) and booted via redhat lilo.

My concern is with maintaining the current configuration. I find that "make mrproper"
wipes it out, so I've been using "make clean" to start with.
questions:
1)If I back up the "dot" files (.config, .depend, etc) from /usr/src/linux into another
directory and mistakenly run "make mrproper", then can I restore the previous
configuration by simply copying those preserved "dot files" back?
2)I should familiarize myself with whatever utilities are helpful in testing and
trouble-shooting. Any one got a list for me? (and I can do the RFM thing)
3)Are there ways to test the kernel without rebooting?
4)Any other hints, advice, pointer to docs etc?

Thanks again
Tim

for what its worth!

1) YES! (only the .config would be enough i think)

2) what i do is "make menuconfig" and use google next to it

3) Not that i know of, but error messages during compile could give you an indication

4) Visit LQ on a regular basis

You might take a look at kexec. The 2.6.13 supports it AFAIK. Take a look at this HOWTO if you're interested.

Hi,

first, you have to perfectly know your hardware, utilities like lspci may be very helpfull. Don't hesitate to have a look at the "help" option if you don't know if you have to enable or not a feature in your kernel. Unfortunately some features don't have a documented "help" menu
There's also Documentation directory in kernel sources which can provide you helpfull info

Oliv'

if you're able to access a x server like xorg, you can use "make gconfig" which shows a lot of documentation about modules
I think this is the best way to configure kernel(it uses GTK2 btw, so it should be installed)

Great Tips! gconfig is not available as a make target on my RH partition.
As soon as I have time to boot back into slack I will check it out.
I do have xorg there.....

And a feature like kexec could really advance the ability of smaller organizations to
do custom kernel building and testing.

Great thread!
tim

Well... I just felt like thanking to everyone at this gorgeous forum, so:

THANKS!!!

Thanks to LQ Slackware's Forum I was able (some weeks ago) to compile a proper 2.6.12.5 kernel for my hp pavilion zv5200 laptop (right now 2.6.13 is out there so I have something to keep me busy at home ). Without doing this, that marvelous piece of hardware would have been doomed to run WindowsXP (Home... eeeekk) because the default 2.4.29 kernel didn't fit correctly, now works like a charm

Greetings.
Peace.