Hi

With Slackware 11 around the corner I am asking what I imagine quite a few other people will - should I upgrade?

For me the issue is time. I have a custom compiled 2.6x kernel that is low latency for music production, SCSI for my machine & with a lot of unwanted stuff left out. I have succesfully re-deployed a kernel compiled on one machine onto another in the past.

If I want to upgrade to 11 can I use the kernel that I have compiled on 10.2?

If not I may be better off sticking with what works until I have time to mess with configuring & re-compiling etc.

thanks in advance for any advice

Who would know? ...
What I would do if I were in your place, would copy/keep the .config file that is in the kernel source directory (likely /usr/src/linux-`uname -r`) and recompile with the 11.0 installation running. Mainly because of version changes in glibc, gcc and such libraries/tools

There should be no problems.

I compile the kernels for all my machines on my main desktop, and copy it off to the other computers. Laptops, desktops, running different distros or Slackware versions. I have never had a problem.

On a related comment, I've heard (well, read actually...) in the LinuxAudioUsers mailing-list that the 2.6.17.x kernels have incredibly low latency even without (and comparable to) the Molnar's Realtime patches (I remember seeing some scheduler changes in the 2.6.17 changelog).

So what I would do is to save the .config just as my compatriota raska says, and make oldconfig to a 2.6.17.x kernel source.

If you depend somehow on AudioSlack (which is back to the game, btw), I understand that they will be building 11.0 packages as soon as it comes out, so that might be a good reason why upgrading could be a good idea.

OTOH, if your system works just as you like it, or better, I guess there's no need to upgrade the whole system (unless you like it cutting-edge ).

I'll make that definitive, there isn't a problem. I've tested a previously-built 2.6.16.16 kernel (that had some patches I needed) on Slack 11 RC3. Things are running great.

my system was 10.1 and i updated it using -current and i'm using 2.6.17.11 custom build. So my conclusion is any kernel will work in Slackware 11 as long as you meet the minimum requirements

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=471812

Short term memory loss?

You'll have to excuse my dry sense of humour.
Only if it is >2.6.15. Otherwise, things like udev (et al) won't work properly.

Also, some software (such as the NVidia driver) insists upon being compiled with the same compiler version used to compile your kernel. If you use a kernel compiled under 10.2, you won't be able to compile such items.

Wow -thanks for all the prompt replies. It sounds like it is possible. I also use checkinstall when I compile so I hope to easily take all my packages with me, esp alsa etc.

It is an unpatched 2.6 kernel & the low latency feature certainly works for me. I am not sure about what it acheives numerically but it is good enough for my ears The suggestion about keeping the .config file is a good one of the 'I should have thought of that duh!' variety. I do like to upgrade as the software keeps getting better in leaps & bounds.

Slackware really excels for this sort of stuff. It is stable, configurable & compiling software works better than any other distro I have tried.