kernel questions
 

Newbie using Slackware64 v13 here. When I installed and started running slack with the default huge.s kernel, my ALSA and x-fi didn't work, so I switched to a self-compiled 'generic' kernel. When I booted with the new kernel, the sound worked, why did this happen? I also notice that the system seems less responsive, but I can't say for sure. For instance I notice a delay when i click the mouse to close things.

Did I do the correct thing to self-compile the generic kernel? In the slackware documentation, Pat says I should be using huge kernel only for installation and generic kernel once the system is up and running. Does the generic kernel come precompiled or was I correct to build it from source?

Anyway, I'm looking for a thorough guide on custom kernel building. I followed Alien Bob's wiki article but it seems to be out of date and doesn't have a whole lot of information on the actual kernel config options.

Has anyone looked at gentoo's kernel guides? Are they full of 'gentoo-only' things or is it all the same for whatever distro you run, i.e., applicable to slackware?

I could take a look at O'Reilly's book Linux kernel in a nutshell http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...kn_pdf.tar.bz2. It is very useful.

You should have no problem running the generic kernel that ships with Slackware and there should be no need to compile it yourself.
You may need to create an initrd (Read /boot/README.initrd) or you can try the script "/usr/share/mkinitrd/mkinitrd_command_generator.sh" to help create one.

You'll need the kernel and the modules

slackware64/a/kernel-generic-2.6.29.6-x86_64-2.txz
slackware64/a/kernel-modules-2.6.29.6-x86_64-2.txz

Let's get back to the OP's post... please...

Does anybody understand why my sound didn't work until I started running the generic kernel? I'm happy that my problem is solved but I'd really like to understand why.

I've split off OT to http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...tor.sh-793557/.