Need Help upgrading from "bareacpi.i" to "test26"???
 

I've done this installation on my desktop with Slakware-11(current) utilizing the stock kernel "bareacpi.i" and I would like to install the 2.6 series kernel on the installation disk "test26.s". I've been told that if you do this you need to also install the corresponding modules from the /extra directory on the installation disk.

Is that accurate? I don't know, I do know however that I can't seem to find a decent How-To describing this process step by step. Unfortunately every tutorial explains how to upgrade the kernel by downloading one from the kernel.org website.

This is all fine and good for those of you who have a broadband connection, where as I am in a catch-22 dilemma and it would be far quicker to use the kernel from the installation media....

So this is what I do know, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, on a running system I load the disk into my drive, su into root and issue this command......from there I believe I copy my kernel image of choice, in this case "test26.s" over to /root, next step is where I get a little lost. Where exactly are these modules that I'm supposed to copy over and where is it that I'm supposed to copy them to???

Any help would be much appreciated, thanx...

You don't have to move anything manually. Use the package tools. The RELEASE_NOTES file in the main directory and the README.initrd file in the /extra directory document this procedure. (The docs are actually from 10.2, the last release, so the kernel version numbers will differ. Current is intended for testing and development... so the docs aren't updated until the official release.) The whole process goes something like this...

Change directories to /extra/linux-2.6.16.27.
Install the packages for alsa-driver, kernel-generic, and kernel-modules. You can install the kernel source if you want it. (You probably don't want the kernel-header files.)
You can use pkgtool to install the packages.
Change /etc/lilo.conf (or run liloconfig) and then run /sbin/lilo.

I don't think you'll need an initrd, but read the instructions if you need one. And don't forget that if something goes wrong, you can always boot into your system using CD1 and the kernel of your choice.

When I upgraded my 2.4xx kernel to 2.6.13 I issued this command to mount my cd rom drive and view the second CD.

#mount /mnt/cdrom

Then I navigated to cdrom and typed ls, saw the files there and used the command installpkg to install the modules, headers, and other stuff.:D

Some great instructions here near the bottom of the link on how to install the 2.6 kernel
http://bitbenderforums.com/vb22/show...?postid=311808

The instructions on how to install the 2.6.13 kernel are in the release_notes on the first install CD for Slackware 10.2.

Excellent advice jim, except for one problem, iso disc 2 of Slackware current does not contain the kernel source, or at least my copy doesn't. Dammit Man! :mad:! I guess I'll have to either revert to v2.6.13 from the 10.2 release or track changelog for Slack Current to see if they have added the source for v2.6.16, to be continued...

AFAIK, there aren't any "official" -current ISOs. I don't know where you got an iso or what is on it. Is there a directory named /extra/linux-2.6.16.27? If so, and if you need the kernel source, it's in the package named kernel-source-2.6.16.27-noarch-5.tgz. You would just install it like any other package.

Well to answer your question, I got the "Current" ISO's from a link on Distrowatch when they posted the announcement. Also of course, it's my luck that ISO disc #2 does not contain the directory...
`/extra/linux-2.6.16.27'
However, desperate times call for desperate measures. So here's what I did, also anyone else can do the same thing if they can't wait for the official release...

I have a dualboot system with WinXP on the other half of the drive, so I rebooted into that, got online, and found one of the mirrors that was hosting the "Current" directory. I searched around and found the directory that you mentioned Jim (/extra/linux-2.6.16.27), I downloaded the following...
...Then I burned a data disc using nero, rebooted into Slackware, logged in, popped the disc back in and issued these command's (from the terminal of course)...
...The first question it asks is "do you wish to install packages from the current directory?" yes
then it showed me what I had burned, so I installed all four files and then proceeded to unmount the disc...
...After that it was your typical kernel compilation proceedure...
And finally under `/etc/lilo.conf', change the image......Reboot and viola, I'm now running the 2.6 series kernel on my Slackware-Current system. Now the only thing that I noticed that is different, besides the considerable speed boost is that my fonts got really big after I rebooted. I adjusted the VGA setting under lilo.conf and that helped but I can't get the same type resolution as I did before I installed the new kernel, any ideas???

I'm glad you got it working, but did you read the RELEASE_NOTES or the README.initrd file? Or visit the link shepper suggested? Or try to follow my instructions? I don't mean to be rude about it... it's just that once you got the correct files, you sort of wandered off on your own.

You didn't need to recompile the kernel. (Or if you really did need to, you could have skipped pretty much everything else.)

Believe me, I don't think you're being rude at all. However, being that this was a fresh install and all, I had to configure my kernel anyway. Now going back to what you said about me wandering off, since I've always been a fan of Constructive Criticism ;) . So I ask you, where-in lies my redundancy??? Or better yet, what would have been a more efficient way for me to accomplish my goal??? I would hate to repeat the same mistake twice and I always appreciate a fresh perspective...:cool:

No need to do all these steps. Adding a LILO entry first for vmlinuz and then "make && make modules_install && make install" should be enough.

Your original question was how to upgrade from bareacpi to test26.s. But you didn't do that. Instead you built your own. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but you could have done that at any point, and with any kernel version that you wanted. Installing the kernel-generic and kernel-modules packages was redundant.

But as long as what you did works, I guess it doesn't really matter :)