Spinlock, i did what you posted and it worked perfectly. Now just a few questions.

Can i just use installpkg "kernel-2.6.18" from the disc
How do i setup swaret

oh yeah, and how do i setup my scroll wheel on my mouse.

Hmm... Let's see if my luck runs with me here...

Patrick made some... interesting... choices in where he put files in the Slackware install... stuff. He put the files for the default kernel in /slackware, the files for the 2.6.17.3 kernel in /extras, and the files for the 2.6.18 kernel in /testing. So, to install the 2.6.18 kernel, your best bet is to do the following:
installpkg /mnt/cdrom/testing/packages/linux-2.6.18/kernel-*-2.6.18*.tgz

I think I could have put more *s and less typing in there, but we'll stick with what we know works... well, ought to work.

Those "*"s are what we call a wildcard... it can be any number of characters from 0 to five brazilian, which is a lot.

As far as making Slackware use it? I'm not rightly sure. Maybe somebody else could help out here...

I haven't used swaret either... and I believe there's a recent thread in this forum about enabling scroll mouse. Although... once you have the kernel modules, and everything's detected, it may work just fine. If not, running xconf usually fixes that.

I'm not Spinlock, but a word of caution, there may be a problem with the one on the disk. When I installed it it wouldn't work properly. Download the 2.6.18 from a Slackware mirror and install that instead. Make sure to get the modules package as well. You can use installpkg to install them.

As for your mouse wheel, you'll need to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Find the section for the mouse. Change the protocol from PS/2 to IMPS/2

Add a line below it in the same section "Option" "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

That will enable the mouse wheel.

Oh, while many use swaret, I prefer to use slackpkg which is in /extra on the Slack mirrors.

The DVD version had a few files that gave me errors... I got those from a Slackware mirror as well. The kernel seems to be just fine here... but you can't go wrong downloading one (networking is more forgiving, I guess.)

i got splackpkg installed and setup, but when i do "splackpkg search kernel". it only has the same kernel i'm running. Maybe just try a different mirror?

The 2.6.18 kernel is under /testing. Slackpkg won't look there. 2.6.17.33 is under /extra.

Which kernel do you have now?

If you want the 2.6.18, you'll have to browse the mirror and download the packages, then install them using installpkg or pkgtool. If you want the 2.6.17.33, try slackpkg search slackware/extra/kernel and see what that gives you.

For stuff like that is usually far easier to just download them directly from the mirror.

Ok thanks for the help guys.

You're welcome. make sure to let us know how it goes.

ok i found and installed the 2.6.18 kernel and the modules, and when i reboot, i cant get past lilo. if hit enter it says something like loading and then just sits there. any ideas.

Did you create an initrd ? /boot? The way that generic kernel is compiled it has pretty limited file system support.

If you're using the 2.6.18 kernel and the reiser file system you should do "mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.18 -m reiserfs" to create an initrd to be used during boot.

Make sure to add the initrd line to lilo.conf and rerun lilo.

It should look something like this:
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
root = /dev/hda5
label = Slack-2.6.18
read-only

i may have to reinstall becuase i can't even boot into slack. Oh well live and learn.

No problem, you can still fix it without a reinstall.

Boot up with the install disk

create a directory like /mnt/slack and mount the partition where your system is installed in that directory

cd to the newly mounted directory

chroot to that partition "chroot /mnt/slack /bin/bash"

now you can work with your system, create your initrd, edit /etc/lilo.conf, and rerun lilo just like you had booted into the system.