Perhaps this isn't the right forum, but it is the Slackware filesystem I may be destroying so I though I'd ask here first.

What might or might not work if you ran a different distro's kernel but substituted Slackware's / filestem in grub or LILO? Say if you were multibooting Ubuntu or Debian and used their kernel and/or initrd but Slackware's filesystem. Anyone ever try that, even as a typo in a config?

Would it just not work, or would it mess up the filesystem beyond all repair? Or, would it work fine if the kernel was "generic" enough (i.e not too many strange distro specific patches)?

It shouldn't mess up your filesystem and may or may not work, depending on how close the version and compiled options match -it will probably be looking the kernel modules which match the kernel too, so you might need to copy them into your slack filesystem so they are available when booting with the foreign kernel.

It should work OK. People do this all the time when they compile their own kernel. Using another distribution's kernel should be no different than compiling your own kernel.

Another common example is booting a liveCD and then chroot to a hard drive / partition. You are using the liveCD kernel and the hard drive / file system. People do this often when repairing broken systems with the liveCD being produced by somebody other than the distribution which produced the / file system.

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Steve Stites

I've done it accidentally (don't ask), and didn't encounter any problems. However, I'd be careful with a totally different journaling system.

Well, that's good to know. gnashley- thanks for the reminder about kernel modules. jailbait - probably because I don't understand it that well, chrooting seems less permanent than mounting as root...dunno, safer somehow, just like mounting from a rescue CD and renaming it as root. As for compiling your own kernel, well, the slackware kernel is pretty vanilla, so compiling a new one is like running slackware! Thanks though.

As the above posters noted, it will usually run. In fact most people do this at one time or another accidentally with a botched lilo configuration - it is mostly just confusing when you are not expecting it.

I doubt that you would harm your filesystem this way, at least not with common distro kernels, but I don't think it would be a good idea to do this as your normal operating boot, if that is the point of your question.

There is the obvious potential for complications with kernel modules, but I suspect that there could be other nasty effects, particularly if you try to install or build packages in that mode. Lots of potential for problems in fact.

I wasn't really planning on that being my normal operating boot, but thought it might come in handy occasionally, mostly as a way to avoid the tedious and wasteful duplication of installation of applications.