THE COMPLEAT 2.6.7 KERNEL GUIDE FOR COMPLEAT ID10Ts
 

EDIT: for the actual guide, see post #8 : EDIT

i have to use my samba server (which has been headless for about 4 years) as a main workstation.

its got slack 8.1 on it with the 2.4.18 kernel (which was fine for just being an off the internet file server) but now he's going to be doing a lot more work.

there are a lot ov things i have set up that i don't want to lose (SAMBA configs, httpd configs) but i -need- to put a new kernel on it.

i don't have 3d set up on it (which i would like to) and audio isn't turned on (but i think alsa can do that)

so i'm wondering what avenue i should take to upgrade.. I have had some bad luck with upgrading kernels in the past, and i've had to revert to my 'before the new' kernels.. so i guess what i'm asking is

1. is there a very thorough kernel how-to (i don't know if i'm doing the make menuconfig right.. i ususally just copy my old ~/.config take what it gives me) i'm sure that's part ov what i'm doing wrong.

2. is there an easy way to upgrade from 8.1 to 10.0 without doing a full install. ( i really don't want to upgrade the whole thing from 8.1 to 10.. i really just want to do the kernel, update samba et. al.)
unless there are security concerns with sticking with 8.1

sorry this is a long post.. and i probably sound retarted, but i need some help.

thanks a ton.

You can just upgrade the kernel, but you'll have to read the documentation first for the dependencies, eg you probably need a newer version of the gcc compiler if you want to upgrade from source. That said, it will amount to much less of a big deal than a whole system upgrade. A whole system upgrade essentially just amounts to upgrading all the packages to the latest version and, dependencies aside, there's no reason why the whole lot have to be done at once, you can just upgrade what you feel like upgrading.

I'm assuming that 8.1 has the upgradepkg tool (I came to Slackware at 9.0). I've never had any problems with that utility and highly recomment it.

Recompiling the kernel from source code is easier with 2.6 in that you don't have to do 'make dep' any more. But you are right, getting the options right in config is the hardest part. You'll find lots of kernel compile how-to's (especially by searching this board) but none of them will really be able to help you with getting menuconfig right. The only way is to know your system - or find out as much as you can - and go through all the options carefully to decide what you do and don't need. But if you work off your old config and use 'make oldconfig' the system will just prompt you for things that have changed.

In my experience, if you make a wrong choice the dmesg output will usually help you figure it out (as well as the very helpful people on linuxquestion.org!) and within a few iterations you'll have a working kernel. When you get it right once, it's never difficult to upgrade again.

Security concerns are an argument for upgrading rather than not - but again you can do this package by package. The slackware website has a list of all the security advisories. It would take you a long time to work through them all from 2000 though and probably a full upgrade is easier.

I hope this was some help and best of luck,

John

thanks for the info.. hopefully i'll have some time tonight to get dirty with it.

i tried doing my laptop from 2.4.26 to 2.6.10 which resulted in no display.. then tried 2.6.0 with the same result.
then i had dreams ov compiling all nite.. it was phreaky.

thanks again, and i'll let you know how i work out.. i'll post.. thanks!

I'd stick with 8.1 unless you really need something special from 10.0. Just grab the latest 2.4.28 kernel source and use the same config file as the kernel you are now using, at first. After you get that working, then try tweaking the config a bit. Slack 8.1 is about the most rock-stable linux you can run.

what about going to kernel 2.6.X .. are there issues with going from 2.4.X to 2.6.X.. i heard about better support / faster X. and i couldn't get my ATI card working under 2.4. i have the source for 2.6.0 and 2.6.10 and would like to investigate these new features.

thanks

i used the package tool to install 2.6.7 and it went over pretty well..
i need to re-compile gpm (i think) because the mouse doesn't move anymore
and i need to re-compile ALSA, cause its not recognizing my sound card.
hopefully the fact i'm still using XFree86 instead ov xorg won't be that much ov an issue.

thanks for the replies so far.

well.. i scrapped the update project.. and went for the upgrade..
i'm currently running setup on 10.0 (although i really did want to just keep 8.1) the update procedure ended up becoming a Linux From Scratch project, that i was just unwilling to do.
so i'm installing 10.0 over the existing partitions i had from 8.1.
hopefully my 80GB ov data will survive the migration, and everything will be *relatively* smooth.

i will be pkgtooling the 2.6.7 kernel promptly after reinstall.. and i will post the procedure for those, like me, who have never done it before.

on linux for 5 years.. 1 year exclusively.. and i'm still a N E W B I E.. but pretty proud to be a noob in *nix.

love you all..

k.. rename this post to:
THE COMPLEAT 2.6.7 KERNEL GUIDE FOR COMPLEAT ID10Ts
^--like me

(I did this over an 8.1 install, and it kept all my config files, but you could do it from scratch)

1. install slackware 10.0 however you want

2. reboot
a. take the disk 2 out..
b. login as root
c. put disk 2 back in and mount it
i. mount /mnt/cdrom
ii. cd /mnt/cdrom/testing/packages/linux-2.6.7
d. type: pkgtool
i. pick CURRENT for installing stuff in the current directory
ii. hit YES and install everything that comes up
3. TYPE lilo
a. you can also vi /etc/lilo.conf and
i. change the timeout from 1200 to something more reasonable like 30 or 50 (3 or 5 seconds)
ii. other stuff you can read about other people doing..
iii. if you do anything, make sure you type 'lilo' after editing the file or it doesn't do anything
4. hold down Ctrl while pressing Alt AND Delete
5. boot your 2.6.7 kernel and be happy you didn't have to compile anything.

yeah.. wow.. i need to unplug.

this most likely happened because you have a framebuffer console and you didn't compile the new kernel with the framebuffer stuff it needed which is, in fact, disabled by default in the make menuconfig/xconfig menus.

...and you have to compile it INTO the kernel not as a module for obvious reasons. (the console inits before the module support in the kernel)