About to compile a kernel

[subnet_rx]

I'm on Red Hat 7.1 The RPM manager worked great and I upgraded to 2.4.3 with no problems. but I want to get to 2.4.10 So, I'm going to try it out. I've got books, and HOW-TO's ready to go.

When it says processor type, should I choose i686 to compile it specific to my processor?

Anything else I should know on doing this? Maybe something the how-to's don't tell you?

[Dark Ninja]

Yes...compile it to your specific processor. Ummm...something the books may not tell you is that you should ALWAYS KEEP A BACKUP OF YOUR OLD KERNEL. ;-) Just thought I'd emphasize that point.

Seriously, though, make a boot disk with the old kernel image on it. It'll prevent you from having to reinstall an entire system if you completely screw up compiling a kernel.


Dark Ninja

[subnet_rx]

should I upgrade my video drivers before or after the kernel upgrade? I'm rebuilding the rpm files for the video drivers, so that makes me think I should do them after. But some readme's are saying update everything before the kernel install.

how do i get back to the backup? Will the boot disk get me to a prompt?

[ 03 October 2001: Message edited by: subnet_rx ]

[Dark Ninja]

Not sure about the video drivers.

About the backup - when you go to create the vmlinuz file (which is generally what the boot file is) you'll have to make sure you make a backup of the current one. In actuality, I'm probably not the best person to be helping you out at this poinit, because it has been since the 2.2.x kernels that I have actually attempted to compile my own kernel...and that didn't go so well. ;) Now, there are programs that make backups for me, and I don't have to do squat.


Dark Ninja