Birdman wrote:My current distro is Slackware 10.1 with a 2.4 kernel. I really need to move to 2.6 and was hoping Slackware 11 would be here with a default 2.6 kernel before I had to go through a fresh install.
Slackware 11 is possible going to be around the beginning of September, just guessing from the Feb release of 10.1
In the meantime though, why not stick your own 2.6 kernel in? One of the plus points with Slackware is the fact it runs with a standard kernel, so you can just substitute it with another kernel no problems.
Creating your own kernel is reasonably easy, it sounds a bit horrific, but its not.
Just try to know what make/model hardware you have eg
CPU, motherboard, graphics, nic, sound etc
eg In this example, the old sources and settings will stay, a new option will be added, so if it doesn't work, no problem.
Unpack kernel source into /usr/src
>tar xvjf linux-version.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src
Change directory, into the new set of sources
>cd /usr/src/linux-version
Remove any stale dependencies (habit)
>make mrproper
To configure the sources, you need to select the options you'd like, such as sound card, motherboard chipset, CPU type etc There is a console based selection process or a couple of graphical versions, so just try them to see which you prefer, personally I prefer the console based version, just find it easier.
CONSOLE
>make menuconfig
GTK
>make gconfig
QT
>make xconfig
You have the option to compile an item into the kernel (Y), or as a module (M) which is loaded at boot time, or to leave an option out altogether (N).
If in doubt, compile an option into the kernel, its not a problem to have a kernel which is 2.5MB compared to 2.0MB, especially if a new machine has >=512MB RAM.
General options to consider:
- Remove Symmetric Multi-Processing Support (if you have a single CPU) (N)
- If using a totally standard kernel on a machine with >=1GB RAM enable high memory support (Y) otherwise turn it off (N)
- Generally speaking, if it involves the CPU, mainboard, filesystems, graphics, then compile the option into the kernel (Y). Some work fine as modules, but others may cause the kernel to fail to boot if they are selected as modules and not built into the kernel.
- Enable iptables network options for firewall to work
- Enable ppp options if using dial up connection, or built in ADSL card (if using ehternet, ie via a router and internal nic, then just select your network card)
When the config is complete, exit and say yes to saving it, then run
>make all
>make modules_install
>cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz26
>cp System.map /boot/System26.map
>cp .config /boot/config26
So, this has not overwritten any settings, but a new option does need to be added to the boot menu, as it currently won't know the new one exists.
Open /etc/lilo.conf in a text editor and copy the current settings down as another option, but changing the names to include the newly created files (eg vmlinuz --> vmlinuz26) and change the label.
Save the file and, if using lilo, write the new boot loader:
>jed /etc/lilo.conf
>/sbin/lilo
Done. Re-boot and select the new option, if it all goes horribly wrong, no biggy, as the original settings and files are all still in place.
Once you've done this a few times, honestly its a quick process, 10 mins max.
You might be interested in the ck patchset, it adds some extra options to the kernel to improve desktop situations, as well as getting the cd-writing working again (>2.6.8 broke this IIRC).
Then there is the cko patch which takes the ck patch and adds more stuff to it, like reiser4, sshfs, more dvb/bttv options etc
I'm currently running 2.6.11-cko5 because of the improved options (using a hauppage nova-t card)
http://www.kernel.org/
http://members.optusnet.com.au/ckolivas/kernel/
http://kem.p.lodz.pl/~peter/cko/
PS I have probably missed something important, or even dangerous, but there are boat loads of guides on the net, google is your freind.