lars_eivind Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 I am expecting my brand new Centrino laptop any day now, on which I am planning to install Mandrake 10.0 Official. However, I consider compiling the newest (2.6.6) kernel to provide the newest kernel features for my laptop containing quite new hardware, and I would like to have a kernel that is a little more tailored for my system. But as I am quite new to kernel compiling, I have a few questions: *If I download the 2.6.6 tarball and untar it to /usr/src/linux-2.6.6 (or something like that), is there an easy way to get the old (Mandrake default) settings, as I'd like to use this as a starting point? *Will all modules and drivers be loaded (and configurations files work) as before, as the kernels are both 2.6? (I had some trouble with the 2.6.6 kernel on my old laptop running SuSE 9.0 (which has a 2.4 kernel as standard), the sound module will not load because of differences of how this is done in the different kernels.) *I will not do anything drastic, just setting the CPU to the one I have and add options appropriate to my system and remove the ones that I definitely don't need. Is there anything that I should be afraid of? (Can anything go VERY wrong...?) Thanks in advance, Lars-Eivind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
streeter Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 1) Your old config should be in /boot - the file will be called config-2.6.xxx. Copy this to your new kernel source directory, rename to .config and type "make oldconfig". Rename any other .config file as a backup. 2) After you compile the new kernel, you will also compile and install the new modules to go with it. 3) Things can go wrong - the main thing to do is make sure you keep the old kernel intact and bootable - ensure there is an entry for it in lilo.conf or the grub equivalent if you use that, then you can just revert to your old kernel. Or perhaps a copy of knoppix if you know what you are doing. Perhaps the best thing to do is to not change/remove too much from the kernel in one go - the speed difference will probably not be noticable anyway, and you can always recompile again later when you are happy - perhaps just change the processor type on your first attempt. Good luck ! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
streeter Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 Also, if the new kernel source you are using is not from Mandrake - ie a plain, vanilla kernel, you may need patches, depending on your hardware/requirements Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted June 11, 2004 Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 Just out of curiosity, what model is your laptop? If it is similar to mine, i oculd give you my kernel config and even the precomiled kernel. If it isnt as similar I still may be able to compile it with a few adjustments. Essentially though, there isnt many 'customizations' you can add per se, however there is a handful of usefull addtions. To enable the wireless, you may want to grab ndiswrapper -- ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net -- alas, if your computer is the same as mine, I can give you my config as it can be a tad troublesome to work with sometimes. Could you please post the output of this command when you run it at a commandline/console/konsole lspci -v iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted June 11, 2004 Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 1) Your old config should be in /boot - the file will be called config-2.6.xxx. Copy this to your new kernel source directory, rename to .config and type "make oldconfig". Rename any other .config file as a backup. You may or may not find make oldconfig the most helpful. Personally I find it has an uncomfortable interface and would use make menuconfig. The advantage to oldconfig though is that it points out all the new config options. Not sure which you'd prefer - just pointing out the options... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BoBinou Posted June 11, 2004 Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 (edited) Just out of curiosity, what model is your laptop? If it is similar to mine, i oculd give you my kernel config and even the precomiled kernel. Hi, I would be very interested to have your config. I have almost the same laptop as you (Centrino 1.4Ghz, 512ram, 30go, 15", Intel Graphics). For now the wireless and the modem don't work on mine. In addition the user modules don't seem to be enabled and the ACPI doesn't work very good, that's why I want to compile my kernel and it will be my first time, so... I'm trying to grab some information ! Thanks Edited June 11, 2004 by BoBinou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_eivind Posted June 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 iphitus: Just out of curiosity, what model is your laptop? I suppose it's not THAT different, but still: 1,6 GHz Centrino 60GB 7200RPM 512 DDR ATi 9700 Radeon 128 DDR Wiag Pro Turbo (108Mbit, I think..!) 4X DVD burner (not sure what model) I don't know if your .config file can do me any good, do you..? Could you please post the output of this command when you run it at a commandline/console/konsolelspci -v I haven't reveived it yet, according to the Norwegian postal service the package is currently in what is known as Norway's ugliest city, some hours drive from where I live. I'll try to post it when I get it, if I remember it when I'm dancing for joy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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