Building my own kernel
Hi,
I'm currently running a 2.0 system (pretty much vanilla), but I'm
thinking of trying out a kernel build of one of the new 2.1 kernels
(probably the latest, unless anyone is aware of problems which may mean
an earlier one is more stable).
I've looked at all the stuff in the kernel-package docs and so on, and
it seems OK, but I'm not 100% sure I feel confident of *not* breaking my
system...
Can anybody offer me some help/advice on what I need to do (short of
"backup everything", preferably :-) to make sure that, should disaster
strike, I can get back to where I am now.
The process of installing the required software upgrades (2.1 kernels
require certain levels of software, I understand), downloading and
unpacking the kernel source, configuring, make-kpkg stuff I'm happy
enough with. But once I have the relevant kernel .deb, if I install it,
will that trash my current kernel? If so, what/how do I back it up?
Just to make things more confusing, I have a dual-boot NT machine using
the NT loader. For that, my normal process of setting up the boot
process is to use lilo with a lilo.conf which bungs a MBR onto a floppy,
which I then peel off into the NT C:\ drive, where the loader picks it
up. Will installing a new kernel .deb make the existing MBR useless?
(AFAIK, /vmlinuz seems to be a symlink to the actual kernel - does LILO
pick up the kernel as it is pointed to, or will the change to the
symlink cause problems?)
As you can probably see, I've got an idea of what I'm doing, but I tend
to trust the LILO stuff to "just work" - I don't really understand
what's going on with it, and that's what worries me...
Thanks,
Paul.
PS The reason I'm after kernel 2.1 is to see how much P&P soundcard
support there is (ie, will it make my Ensoniq Soundscape P&P card
actually work...) and to look into parallel port sharing (I have a Zip
drive and a printer daisy chained off the same port).
Reply to: