Re: Kernel question

[brian moore <bem@cmc.net>]

On Thu, Jul 06, 2000 at 12:14:13PM -0600, Walter Williams wrote:
> Greetings
> 
> I have subscribed to this list server to find
> out more about non-Red Hat derivatives.
> Is the Debian distribution of the type that I 
> can,  when I want to update the kernel, 
> download a complete kernel tar ball or a patch
> file from what ever web site I choose, install it,
> and have things function properly? 

Sure.

> The last coupe of times I did this to my current
> distro things went a muck. Fortunate for me I
> saved my current kernel and was able to boot
> from it. I didn't have too much problems with
> previous distro when I built custom kernels 
> with it. I was able to get a kernel update from
> anywhere and go to town with it.

If you use 'make-kpkg' to build the kernel (basically, it invokes all
the 'make bzImage && make modules' stuff for you, then spits out a .deb
with the new kernel and modules), you'll have a kernel that can be
installed or removed with 'dpkg (-i|-r) kernel-image-whatever.deb'.

You could do it the old fashioned way as well, but I hate hunting down
bzImage out of arch/i386

> I am basically "shopping" for a new distro.

Debian is a pleasure to use and maintain.  I've now formatted Slack off
two machines, RH off two and Mandrake off another.  (Okay, so the Mandrake
one booted precisely once with Mandrake and lasted a total of 10 minutes
or so before I formatted it... :))

-- 
Brian Moore                       | Of course vi is God's editor.
      Sysadmin, C/Perl Hacker     | If He used Emacs, He'd still be waiting
      Usenet Vandal               |  for it to load on the seventh day.
      Netscum, Bane of Elves.