on 16 Oct 99, Brad wrote... > >On Sat, 16 Oct 1999, John wrote: > >> It seems an opportunity to upgrade to 2.2.7, and etc, etc > >i'd recommend 2.2.12 (the latest), although 2.2.7 might be my second >choice. > I've now discovered that my Debian CD-ROM contains kernel-source- 2.2.1 under the devel directory. Can I not use this? I'd like to avoid a long download (approx 70mins I believe) until I have some experience. If this is safe perhaps I can gain experience by then patching to 2.2.7 or 2.2.12. > >> According to the Howto the kernel should be in /usr/src/linux - it >> seems to be in /usr/include/linux/2.0.36 on my box. > >Odd... What i'd recommend is to put the kernel into /usr/src/linux-version >(where version is the version number, e.g. 2.2.7), and symlink >/usr/src/linux to that directory. > I've rechecked and it is in /usr/include with many .h files and some directories for example dpkg. Should the symlink be to /usr/include?
>> Much is written about the benefits of being able to compile to ones >> exact needs, etc, etc > >This is one of the parts it's hard for us to help you with, because it >depends on what hardware you have in your computer and what you plan on >doing with it. For example, if you have no SCSI, disable SCSI support >(except in a few cases). If you have no IDE drives, disable all that. > >Look at which modules you use (in modconf, probably) as a good indication >of some of the features you should keep. And, on the other hand, you can >probably remove the modules that you never use from the kernel. And whan >in doubt, go with what you have in your present kernel. > I should be alright on this when I'm sure how to remove unwanted modules, do I just use the rm command - i.e. are the kernel files just ordinary files for this purpose? > >> Yet again, 2.2.7.tar.gz is 13M of I know not what etc, etc >> >You just download the one big source package, even the files you don't >need. It's a bit inconvienient (especially if you have to pay per MB), but >it's generally felt that it would be more confusing and inconvienient to >make separate tarballs for everything... > Fine, I follow that. >> As I have CD-ROMS for RedHat and SuSE, could I use one of these? > >you probably could, but i'm not sure you'd want to... > Is this to preserve the philosophical purity of Debian? If so I agree and understand, but feel a short cut might be acceptable in the early stages of learning. I could also bring over Pine and Netscape which I badly need on Debian for surfing, mail etc. > >As a final note, check out the kernel-package package. It'll make a deb >that you can install with dpkg, that will properly install the modules, >help you a little with lilo, and various other random things it's easy to >forget. > I've been unable to locate kernel-package so far. Incidentally, as I have the three Linux distributions on the disk at the moment, I boot from floppies - I presume there will be the option to make a new disk during the install/config when I do start. I'm most grateful that you have taken the time to respond with help. This to me is a significant reason for preferring to end up with Debian (I've long taken for granted my computer will no longer crash!! That's acceptance not ingratitude). Regards, John.
