are there any special settings required for recompiling the kernel under slack 8.1 my new kernel doesn't seem to boot

i've tried...
make xconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
make install

in redhat it puts another vmlinuz file in the boot dir (ie:vmlinuzcustom), but not in slack. after make install in slack it seems to automatically update lilo. i rebooted the system did a uname -a, it said last updated may31, 2002, i686 -unknown. so, i assume i didn't work because in redhat it says athlon instead of unknown and the date is wrong, it should say July 15 2002. so i do it again

the second time i noticed, after doing make xconfig that the box that comes up after saving my settings said "next step do make bzImage, bzlilo, ???", not make dep as it does in red hat, so i skipped make dep, and went to make bzimage.

any suggestions will be appreciated... i hope this is coherent, it's late.... so tired, so so tired.

I haven't touched Slackware 8.1 at all, but are you sure Slackware reconfigured your lilo.conf and re-ran LILO (via /sbin/lilo)? If things are still causing problems I'd do it all by hand; Copy kernel to /boot (or wherever you want), add entry for it in /etc/lilo.conf, re-run LILO, restart.

Hope this helps.

are you saying that it's generating the kernel somewhere other than the /boot directory because i cannot find the new kernel, in redhat its generated in /boot.

For my own system, Slack 8.1, I do not know what the make install will do. I have never used it. Slack 8.1 does put the kernel (vmlinuz) in the /boot directory now. It used to be in the top level root directory.

But the make bzImage will create the new kernel in the arch/i386/boot directory of the sources as the file "bzImage". Copy it to the /boot directory using the file name of your choice. I use the name "vmlinuz-2.4.18DVD" because I have a DVD+RW patch applied to the 2.4.18 kernel.

Make the correct change in the /etc/lilo.conf file for it to load the new kernel instead of the old one. Then run the command "lilo" for it to update the boot information.

If you use modules then you might also want to copy the "System.map" file of the kernel source directory to the /boot directory as well.

Then reboot. The new kernel should load.

You can create an additional section in the lilo.conf to allow the kernel to be tested first. Duplicate the partition begins and ends section. Modify the image statement to the new kernel name and change the label to a different label like "test". When you run the "lilo" command, it should report both labels on the console screen. When you reboot and see the LILO prompt press the CTRL key to select the kernel option desired, like "test." If all is well, then change the labels around in the lilo.conf file and rerun lilo when you are ready to make the change as the default.

Perhaps another here will know more about the "make install" operation and what is actually done. But you could start by looking in the / and /boot directories to see where it might have put the new kernel you built, and if lilo.conf was changed.

A little late, but I have been searching around about kernel options and such, and here is a place that explains the "make install" bit:
http://www.p-two.net/modules.php?op=...catid=&topic=3

It basically, does it all for you. Make install moves the kernel, updates lilo and runs lilo for you.

Cool

Some Distros say not to use make install, but i heard with Slack it's okay, but i still prefer copying the new kernel from /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage to /boot/newkernel Then i add another stanza for the new kernel in /etc/lilo.conf and re-run lilo, reboot and test my new kernel, if it works, make it as default in LILO and delete the stanza you made to test your new kernel, re-run LILO and your done.
If it's still not clear, a while back there was a big thread about Slackware kernel compilation, just search for it.
Good Luck
-NSKL

grand master c, i hear ya i feel ya... on redhat 7.3 it used make install but i still had to do the lilo configurations myself. they need a standardized way of recompiling the kernel, only one site/company/group makes it (i think) make install should be standard i dont like copying the kernel and misc files to different folders.

In slack 8.1 you need to edit the Makefile to use the make install option.

where could i find information on editing a make file?

It's only a text file.....any text editor will do the job.

Like Aussie said, in Slack 8.1 you will need to change the following in the Makefile:

#export INSTALL_PATH=/boot

I do the following:

make xconfig
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
cat arch/i386/boot/bzImage < /vmlinuz
#make sure you have the old kernel image backed up
cp System.map /boot/System.map
make modules
make modules_install
#edit /etc/lilo.conf
/sbin/lilo