Latest kernel question.

[Jon]

Which release has the latest kernel included as of now? I've checked the sites of the distros I'd like to install (I actually own RH, SuSe and Mandrake) but they make no mention of what kernel is included. I'd like to stick with SuSe or Mandrake but it doesn't really matter as long as I'm getting a newer kernel.

Thanks...

[Thelemac]

I know that Mandrake 8.1 has kernel 2.4.8-26mdk. I think I heard that SUSE 7.2 had 2.4 also...but I could be wrong on that one. Mandrake definately has it though.

[Jon]

I just found and was about to post that I found my answer. 2.4.8 and Mandrake will be perfect as that's the one I was most comfortable with anyway.

Thanks for the quick reply though :]

[chaim79]

Why worry about which kernel is supplied? Making your own is very easy, doens't take much time, and runs faster and better then the supplied kernel. Sure it is intimidating the first time, but after you do it a few times it becomes old hat. :D

If you want info on how to build your own kernel I would suggest reading up on it. Wander over to www.linuxdoc.org and get the kernel-HOWTO and read for a bit.

I would suggest using "make menuconfig" or "make xconfig" to configure your kernel. and also to try both kernels at the same time (editing lilo isn't that hard, you just copy most of the stuff from the other kernel and change the label and kernel name)

Doing this I have only built bad kernels about 6/25 times. and often all I had to do was adjust a few settings in the configuration and re-build the kernel.

[Thelemac]

It is easy, and that's what I'm planning on doing with my other distros, and possibly also Mandrake. Just got it setup, so I'm not sure what direction it's going to be taking me in yet. :)

[Jon]

Reason I wanted the latest was to keep the frustration level down while trying to implement RAID 0 on the HPT370 controller. SuSe and Red Hat supposedly support it somewhat now but I've given up after trying to get it to work over the past 4-5 hours.

I've compiled plenty of kernels in the past (I'm no Linux expert though) just wanted to find one that already had HPT370 support built in (latest one).

Don't know where I went wrong as I followed instructions to the letter. I'll just wait a couple more months and hopefully they'll get it a bit more stable.

[Shep]

here is a link to the highpoint drivers if you want to try them with your existing kernal.
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/370drivers_linux.htm

[Jon]

Thanks...those were the ones I was using. Was having a problem afer finishing RH installation at the point I was supposed to hit ALT+F2 to get back to the shell. Mine didn't seem to want to do that so I couldn't copy the kernel the drivers came with to my installed version.

SuSe had same problem...always had a kernel panic.

From what I've seen, FreeBSD now has a working HPT370 RAID driver so I'm downloading v4.4. I bought v4.0 about a year or so ago and did like it a good deal despite its lack of software support, etc.

It's not all important as I may just install Mandrake or Turbo on my old P133 box as soon as I can get a cheapo CDROM for it.

[David]

some tips with kernel building:

1. Make sure IDE disk support is installed, but NOT as a module. If you install it as a module then you'll get a kernel panic. (unless you have a SCSI HDD)

2. Make sure that you have support for your root filesystem (will be ext2 or reiserfs probably), but NOT AS A MODULE.

3. Allow support for the magic sysrq key. This can REALLY help. eg after a kernel panic you can unmount your filesystems safely and avoid FS damage.

[mcrites]

alt+sysrq+s
alt+sysrq+u
alt+sysrq+b
Woop!
As well as don't forget to edit lilo.conf and rerun lilo after you copy your kernel to the /boot directory. Make sure you keep your old kernel for backup purposes too. Don't want to have your only kernel panic when it sees your pants are down!