[techtalk] New Linux Kernel

[Mary Gardiner]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2001 at 09:54:20AM -0800, Puff Devil wrote:
> I use Linux-Mandrake 7.0, which uses the 2.2.14-15
> kernel.  I have downloaded the new 2.4.2 kernel and
> decompressed it to my /usr/src/ directory, which made
> it "/usr/src/linux". 

There may be header files from previous kernels in /usr/src/linux

To quote from the README (which unfortunately you don't see until
*after* you've decompressed the kernel sources:

***
 - If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a
   directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and
   unpack it:

[snip!]

   Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually
   incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header
   files.  They should match the library, and not get messed up by
   whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be.
***

It is generally a good idea when compiling tarballs and so on to compile
them in your home directory or somewhere you have permissions, rather
than compile as root. For most tarballs that use GNU's autoconfigure
thing, the configure and make steps can be done as you, and make install
as root (if you wnat it to put the executable somewhere all users have
in their path, which is the default).

For the kernel, you can do every compilation step except two as a user.
The two are:
* copying the bzImage (which is your new kernel) to somewhere that lilo
can boot from (/boot for me)
* doing the make modules_install step to put the modules compiled
against the kernel in the right spot.

and you also can't run lilo as a user. Also there may be more steps if
you are compiling third party modules against the new kernel.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what you can do now that you have apparently
overwritten your library files... others may have suggestions :(

Mary.

-- 
Mary Gardiner
<mary at puzzling.org>
GPG Key ID: 77625870