Hi guys, Here is how I got 2.6.0 working on my RH9 system: I used the unofficial Redhat kernel source RPMs. I had trouble with the various new module loading utilities (yes, you do need new modinit and modutils), until I downloaded the kernel with apt-get. It solved the dependency problems. Add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list: # Arjan's 2.6 series kernel repository rpm http://people.redhat.com arjanv/2.5 kernel rpm-src http://people.redhat.com arjanv/2.5 kernel Then do: # apt-get install kernel-source#2.6.0-1.104 or do: # apt-get install kernel-source to get a list of all possible kernel versions. You will find the kernel under /usr/src/linux-2.6.0-1.104. Configure it as you normally would. 2.6 includes new GTK+ and QT based configuration interfaces. Use "make xconfig" for the QT and "make gconfig" for the GTK one. I like the QT configuration tool better. There is no need to do "make dep" any more. Just do: # make all # make install # make modules_install and you should have a "linux-2.6.0custom" or similar entry in /etc/lilo.conf or /boot/grub/menu.lst automatically. Now on the topic of initrd: initrd.img is created automatically during "make install" by the "mkinitrd" tool. See "man mkinitrd" for details. However, I have found that mkinitrd did not work for the new kernel. I don't think it was even created properly, because when I run mkinitrd manually, it fails. I just compiled the drivers for ext3 and reiserfs (my root system) directly into the kernel, and removed the "initrd 2.6..." line from my /boot/grub/menu.lst file for the new kernel entry. I think initrd is only really useful for generic distribution kernels; if you make a custom kernel, it makes sense to compile your IDE/SCSI chipset and root filesystem drivers directly into the kernel. FYI: a new version on mkinitrd came out today on apt-get. Maybe this one will work. If you still have problems with modules not loading, get the new module-init-tools version 0.9.12 or newer. You will have to convert your /etc/modules.conf file to /etc/modprobe.conf format, etc. Read the README with module-init-tools. But first try the apt-get solution above! I hope this helped. Anton Jing Su wrote:

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Any suggestions or readings would be of help.

I too decided to play with 2.6 for the day, though I got frustrated and stopped. Anyone know what the deal with the new modules is? Based on some browsing of newsgroups via google, it seems that a new module loader is needed? (I'm using the one shipped with RH8). Anyways, I went and got the latest/greatest non-development version of the module loader. modules.conf has been replaced with modprobe.conf, and modprobe.devfs. Haven't quite figured out these things yet.

Anyways, I've been getting module dependency errors and they refuse to load when I boot the new kernel.... still investigating it though, to figure out what's going wrong.

As for initrd, I found that it's mostly used for scsi systems. Atleast it's true in my case. I needed to pack up the the scsi board module into the initrd image. After a while, I found the whole process of initrd creation to be annoying, and just compiled the scsi driver into the kernel itself, and did a regular boot without initrd.

-Jing

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