M Harris wrote:
I have an HP notebook running the boxed set openSUSE 10.0
I would like to upgrade the kernel *only* (modules, etc) without reinstalling
openSUSE. Can this be done easily?
Thanks
===
You can download a kernel from kernel.org and buildl it 'anytime'.
I almost always convert my distributions to a stock-vanilla kernel (despite
the increasing "gotcha's" in 10.2 & 10.3 as SuSE engages in the "Extend" part
of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish..." (so many suse rc-scripts don't even check
to see if a module's functionality is already loaded before doing a modprobe.
It's not usually fatal, but you do get a few 'module not found' and "can't
determine symbols for module 'xxx'" during boot, building and 'initramfs'
creation.
If you don't use or don't care about the SuSE-specific kernel addins
or modifications, it's not too difficult to use "/proc/config.gz" to be
a starting point for a kernel ".config" file.
Copy it into an unpacked linux kernel of your choice and do a
"make oldconfig". The closer the version you choose to upgrade to, the better
chances of it "just working". I don't remember what suse10.0 had for a kernel
or what extras were in it -- but it might be possible to find 'current' patches.
For a conservative upgrade path, you might try going to the same vanilla linux
kernel version, first, before trying an upgrade to a later kernel (assuming you
are trying vanilla (meaning 'unpatched', or 'as downloaded' from kernel.org)).
If you have no idea how to build a kernel, you might try getting one
of the books on linux kernel development.
You might try installing the kernel package from suse10.1 or suse10.2 and see
what problems show up -- you might have to install or upgrade some packages
to support the new kernel. Also, depending on how far you upgrade the
kernel, you might need to upgrade 'util-linux' (which can have support
tools needed for later kernels).
Why are you trying to upgrade 'just the kernel'? Is there a specific
problem you know will be fixed (or is fixed) in a later kernel?
If you are wanting to play with current vanilla kernels, though,
you'll have to learn how download, extract, configure and build. It's
not rocket science, but it also doesn't always go smoothly. Some recent
books are "Linux Kernel Development" 2nd Ed. by Robert Love (it's fairly
readable, I thought) and "The Linux kernel Primer" (salzberg-rodriguez,
fischer & smolski) which tends more toward details as accompanied by a
code listing. It _might_ be a better text for someone new.
Almost all things are possible given enough time and work.
OTOH, if all you wanted to do was drain the swamp, being up to your
*** in alligators may not be your cup of tea.
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