There are a few reasons why a user would want to upgrade his/her kernel. One advantage to compiling your own kernel is that it is tweaked for your hardware. When you use a distro like redhat etc the kernel you will be using was compiled for many diffrent hardware setups and there for it has many more kernel drivers etc loaded than it really needs. Another would be from the security prospective. With every kernel release there are bug patches for security etc. And the last one that maybee the distro your usings kernel hasent been compiled with support for your hadware, when you compile your own kernel you say what hardware support should be compiled in.
this guide is NOT for use by those who use redhat as redhat makes it a total pia to upgrade the kernel and it can muck up your system, just switch to slackware or gentoo. **should work w/ Fedora**
lets get started:
1. Fire up KDE/Gnome, open up a terminal and do “su root” then enter your root password.
2. Do “cd /usr/src”.
3. Issue “wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2….5.tar.bz2”.
4. When thats done do this “tar jxfv linux-2.6.11.10.tar.bz2” to extract the kernel
5. Do “cd linux-2.6.11.10”
6. Do “make xconfig” if you are in KDE/gnome. if your are in a tty console or on ssh do “make menuconfig”.
7. Explore around the config tool. make shure you have gone threw everything. if you see something you want compiled in to the kernel just click on it and it should have a CHECK next to it, if it has a DOT next to it click it tell it turns to a check. when you get to “Device Drivers>Sound” make shure you compile ALSA and not oss. if when you reboot and sound dosent work recompile *go to step 5 and do everything past that* the kernel with both OSS and ALSA.
8.Issue a “make all && make modules modules_install”, if you get any compile errors report them here.
9. Once the “make all” command is done issue a “make install”.
10. do “cp /usr/src/linux-2.6.11.5/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/linux-2.6.11.5”
11. Add the new kernel to your /etc/lilo.conf and then do “lilo” wich will write new config to your hdd
12. reboot and enjoy
if you encounter any problems/errors with anything report them here
Remember to update the commands with the link to the appropriate kernel download.
