Re: [gentoo-user] kernel 2.6 upgrade howto

[Jean-Francois Gagnon Laporte <kioshen@gmail.com>]

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 18:47:43 +0100, Maarten <gentoo@ultratux.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi list,
> 
> I'm new to the list (and gentoo) but not to linux.
> 
> I just started with gentoo, had to use the 2004.2 image since 2004.3 crashed
> at installtime on my machine (thinkpad 600X)...
> I used stage 2. Since then I succesfully installed a lot of apps like KDE and
> such, but my kernel is still a selfmade 2.4 one.  Now I need to get my
> wireless cards working but I'd rather upgrade the kernel first for fear of
> doing things twice (or wrong) due to the changed pcmcia drivers.
> 
> I think I correctly upgraded 2004.2 to 2004.3 but how do I check that to make
> sure?

Okay let's divide the questions shall we. There isn't really any
revision to gentoo. I think you have switched your profile am I right
? What you have is basically told the system with system package were
recommended and current. This isn't the right answer but is the simple
answer. The date tags are primarily used for the releng team and grp
packages. Profiles are an another thing on it's own but it tells the
system defaults in a nutshell.

>  The machine did not do anything spectacular when I made that change,
> is that expected behaviour ?
If you were up to date with your local portage tree and recently
update your installation there is no reason to anything since you
already up to date. You only switched profile from what I can read.

>  Now for the fullfillment of the transition to 2004.3 I need a kernel 2.6, right ?
Not really, AFAIK gentoo hasn't switched to 2.6 by default. If you
still need to you can run a 2.4 kernel without any problems except you
will miss some goodies. But, if you aren't confortable with 2.6 or
even a linux kernel you might want to stick with a 2.4 kernel. It just
works.

>  Can someone point me to the docs that
> detail that step cause I could not find that very well.
Sure here ya go. It still has that fresh smell from the oven (It has
been updated recently)

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/migration-to-2.6.xml

May I suggest you go to www.gentoo.org and look at the left side of
the navbar to see a big category called Documentation. Check out the
user docs section it's pretty good.

> Or do I just somehow get the sources and start compiling ?

To keep up to date a gentoo installation :

emerge sync 
emerge -uDav world

What it does is emerge sync update your local portage tree to have the
latest ebuilds and then you ask portage to check every package on the
system to see if there is something to update and ask you first if
everything okay. Might want to read the man pages of emerge.

> How do I make sure I retain my current kernel as a second boot option if the
> 2.6 kernel will not boot ?
What boot loader are you using ? Lilo or grub ? Here's my grub.conf
that you might find useful :

default 1
timeout 5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/ninja-girl.xpm.gz

title=Working Kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz.working root=/dev/hda4 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x317
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd-1024x768

title=Test Kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda4 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x317
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd-1024x768

title=Old Test Kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz.old root=/dev/hda4 vga=0x317 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd-1024x768


Hopes this will help you out

Jean-Francois

> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Maarten
> 
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