[mythtv-users] FC4 & MythTV - Computer powering down... sort of! - FRUSTRATION!!

[R. Geoffrey Newbury]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:17:51 +0200, Stef Coene wrote:

>> IS EXACTLY what I would like to do. Problem is I have no idea how to
>> copy on a new kernel and have that load as the default kernel. At that
>> point I wouldn't know what to be looking for in dmesg and lspci to
>> make a new kernel, and once I did find out what I needed I wouldn't
>> know how to get it and make a new kernel.
>>
>> I don't suppose anyone knows of a step-by-step manual on how to do exactly
>> this? ... anyone?

Running FC4 you can get a new kernel using yum install kernel* After the
process is finished you will see the new files in /boot and yum will
update your grub menu to boot from the new kernel.,

BUT the new kernel will not be configured for your hardware.

For that you need to configure and compile the kernel. You will need the
kernel source (available as a plain vanilla version from kernel.org) and
the development stuff (compiler etc.)

The Linux documentation project has removed the kernel howto and the
replacement supposedly at http://www.digitalhermit.com/~kwan/kernel.html. 
never seems to load.

There is a good description of the process at

http://www.epialinux.org.

 Follow the kernel link bottom left of the first paragraph on the head
page. That description is specific for a via epia board which has the
advantage of discussing exactly how you configure a kernel and deal with
specific driver issues.

For example, if you are doing a mythtv box, you may not need firewire or
bluetooth or sata or scsi depending on your hardware, but you should
select *every* module in the device driver dvb section even if you do not
have the listed hardware.

>What I do, I always leave the kernel in place that is installed by the 
>distribution and add my own custom kernel.  So I can choose at boot time the 
>kernel I want to boot, and of course, I make sure my kernel is listed first.

As noted, if you do a kernel upgrade using yum, it will automatically
upgrade a grub menu.lst.  It is not particularly difficult to do, although
slightly time-consuming. (For example, the actual compile is one of those
things you should start just before going to lunch! If you are going to do
this, I suggest you should first do a 'ls -al /boot > /tmp/boot1.txt' and
save a copy of /boot/grub/menu.lst, so you have the starting state.
Then do a yum upgrade to the newest available kernel. When that is done
make a boot2.txt. These two will show you exactly what has changed as the
new one was installed.
THEN get the new source, put it into a new folder and
configure/make/install from that. (So you end up with three branches
(miniumum) in /usr/src/kernels:  the original 2.6.11 of your install, the
upgraded 2.6.12-2 (or whatever the latest rpm at freshrpms or atrpms
serves up to yum) and the source version... presently 2.6.13.4

As noted, yum will amend a grub menu.lst, but you will have to do it with
vi (or whatever) for your source build version.

Geoff

R. Geoffrey Newbury                          newbury at mandamus.org
Barrister and Solicitor                         Telephone: 905-271-9600                 
Mississauga,Ontario, Canada              Facsimile:   905-271-1638