> I just installed everything for Linux slackware. Now I want to setup
> networking, TCP/IP, PPP, etc...
> According to the various HOWTO's that I have read, my kernal needs
> those features compiled into it. How can I tell if these features
> already have been compiled into my kernal?
When you start to configure your kernel it naturally has no features compiled in since you
are compiling your kernel from source code. What you need is some info about your HW
configuration.- disks (E)IDE/SCSI, if scsi then you need to know the manufacurer of your
controller card and the model, not a bad idea to check out the SCSI-HOWTO because it has lots
of info about different scsi controllers. IDE and EIDE disks usually are supported.
- IDE CD-ROMs usually are supported, with scsi cd-roms there should no problem
- netcards , if you use PPP then I think that you are not using netcard, but there is HOWTOs
about netcards. Most common brand names are supported (and NE2000 clones)
- soundcards, at least my SB16 is supported... maybe some others
However don't compile everything there is in to the kernel, compile support for everything
you use, because all unused options just make the kernel bigger (and slower). About making
drivers modules is a option worth considering.
Remember that you can run this kernel configuration several times. If you are unsure about
some thing, just abort configuration and find out what you need to know. With 'make xconfig'
you even get some help about what some option means.
If you are using some * (or expensive) HW it is possible that there is no "standard"
support for it. Search the Net for drivers, maybe you are not alone
The most important thing is to make sure that you allways have a working kernel. So duplicate
your 'Linux bootable partition..." in your /etc/lilo.conf, change the label to something like
linux.prev and copy the file /vmlinuz to other name (maybe vmlinuz.old).
Remember to change the name in 'image=/vmlinuz' to the new one.
AND RUN /sbin/lilo. This is important, otherwise your modifications are not in use.Remember
not to panic, if you have a previous kernel that can boot, you can start this whole process
again.
If your system comes from a cd-rom it is probably an old one. So maybe you should upgrade it
to the newest one. The newest one that I know is 2.0.33 (stable) .Get the newest one from
ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/v2.0
If you have a driver that replaces some file from kernel tree, make a backup copy of the
original one, the reason for this is that otherwise you are not able to apply patches to your
kernel tree (to apply a patch copy the original file back and apply the patch, then copy the
modified version over the original one) . I personally prefer to build a new kernel source
tree from the start.
Complicated? No. I have installed Linux to several machines, usually there is no trouble the
hardest part is to figure out what HW components there are.
- Lassi
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