[NBLUG/talk] RE: arghh! I HATE it when that happens..

[Mark Street]

On Monday 09 June 2003 22:00, Jim Bianchi wrote:
> 	Ok, thanks. The kernel on that machine is definitely i686, no
> problemo. But when I tried to have a look at my kernel, I found the
> /usr/src dir was empty.

How do you know it is a i686, it might be a i386 kernel???  The kernel arch 
doesn't matter if you have a i686, as long you don't install it on an 
386/486/586 cpu.

> I googled for the 2.4.18-14 kernel, found
> linux-2.4.18-14.tar.gz, dloaded and untarred it to put something into the
> /usr/src dir. I've not done anything with it, for I had an awful thought:
> Since this was a generic kernel, how do I tell it (and is it necessary to
> tell it at all) it should optimize for an i686 when it compiles?

Ah, heck why not go all the way and go with a 2.4.20?  But why, it's late and 
you have no gcc.....

> 	No biggie, since I didn't have any bloody gcc, I couldn't've
> compiled it anyway! ("Get RH 8.0 -- it's idiot proof" <grin>)

> 	Also, since there can be no kernel config file yet, how do I tell
> which options have been selected in my present (working) kernel and which
> have not? (I'm not that much of a guru to be able to tell by looking --
> heckfire, I don't even know what to look AT.)

Funny you should ask, Red Hat puts a config for the kernel that is running on 
your machine in /boot.  Go take a peek or run the command

rpm -ql kernel | grep config

> Now (while I'm awaiting gcc-3.3.tar.gz to finish dloading) I got a
> question about libraries: First, how do you install a library? ("Library
> Installation for Dummies..") Something tells me there's more to it than
> just putting the thing into /usr/lib. Which brings me to, can one just
> keep installing libraries -- as long as they're all named differently, I
> can't see what it'd hurt, but heyyy..

Dude, you are in for a very long week of pain and agony.......  I ask.  Why 
rebuild the missing or broken pieces from a Red Hat RPM based installation 
from source?  You are asking for trouble.........

My recommendation would be to install gentoo Linux or FreeBSD if you want to 
install and compile everything from source.  It took me 5 days to install 
gentoo, emerge and walk away, come back tomorrow.  I don't have time for 
that.  ; )

-- 
Mark Street, D.C.
Red Hat Certified Engineer
Cert# 807302251406074
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