Compiling a new 2.6.18 kernel on Slackware 11.0
You finally made the switch to Slackware from a more noob-friendly distribution, like Ubuntu, because you wanted to really "learn" how Linux works. Well, good choice! This is a how-to guide on what you need to do to get a new kernel up and running on a Slackware 11 install. This tutorial assumes you have a fully working Slackware 11 system. Remember, there is more than one way to skin a cat, this is how I get things done. Now, let’s get down to business.
The first thing I do is go to the Slackware mirror, my favorite is the University of Utah mirror, which can be found here. First go into ’slackware’, then ’slackware-11.0′, then ‘testing’, then ’source’, finally ‘linux-2.6.18′. In this folder you are going to find the two files I will use in this tutorial. The first is ‘config-generic-2.6.18′, which is a config file written by Patrick from Slackware. The second, is the kernel itself, which is ‘linux-2.6.18.tar.bz2′. Download both of these files to the /usr/src directory on your machine. Now you may be asking yourself right now, what is the config file for? Well, in short, it is a great starting point. It will give you a fully working generic system without any changes what-so-ever. But, of course, we are going to use this config file just as a starting point, and tweak it to fit our particular machine’s specifications. Do you have to use the config file? Of course not. But, this tutorial is mostly aimed at folks who have little to no experience with the kernel, and my opinion is that this is an easier way to do things. OK, now on to the good stuff!
