Red Hat 5.0 Linux KERNEL upgrade

Source location

Source should be located in /usr/src/linux-2.0.33
To unwind a typical linux*.tar.gz tar file of sources,

cd /usr/src

mkdir newlinux

cd newlinux

tar xzf /usr/tmp/linux-2.0.33.tar.gz

cd ..

mv newlinux/linux linux-2.0.33

rmdir newlinux

In /usr/include, check that asm, linux and scsi are symlinks to /usr/src/linux areas

Pre-configuration

Remove stale *.o and dependencies , and adjust the linux source symbolic link

ln -snf linux-2.0.33 linux

cd /usr/src/linux-2.0.33

make mrproper

Configuration

You may copy an existing /usr/src/linux*/.config file but still must still run the configuration program.

make xconfig

For SMP, enable two lines in /usr/src/Linux-2.0.33/Makefile

SMP = 1

SMP_PROF = 1

Building

make dep

make clean

make zImage

cp arch/i386/boot/zImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.0.33
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.0.33

The System.map file is obsolete, needed only for compatibility with a single optional package 'lsof'.

make modules

make modules_install

If you have chosen to configure your kernel with everything pre-loaded, so that there are no loadable modules,you should still create an empty /lib/modules/2.0.33/modules.dep file to keep the kernel happy at boot time.

Booting

Change your /boot/vmlinuz symbolic link to the new /boot/vmlinuz-2.0.33 kernel.
Change your /boot/System.map symbolic link to the new /boot/System.map-2.0.33

You must run /sbin/lilo after making any changes to the /boot kernel files,even when you have made no changes to the /etc/lilo.conf configuration file.

Failure to run lilo will result in the wrong kennel booting, or failure to expand the booted kernel.

Recovery

Make a bootable floppy from any useable kernels, in case LILO fails