Re: Is the 2.6.9 kernel the villian? WAS Re: [linrad] Which distros are free?

[Bdale Garbee <bdale@xxxxxxx>]

> [Hi, BDale, I
> didn't realize you read this list or  followed Linrad, or I would have
> bothered you for help long ago!   ;)  ].

I'm mostly reading along right now.  Making good progress towards first
EME attempt on 1296, in between business trips and bursts of winter weather.
That's the project currently driving my personal interesting in SDR.  

> QUESTION TWO.  This is actually two related questions.  If I download
> Debian 3.0 rev 4, which I am doing, and install it with the new
> kernels so  that it recognizes and installs my hardware [the onboard
> Intel Extreme  Graphics video and the integrated network are what the
> old distros don't  recognize], and I then somehow change it back to an
> older kernel such as  2.4 since Kohjin indicated that 2.4  would work
> with svgalib, will it  still recognize my new hardware on bootup and
> keep the configuration and  drivers of the video and network that were
> already installed?

Drivers for video and networking are typically built against a specific
kernel version... and get installed alongside the kernel in a way that allows
multiple versions of the kernel and related drivers to be present on your
system at the same time, though of course only one set is in use on any given 
boot.

If you have hardware that only received driver support in a newer kernel
version, moving back to an older kernel version typically won't work.

I'm not currently using svgalib, so I can't help with any svgalib specifics.
I run 2.6 on all but one of my (many) systems now, though, fwiw.

> Also, do a  whole host of applications such as gcc
> and many others that came with the  new distro and the new kernel
> refuse to work or have problems when the  kernel version is changed to
> an older version?

Generally, toolchain and library versions are fairly independent of the kernel
version.  There are places where that ceases to be true, usually because
the kernel ABI (application binary interface, or the interface defined
between user space and kernel space) changed.  In the case of hopping back and
forth between 2.4 and 2.6, the biggest operational issue is making sure the 
right module utilities are present, since 2.4 used modutils and 2.6 uses 
module-init-tools.

73 - Bdale, KB0G

LINRADDARNIL