# n00b moving to 2.6

## wcbaker

I've finally gotten some time to move my lil machine from 2.4 to 2.6. Last time I installed i installed over 20 times, but damnit I did it. I've read up on the "Moving from 2.4 to 2.6" post and it does not tell me a lot. The part about the cd burning, I have no idea how to do any of that. I haven't done a manual kernel build. I would greatly appreciate any help that could be given. Thanks in advance.

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## Nicom

You can still do cd-burning the old way no problem. And many things are done automatically by portage too, like installing the new mod utils when you emerge a 2.6 kernel, and patching nvidia for 2.6(if nescesary).

One thing that you may have to think about is that now alsa is in the kernel(if you use alsa).

As for help doing a manual kernel install for the first time, make sure you read the help for all the options you think you select, and read over every option in the base categories so you don't forget anything. And make sure to enable all the options suggested by the gentoo install guide. Memorize which network card and soundcard etc you have if you haven't already. And keep a backup kernel because you may not get it right the first time. I normally use "make menuconfig", "make install", and then copy over the new bzImage to boot and edit my grub.conf if required.

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## Birnenpfluecker

You must install 

[ ] /dev/pts file system for Unix98 PTYs

for 2.6. Had some problems there, cause I used an old installation guide where nothing stood about 2.6. Otherwise X will not start.

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## wcbaker

alrighty i got it compiled, however i cant get into kde. i type kde and the screen blinks. i re-emerged my nvidia kernel. any ideas?

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## floffe

Do you get an output? Like a question "Would you like to see the output of the server?"? Does the screen blink about 5 times and then go still?

What do you get from 

```
startx
```

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## Nicom

 *wcbaker wrote:*   

> alrighty i got it compiled, however i cant get into kde. i type kde and the screen blinks. i re-emerged my nvidia kernel. any ideas?

 

Was /usr/src/linux a symlink to your current kernel sources? You have to make it so for nvidia to build against the correct kernel.

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## gareth

 *wcbaker wrote:*   

> alrighty i got it compiled, however i cant get into kde. i type kde and the screen blinks. i re-emerged my nvidia kernel. any ideas?

 

Log in and look at the last few lines of /var/log/XFree86.0.log

This should give a good indication of why it failed.  Usually, you need to re-install video drivers, or if it's a laptop with a touchpad the old synaptics XFree driver gets confused with the kernel one in 2.6.

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## wcbaker

X says it found no screens. Now after I fixed that its giving me a Init: Server error. 

 *Quote:*   

> Was /usr/src/linux a symlink to your current kernel sources? You have to make it so for nvidia to build against the correct kernel.

 

how would i do that?

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## gareth

 *wcbaker wrote:*   

> how would i do that?

 

Try:-

```
ln -sf /usr/src/linux-2.6.0 /usr/src/linux
```

changing the linux-2.6.0 to whatever the version of kernel you're using (ls /usr/src will show you).

Remeber that if you are dual booting with an older (say 2.4.20) kernel, then you will have to set the link back to that source when you come to compile while running the earlier kernel.

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## pjp

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

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## wcbaker

X still wont start even after recompiling the nvidia stuff. It says no screens found but i know they are there in the XFree86Config. Heres the log:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> XFree86 Version 4.3.0
> 
> Release Date: 27 February 2003
> ...

 

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## Nicom

The only error I see there is that the nvidia module won't load, so It's still an nvidia prob.

First, make sure you have at least this in /etc/modules.autoload, plus whatever others modules you use.

```
#/etc/modules.autoload

nvidia
```

Then do (as root)

```
$ rm /usr/src/linux

$ ln -s /usr/src/(current kernel) /usr/src/linux
```

Make sure you actually booted into the right kernel(do you need to edit grub.conf?).

And then re-emerge nvidia-kernel. Make sure you "emerge" it so that portage automatically patches it for 2.6 kernel, so don't use the nvidia installer.[/quote]

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## TheEternalVortex

I believe you'll need to reboot with your 2.6 kernel  and then install nvidia-kernel... I had this problem too.

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## gareth

Also, if you are using the devfs (and Gentoo does) make sure that the line 

```
alias char-major-195 nvidia

alias /dev/nvidiactl char-major-195
```

 is in the file 'aliases' within '/etc/modules.d' then run 'update-modules'.  This will cause the kernel module to be loaded on demand.

Be aware that there is a similar line already there, but this is for the older module (called NVmodule or something like that).  You can change that to 'nvidia'.

On the other hand, that entry should be there from when you were running the 2.4 kernel......  :Confused: 

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## wcbaker

thanks a ton guys, helped me out. i think the nvidia driver kept compiling for 2.4.20. thanks again.

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