# Some noob's questions

## Mercurioneo

Hello,

I am a new user of gentoo, and I have some doubts, i have installed gentoo setting all parameters needed to use gnome desktop. Now I am going to install xorg and it seems I need to change some settings in my kernel, do I need to follow wiki page for upgrading kernel? Or if I only want to recompile same kernel with some changes, exist a easy and faster way to do it?

Second question, I have read that second digit in kernel version identifies the kernel as stable or experimental. My kernel is 3.17.7 so according to this rule should be experimental as second digit is odd. I choose the kernel doing:

```
emerge gentoo-sources
```

And automatically download last version, how can I choose to download a previous version using emerge?

That's all for now, but sure I'll come back with more questions soon  :Smile: .

Thank you very much for your help.

----------

## dalu

2 ways

1:

```

emerge =sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-3.14.28 -av

```

2:

```

echo ">=sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-3.15" >> /etc/portage/package.mask

```

As for your 2nd question

http://kernel.org/

as you can see

stable: 	3.18.2

stable: 	3.17.8 [EOL] (means end of life)

longterm: 	3.14.28

stable in the Gentoo sense is what's tagged with, for instance amd64 (vs ~amd64 or no tag)

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## Mercurioneo

 *dalu wrote:*   

> 2 ways
> 
> 1:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

Ok thank you very much for your help, regarding recompile same version with some settings changed, do i have to follow upgrade kernel wiki or there is a faster way to do it?

Thanks again.

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## charles17

 *Mercurioneo wrote:*   

> Ok thank you very much for your help, regarding recompile same version with some settings changed, do i have to follow upgrade kernel wiki or there is a faster way to do it?

 I am doing like *Quote:*   

> cd /usr/src/linux-<version>
> 
> make menuconfig
> 
> (doing my changes and save)
> ...

 

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## Mercurioneo

 *charles17 wrote:*   

>  *Mercurioneo wrote:*   Ok thank you very much for your help, regarding recompile same version with some settings changed, do i have to follow upgrade kernel wiki or there is a faster way to do it? I am doing like *Quote:*   cd /usr/src/linux-<version>
> 
> make menuconfig
> 
> (doing my changes and save)
> ...

 

Hi charles, you are in everywhere   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:  , thanks for your help, the only thing I don't understand is why mount /boot?

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## bstaletic

You need to have /boot mounted when you change someething about kernel or boot loader,as they reside in that folder (some parts anyway). There are two conditions under which you need not mount /boot:

1) /boot is stated in /etc/fstab and is mounted at boot

2) You do not have a separate /boot partition

This means that if you have a separate /boot partition that is usually not mounted you'll have to mount it before making any actual changes to the kernel/boot loader.

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## Mercurioneo

 *bstaletic wrote:*   

> You need to have /boot mounted when you change someething about kernel or boot loader,as they reside in that folder (some parts anyway). There are two conditions under which you need not mount /boot:
> 
> 1) /boot is stated in /etc/fstab and is mounted at boot
> 
> 2) You do not have a separate /boot partition
> ...

 

Ah ok, I see I have boot stated in /etc/fstab, so it is not needed for me to use mount again, just curiosity, why don't you have boot in fstab?

Thanks

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## charles17

 *Mercurioneo wrote:*   

> Ah ok, I see I have boot stated in /etc/fstab, so it is not needed for me to use mount again, just curiosity, why don't you have boot in fstab?

 I do have it in /etc/fstab, but not mounting at boot

```
# <fs>          <mountpoint>    <type>          <opts>                                  <dump/pass>

/dev/sda1       /boot           ext2            noauto,noatime                                  1 2

/dev/sda5       none            swap            sw                                              0 0

/dev/sda6       /               reiserfs        noatime                                         0 1
```

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## Mercurioneo

 *charles17 wrote:*   

>  *Mercurioneo wrote:*   Ah ok, I see I have boot stated in /etc/fstab, so it is not needed for me to use mount again, just curiosity, why don't you have boot in fstab? I do have it in /etc/fstab, but not mounting at boot
> 
> ```
> # <fs>          <mountpoint>    <type>          <opts>                                  <dump/pass>
> 
> ...

 

Ok, thanks, everything is clear.  :Smile: 

Edit: a final question, I have gentoo installed in sdb drive, I have run grub2 as you said before. Should I do something in sda? As it is my bottable unit. I have changed graphics setup and I know new kernel has been loaded.

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## bstaletic

If I understood you correctly you have /dev/sda which you have ran grub-install at the time of installation of gentoo. You also have /dev/sdb mounted at /boot. You made some changes to kernel (all along having /boot mounted) and have run grub-mkconfig. If so you do not need any more interference as grub-mkconfig will update every bootloader it can find.

I once (for testing purposes) mounted a flash drive and installed grub to it, then installed grub to a hard drive and as a result running grub-mkconfig updated both bootloaders.

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## Mercurioneo

 *bstaletic wrote:*   

> If I understood you correctly you have /dev/sda which you have ran grub-install at the time of installation of gentoo. You also have /dev/sdb mounted at /boot. You made some changes to kernel (all along having /boot mounted) and have run grub-mkconfig. If so you do not need any more interference as grub-mkconfig will update every bootloader it can find.
> 
> I once (for testing purposes) mounted a flash drive and installed grub to it, then installed grub to a hard drive and as a result running grub-mkconfig updated both bootloaders.

 

Ok, perfect then, thank you very much.  :Smile: 

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