# Too many gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.7 releases!

## Rcomian

Is it just me or has there been an entire slew of "stable" kernel releases in the gentoo-dev-sources arena?

It feels like I've been rebuilding my kernel every day or two for the last couple of weeks.

I've even got the whole process down to 3 lines!

I saw a comment somewhere a while back saying that "a load of the patches had been removed ... feel free to raise bugs ..."(paraphrasing), so I assume this is just the patches going back in, but it's making a mockery of my uptimes, anyone else feel this is a little out of hand for the "stable" line of kernels?

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## malone

Just yesterday I added

```
>=sys-kernel/gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.7-r9
```

to /etc/portage/package.mask.  I'm going to stay with r8 for a little while.

Cheers.

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## netaku

I am still learning about how to make multiple kernels, so how do you add a new updated kernel so easily?  Also, are you upgrading or actually having multiple kernels on your computer?

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## John5788

keep them under different filenames in /boot and edit your bootloader so you can pick which one to boot

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## hensan

I totally agree, these gentoo-dev-source revisions are getting out of hand, kernel 2.6.7 was released June 16th, and we already have r11, thats a new revision every third day!

I did the same thing today as malone and masked everything above r8.

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## netaku

I have been doing some research on how to install multiple kernels, but the faq document does not make any sense to me.  If I already have a kernel up and running, what do I need to do to install another kernel on the same partition without overwriting my current one?

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## GentooBox

The lastest fixes is only SPARC related.

You dont need to upgrade or `emerge sync` every day..

The Gentoo kernel team is really fast at fixing bugs and thats a good thing.

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## Gandalf the White

 *netaku wrote:*   

> I have been doing some research on how to install multiple kernels, but the faq document does not make any sense to me.  If I already have a kernel up and running, what do I need to do to install another kernel on the same partition without overwriting my current one?

 

Once the kernel has been loaded, you can do whatever you want to the bzImage in your /boot, it will overwrite the existing one, but the changes will not take effect until you reboot. If you wish to have multiple kernels in your /boot, to select from when you boot, then just name it something else. I usually rename the bzImage to the name of the kernel, i.e., gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.7-r10 or wvr, and then edit your bootloader accordingly.

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## netaku

Okay, that makes sense.  So all I would have to do is #make menuconfig to compile the kernel, save it as something different, and then add the path to the new kernel in grub?

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## GentooBox

There is a lot easier way to install kernels without editing the grub config every time.

```

cd /usr/src/linux

make menuconfig # edit the config to your needs

make

make modules && make modules_install

mount /boot/

make install # this will make a symlink called vmlinuz in your boot partition

```

the vmlinuz symlink points to the kernel you just compiled, if there is a vmlinuz symlink in /boot already, then it will rename it to vmlinuz.old

`make install` will also copy the current .config and System.map to /boot/ - if old symlinks exsist, it will rename them to .config.old and System.map.old

just make 2 entry's in grub.conf

one for vmlinuz and one for vmlinuz.old.

If your newly compiled kernel fails to boot, then you will always have the old one (vmlinuz.old)

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## vonhelmet

Heh. 2.6.8 is being tested...

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## netaku

Awesome.  Thanks GentooBox.  That answers my question.

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## val

Anybody know where we find out about what is changed in each revision?  What about the features of all the other kernels?

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## GentooBox

 *val wrote:*   

> Anybody know where we find out about what is changed in each revision?  What about the features of all the other kernels?

 

To see a short description of a kernel in gentoo portage:

```

emerge -s gentoo-dev-sources

```

to see a short changelog:

```

emerge -l gentoo-dev-sources

```

or check at http://www.gentoo-portage.com/

You can get the vanilia-sources (the normal linux kernel) changelog at http://kernel.org

If you want to know more about some kernel in gentoo portage, then you have to use google.com or search at this forum.

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