Installing new kernels

In the left menu on the Joatha-Website you will find current kernels in 3 formats:

• up - Kernel for the i386 Processor Family
• smp - Kernel for the i386 Processor Family with dual core or two CPU's
• 64-smp - Kernel for the AMD64- Processor Family, when using 64 bit Joatha

Download the kernel for your processor (we call this archive kernel.zip, but its going to have a name like: kernel-2.6.17.7-slh-up-1.zip )

Open a terminal, move to the directory, where the downloaded archive lives, and unpack the archive:

$ unzip kernel.zip -d kernel-current

Move to the created directory kernel-current:

$ cd kernel-current

Next steps need "root" rights, therefore:

$ sux
# ./install-kernel-Joatha.sh

IMPORTANT: if you need certain driver modules, e.g. for wlan,you have to install the proper .deb packages for them, e.g., if using madwifi, you have to install the .deb package for madwifi: # dpkg -i madwifi-modules*.deb

Now restart your computer. These instructions assume you are using the new kernel and it will not be used until you reboot. The new kernel will boot up by default. (if the new one gives problems, you can choose an older kernel here and try this stage again)

If you don't need ATI or NVIDIA 3d drivers just re-adjust the volume settings for your soundcard:

alsaconf

Then set the volumes with kmix or alsamixergui then save the settings with:

alsactl store

The kernel-update is now done. If you have an ATI or NVIDIA card, the first reboot to the new kernel should be made to runlevel 3 (this is done by adding 3 to the Grub-Boot-Line)

When in runlevel 3, make sure, the newest gcc compiler is installed - the modules (driver) needs to be compiled for the new kernel but don't worry it will all be done for you - you can find out the latest compiler version with the following command:

# apt-cache policy $(dpkg -l |grep -v base |grep -e
'gcc-'|awk '{print $2;}' |tail -1)

If necessary, get the latest gcc version (using apt-get), then add the latest graphics driver which can be installed by referring to 3D drivers, if you require them.

After successfull installation of the new kernel, the kernel.zip (and the kernel archive) can be deleted.

Removing old kernels

After successfull installation and testing, old kernels can be removed from the system. To do so, you can use the script kernel-remover which is in the package Joatha-kernelhacking! This script allows to you nominate which kernels you wish to remove.