Kernel upgrade to 2.6

[RazM]

Not sure if this is recomended or not. I've kept my kernel at 2.4.23 (the default I got when I last had my box reloaded a long while back).

My question - if I wanted to upgrade to 2.6 or even to a newer 2.4 kernel with debian what am I looking at and is it a complex ordeal? I've manually upgraded kernels in the past on other distros (slack/redhat) from sources and have always run into that "oh crap - forgot to enable that" as I'm staring at a kernel panic (which is why I'm reluctant to upgrade a kernel at a machine when I'm not at the console)

Can anyone give me any pointers for a successfull "safe" and recomended kernel upgrade path? Thanks!

[bow-wow]

1) Use a development box to test your kernel config before you use it on your SB server.

2) You use grub right? Make use of the "fallback" config option to boot the working kernel in case your new one fails.

I don't think it is that big of an ordeal to go from 2.4 to 2.6, at least not in this case. I've had issues on my desktop machine with sound and USB since upgrading to a 2.6 kernel, but that really shouldn't affect your SB server. However, since most debian woody packages are well aged, you might have trouble getting all the required packages up to date as required by 2.6.

All that said, my question is: do you need to upgrade your kernel by building from scratch? You can get a recent 2.4 binary kernel from backports.org if you are just looking to stay up to date. I'm using 2.4.26 from backports.org.

[RazM]

Actually an updated 2.4 kernel would be great. Are there any weird steps that I need to take to get a Debian kernel up to date from backports?

Might be worth while to purchase another server and have it be my play box :) Then at least I know the hardwares the same.