9. Download and Unpack the New Kernel

9.1. Required packages

The following is a list of packages required to patch a 2.4.x series kernel. I am still working on the notes for a 2.6.x series install.

2.4.x series kernels

• kernel source files

• ACPI patch that exactly matches the kernel version

• debian packages: make, bzip2, gcc, libc6-dev, tk8.3, libncurses5-dev, kernel-package

• after you've patched the kernel add the debian packages: acpid, acpi (this last package is available in testing and unstable versions of Debian, but not stable)

9.2. Unpack

We need to unpack the bz2 file (bzip2) and shuffle the directories around a bit. /usr/src/linux probably points to your current kernel. We need it to point to the new kernel, so we'll do that as well.

• cd /usr/src

• mkdir kernel-source-<version> (use an alternate name if you already have a version of this kernel installed)

• cp linux.<version>.tar.bz2 /usr/src/kernel-source-<version>

• cd /usr/src/kernel-source-<version>

• tar xjfv linux.<version>.tar.bz2

• mv linux.<version> /usr/src/linux-<version>

• rm linux (assuming that's a link to your old kernel)

• ln -s /usr/src/linux-<version> linux

If your kernel needs to be patched, do so now. Instructions are available from Appendix A.