Should I upgrade my kernel?

[it30rivers]

i'm not a total linux n00b and i'm confident I could upgrade without buggering something up and trashing my system.

so the question is whether or not it's a good idea to or not. I'm asking mainly cause i dont want it to effect any of the backtrack tools.

also I'm running an acer aspire one AOA150 if i was to upgrade would I need a specific install?


thanks in advance.

[Archangel-Amael]

You can but we won't be helping you with it.
I would however strongly suggest that you don't since any number of things can go wrong.

[it30rivers]

Thanks for the tip.

[purehate]

Just check out our R1 release, it has a upgraded kernel.

[upc0d3]

Just for consideration, you need to think a little in why should you do that. For example, are you having any kind of problem with the current kernel ? The new kernel released have some feature that you need ?

Think about this questions man.

And one more think, the kernel of backtrack is a customized kernel, that's why it runs in a lot of hardware fine. So I suggest that you compile the kernel, to learn how it works, but does this in a VM.

Bye.

[it30rivers]

There is some really great info in this thread. thanks for all of your input. I think i will have a go at it in a VM in a few weeks after exams and after i sort some other stuff out. i've been doing a lot of reading here on the forum and I've got about 18 books about linux i have yet to read. i'm hoping the info in the books i have are as valuable as what is here on the forum.

I also agree that messing around with something is a vital key to understanding it. (trying to keep it safe and some place where it wont do any extra damage is always a good idea)

[Nocdem]

please dont mix installing pre compiled kernel and compiling it yourself which are 2 different things. in first one u download the 3 precompiled stuff and dpkg-i linux* and viola its installed (generally) but downloading the kernel from kernel.org and compiling it is a different thing. the first one is doable but i d say dont do the 2nd one unless u need specific hardware stuff (eg striping all drivers from kernel and installing it on a floppy with iptables and make it a firewall or some other hardware support as in lowpy wireless cards etc etc etc)

[lupin]

Compiling your own kernel can be an excellent learning experience, so Id recommend it IF you are willing to troubleshoot any issues yourself AND if you know how to recover from problems (or are willing to bork your BackTrack install). As Archangel-Amael mentioned, you are unlikely to get support here if you stuff things up.

[Archangel-Amael]

Compiling your own kernel can be an excellent learning experience, so Id recommend it IF you are willing to troubleshoot any issues yourself AND if you know how to recover from problems (or are willing to bork your BackTrack install).

I wanted to make a comment on this and my original comment to the OP.
OP I meant the first post in regards to getting help. However I too agree (and maybe should have posted ) that recompiling a kernel is a great learning experience!
I just don't want those who read this thread think that we recommend people especially those who can't figure out how to start networking to go and start trying to recompile their kernels.


Any rate if you do give it a go, do as others have said and use a vm or USB for practice.

[sickness]

Even if you want to recompile your kernel do it in a VMware or something like that.