I tired installing a new kernel last night. Somethign went wrong though. After selecting my new kernel the screen goes blank and nothing happens. No lights no sounds no words. Just emptiness. Trying to install a new kernel though did give my working kernel a system.map file though. So there was one good thing about trying. I’m still waiting for 2.6.17 to come out though. I’m afraid I’ve taken something out I should of left in. I have a bad habit of seeing “say No” at the bottom of the description for items in the “xconfig” menu and instantly taking them out. I’ll have to look deeper into it. Its not really a big deal. I don’t need a new kernel, and the only reason I was getting a new one was to get a system.map file. Since my failed attempt to upgrade provided me with that, I might just give it up and wait for 2.6.17 to come out.
I also saw recently in a magizine that Tovalds, Cox, and others are thinking of starting a kernel that is supposed to feature nothing but bug fixes. Now that is what I call a truely “stable branch.” (Sadly yes that pun was intended.) If such a thing comes out then I will by all means switch to it. They said that if that is what happens they’ll do it with 2.6.16 or .17. If they use .17 that would be awsome, but I’m hoping they’ll make 2.6.17 so I can get my wireless drivers built in. Other than that all of my hardware works perfectly so if no new features are included in the kernel, which was mentioned as a possiability, then I would nothing to worry about. Other than wireless, I’m totally happy with my system.
The Linux world seems to be only getting brighter my friends, Enjoy the Penguins!
Please, before you read too much into these ‘articles’ you should probably get a gmail account, or some other good bulk email receiver, and actually read what they’ve said. Truth is, a ‘stable’ branch makes no sense, unless it’s done or sponsored by a distribution. The backporting is anti-productive and actually hurts the effort of pushing forward with the kernel. 2.6.16.x is a very stable kernel for many, and as I said if you get a subscription to the LKML you’ll read that there are some kernel devs (not torvalds, morton) that plan on making 2.6.16.x an extended release cycle, of an extra 6 months to a year if my memory serves me correctly. I will tell you one thing though, as long as I’ve been reading the LKML people have a huge misconception that if you have a ‘stable’ branch it fixes all kinds of problems, and it actually slows development to a halt and support for various hardware drivers gets put off.