Linux 2.6: Compiling and Installing
We recently highlighted some of the new features of the Linux 2.6 kernel. Now, we'll look at the process of compiling and installing a new kernel safely, without overwriting the existing kernel. You can install as many kernels as you like on a Linux system, and select the one you want to run at boot time. This makes it easy to test different kernels, and different kernel configurations, with particular sets of hardware or applications. The wise network admin always tests new kernels before running them on production machines.
Being able to compile, upgrade, modify, and test new kernels is a useful skill to have. It's not that difficult &$151; Linux is designed to be modular, so you can plug in or remove bits as you need. A typical general-purpose Linux distribution lards the kernel with all kinds of things you'll never need, so you'll often see a performance gain after configuring and re-compiling your stock kernel.
