[Nottingham] Printer is Printing

Robert Davies nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
Fri Jul 4 10:31:00 2003


On Thursday 03 Jul 2003 23:29, Marcel Taylor wrote:

> Re: why recompile the kernel: My USB CDRW is not working. The kernel goes
> into a panic when the CDRW is connected. Suspect that the SuSE 2.4.19
> kernel does not have Mass USB storage and/or is not a fully working kernel.
> Also, its a challenge for a newbie like me!

First thing to do is check the known problems on the excellent SuSE support 
knowledgebase site, often you will find a solution documented there  
http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/

It is worth reporting unknown problems to the SuSE kernel team, using the 
address Feedback <feedback@suse.de>, there is an area on SuSE ftp site under 
"mantel" which are kernels under development, containing patches and pre- 
releases of newer standard kernel releases.  Sometimes support or feedback 
advises users to move to a latest mantel kernel, to get patches for resolved 
problems.  Another try is the alt.linux.suse news group, where someone else 
may have hit the same issue, and can explain a good solution.

If you decide to go with a pure standard linux 2.4.20 or .21 kernel, you will 
likely need to patch in ALSA to have sound working, or alter modules 
configuration to use correct OSS based kernel driver.  The built kernel, 
should be copied into /boot manually after modules install, /sbin/mk_initrd 
ran, and the GRUB config altered to add an entry for your source built 
kernel.

Generally it's less hassle using the distro modular kernels, performance 
penalty is not great, and /etc/modules.conf gives flexibility of 
configuration, permits use of tools like YaST2 to config hardware, and any 
new hardware you add, shall most likely be recognised, without you requiring 
to re-compile to add in new driver modules.  It is also the configuration 
that's officially supported, and has most users which often means you are not 
left troubleshooting on you own.

Rob