the good news is that you can install from synaptic. Then run as root

update-grub

this will create new entries with the new kernel, but should leave the antix default entry alone. You can then select the kernel you want from the boot menu, and if all is well, later adjust the grub menu to default to the new kernel.

I've got a vid on updating the kernel, both in an all-command line antix core and in antix full.

antix core (all command line)


^---- embedded YouTube-hosted video: https://www.youtube.com/aAYaF2Hp8Yc




antix full

You would have to try it out and see.

It might be better, it might not. Just make sure you keep your wotking kernel.

dolphin_oracle wrote:the good news is that you can install from synaptic. Then run as root

update-grub

this will create new entries with the new kernel, but should leave the antix default entry alone. You can then select the kernel you want from the boot menu, and if all is well, later adjust the grub menu to default to the new kernel.

I've got a vid on updating the kernel, both in an all-command line antix core and in antix full.

antix core (all command line)


^---- embedded YouTube-hosted video: https://www.youtube.com/aAYaF2Hp8Yc




antix full

That's what I've been doing, and that (aside from hand editing menu.lst -- update-grub leaves a bunch of cruft in menu.lst) is what got the laptop up and running with linux-image.3.12.1-antix.1-486-smp -- first try, no adjustments required, with only file names changed in a start command that had failed with linux-image.3.12.6-antix.1.486-smp. So, now the question is, what changed between kernel 3.12.1 and 3.12.5 (the next newer one that I've tried) that keeps the latter from running on a Pentium II/Mobile/Celeron (and why would someone make changes in a 32-bit kernel build that keep it from running successfully on Pentium II class processors)?

it could be oversight on some cpu flag setting, and until you tested it, no one knew. anti makes the -antix- kernels and i know he has been swamped on the mx work. I'm sure your experience here will be noted for the next official kernel. your experience here is why we recommend keeping an older known working kernel when you update.

Yep, keeping a working older version when possible has been a habit for literally decades -- going back to when I used to code (college days and a few years after). Never save the modified program over the old one, or, as a music teacher once told me his mentor had taught him (had to have been before 1960),"Never touch your manuscript in ink -- because, what if you are making a mistake?"

Based on that idea, I'll try to get the 3.12.3 antiX kernel installed soon and report back here on how/if it functions. That might help narrow down what change broke it for PII (by nailing down when it happened).

Okay, here's the breakdown on which 3.12.* antiX kernels work (for me).

All of them work on my Athlon XP system, after installing with Synaptic (including matching linux-headers files) and running update-grub. The update-grub command added a"cheat code" I don't recognize,"ro" at the end of the kernel line, after the"root=" entry. Google gets me references this means"read only" -- but the filesystem isn't staying in read only mode after the system is fully booted, since I was able to edit files, and removing the"ro" from the kernel line seems to have no effect on startup with kernel versions that work on the laptop.

On the Pentium II Mobile (some sysinfo ouput calls the laptop a Celeron), 3.12.1 and 3.12.3 work; 3.12.5 starts a normal-looking boot sequence, then too rapidly to follow (even on a 300 MHz CPU) winds up with a screen full of"<IRQ> <IRQ>" lines, while 3.12.6 ends with a report of a kernel panic and"attempted to kill init". These were both run with the"ro" code left intact and"acpi=off" added (as is the case with 3.12.1 and 3.12.3) in order to prevent a false report of core temp at 145 C causing a system halt.