Fedora Kernel downgrade

[colonal]

Hi,
I am currently having Fedora 8.0 with kernel version 2.6.23.1-42.fc8. I need to downgrade it to 2.6.18 or 2.6.19. Please can anyone help me in downgrading my kernel?
This will be greate help for me.
is below steps are enough?
1. Download the kernel from kernel.org to /usr/src/kernel/ directory
2. make menuconfig
3. make install_modules
4. make modules
5. reboot the system

Will these steps work?

Thanks.

[colonal]

Or, can any one tell me, for which version of Fedora we have kernel version 2.6.18?

[LDC]

did you just try hitting "down" arrow at grub start menu?

[A.Serbinski]

I'm sure that its a bad idea to install a kernel thats older than the one that shipped. RHEL(pricey)/CentOS(free version of RHEL) 5 use kernel 2.6.18. You have to go all the way back to FC6 to get 2.6.18, and its way past EOL.

If you don't mind, WHY do you want to install an old kernel? There may be an alternative.

[colonal]

Thanx for the inputs...
Actually I have small open source for Kernel 2.6.18, but the Kernel Version I have is 2.6.23. I thought instead of going to diffrent Linux version, Downgrading is better Idea.
I did Kernel downgrade yesterday, but the issue is When I am trying to boot from new kernel, it is not detecting /dev/root/ directory, have any solution for this?

[A.Serbinski]

You have a small open source... what? Typically, if something is open sourced, it means that you have the source needed to make it work with whatever you want, maybe even your toaster.

Though kernels do tend to be interchangeable, there are many components of an entire OS that are dependent on each other. The kernel is a particular dependence since it is the heart of everything, which means that there really is a lot that goes into insuring that everything works with the kernel selected. Even greater is the fact that a linux distribution like Fedora does NOT use a vanilla kernel (thats the term for an unmodified kernel from kernel.org). There are a lot of additional modifications added to support the features required by the OS. Because of this, it is really a BAD idea to mix and match your kernel unless you *really* know what you're doing. In this case, the problem you're running into is the fact that your old kernel doesn't understand how to identify a disk partition by its UUID. That means that you either need to switch everything off UUID and back onto either volume names or device files.

If you'll be so kind as to provide REAL details about what you're trying to accomplish with the old kernel, then I can help you with it. What you've said about it really doesn't help. You have an open sourced *something*... what is it? What does it do? How does it do it? Do you have a LINK to it that you can post?

[colonal]

I dont have any problem in Sharing the things...Ok let me explain clear scenario.
1. We are doing a project EtherCAT master. its control automation protocol for Industrial Automation? I said I have open source for EtherCAT project, this is compatible with only kernel versions 2.6.18 and 2.6.19. So I wanted to downgrade the kernel version to 2.6.18.

2. Problem I am facing now is, I did kernel compilation already for 2.6.18, when I rebooted the system, grub/menulist shows both kernel versions. Existing one and Downgraded version. But when I select 2.6.18 kernel from the list to boot, kernel is not booting with error message
" Unable to find /dev/root/ and /dev/VolGroup00"

My menu.lst file looks like this
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.18)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18 ro root=/dev/VolGroup01/LogVol01 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18.img
title Fedora (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img
.....

[colonal]

I resolved the issue!
Thanks for the support!

[thhart]

colonal: Please post your solution, this will help others.

[colonal]

Sure...
Follow the procedure given in the link below for Kernel downgrade/upgrade

<<http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/compiling-linux-kernel-26.html>>
Issue I faced is : First I tried downgrading kernel from 2.6.23.1 to 2.6.18. While booting with the new kernel, boot loader was not able to find the directory /root/VolGroup001 and /root/dev. Issue is bacause of error in /usr/src/kernels/linux2.6.18/configure file.
Then I tried with 2.6.19 kernel version, While downgrading we need to create new configuration file with the command
#make menuconfig. When this command is executed we get a list of option which are to added in the configure file. In that I added multidevice support and Multi device mapping options. then continued with the dongrade procedure.

While booting hit down arrow button, which will give list of kernel versions installed, select the new version and it boots fine.

Thanks for all support