Questions about the Kernel

[benso37]

Hi, i'm pretty new to Linux...a few weeks ago I downloaded and installed Fedora Core 3...Just last night I managed to install my wireless card, so I was able to get online okay last night. After I got online i decided to run the redhat update, which took about an hour to download the new kernel and everything else i selected. This morning when i rebooted the system (Dual boot), I saw what looked like 3 partitions fedora kernel 2.9 and 2.10..., so I just decided to boot the sytem using the new kernel but my wireless connection doesn't work. My question is, do i need to install the wireless card again for the new kernel? If yes, would this mean that everytime there's a new Kernel, i would have to update internet connections, printer drivers, etc? Again, i'm new to al this so i've been reading this forum and many other sites for information but i just want to be sure before i proceed. I also found information on this forum on how to delete my old kernel but i want to get the wireless connection working first. Thank you

[crackers]

Originally Posted by benso37

My question is, do i need to install the wireless card again for the new kernel? If yes, would this mean that everytime there's a new Kernel, i would have to update internet connections, printer drivers, etc?

It's actually quite simple: if you manually installed a driver, either from source-code or via a kernel-specific RPM, you will need to go through the same process for each new kernel. The kernel-specific RPMs are easy to "spot" - they usually have the kernel version indicated as part of their package name. If you installed via source, just running through the ./configure;make;make install should take care of it. Most "pure" source-code installations don't create or install configuration files, but it's safer to make backup copies of any files that you know you manually changed, just in case. You may have to set up your network again (unlikely), but it's never a bad idea to have your current settings stored elsewhere (simple text file, screenshots, whatever).

Note that this only applies to drivers that directly interact with the kernel, such as network drivers and the proprietary graphics drivers. Printer drivers are not kernel-specific.

[benso37]

I installed the wireless drivers manually, so i went ahead and re did the installation without any problem but when i try to run or open the start_net i get the following error...any help will be greatly appreciated since I can't find answers to my problem. Thank you.

using wlan0.
insmod: error inserting '/home/username/acx100-0.2.0pre8_plus...../scripts/../src/acx_pci.ko' : -1 Invalid module format
Error while inserting module! Bailing...

and the very last line of my dmesg states
"acx_pci : disagrees about version of symbol struct_module"

ps. My wireless network was working 100% until i got the kernel upgrade.

Originally Posted by crackers

It's actually quite simple: if you manually installed a driver, either from source-code or via a kernel-specific RPM, you will need to go through the same process for each new kernel. The kernel-specific RPMs are easy to "spot" - they usually have the kernel version indicated as part of their package name. If you installed via source, just running through the ./configure;make;make install should take care of it. Most "pure" source-code installations don't create or install configuration files, but it's safer to make backup copies of any files that you know you manually changed, just in case. You may have to set up your network again (unlikely), but it's never a bad idea to have your current settings stored elsewhere (simple text file, screenshots, whatever).

Note that this only applies to drivers that directly interact with the kernel, such as network drivers and the proprietary graphics drivers. Printer drivers are not kernel-specific.

[nightcrawler]

Is your kernel-source the same version as your latest kernel?
make sure that's the same then you usually need to run "make clean" on wireless driver source to get rid off objects compiled with the older kernel, then recompile and reinstall again.

[benso37]

Thank you for the reply, i've managed to re-install my drivers and everything seems to be working fine except that i have to run the script everytime i restart the computer. Is it possible to have the wireless connection start on startup? Thank you

Originally Posted by nightcrawler

Is your kernel-source the same version as your latest kernel?
make sure that's the same then you usually need to run "make clean" on wireless driver source to get rid off objects compiled with the older kernel, then recompile and reinstall again.