kernel installation issues

[Derick Centeno]

Ever since yum "installed" the kernel upgrade nothing on my system has
been working reliably.  CUPS can't send anything to the printer, I can't
use the hardcopy command within vim and so on.  I've described what
details I could on the newbie and general lists and no one responded
with any suggestion, clue, idea or well, you get the picture.  

Therefore I'm sending this note describing my own efforts since those
last pleas for assistance.  I tracked down and used as a guide the How
To: How To Compile a Custom Kernel  Also I tried to work with the kernel
which the command yum upgrade kernel or yum upgrade collects and
installs when invoked.

One of my previous mistakes was to actually believe that yum had done
everything necessary to install the kernel.  However, Gkrellm reported
that the old kernel was operating and I was puzzled for the longest time
by this.  Of course, it took me the longest time to figure out that the
new kernel was copied onto my drive by yum and appropriately placed in
the appropriate directories and yum must have considered that enough.
But it wasn't and isn't.

OK so I use the above mentioned How To as a reference, and most other
How Tos from other distributions are similar except for how YDL utilizes
the kernel to induce the facility of dual-booting.  I notice that I have
to include some steps which the YDL How To doesn't mention (and make
note regarding suggesting or recommending my own how to) when odd things
happen.  Errors appear not in compiling the kernel, but in creating the
modules. I find this odd, as yum was supposed to collect everything
needed in one swoop and "install" it right??  So Why the Errors?  All
sorts of things are missing according to what is listed. Also functions
are incorrectly defined and syntax errors are all over the place.  At
this point I ignore the errors and proceed according to the YDL how to
which doesn't mention anything regarding errors after invoking make
modules or what to do about it.

I proceed accordingly and when I reboot, yes the new kernel boots up but
the fonts displaying the demons and commands being invoked and loaded
are just slightly larger than 9 points, maybe smaller.  Then the fun
begins nearly a page and a half (or 120 lines in that font) of modules
that are missing, demons which can't be found or loaded and then the
login prompt announcing the new kernel.  I go on to login and startx.
The desktop appears normal but then I'm a suspicious fellow, so I try to
get onto the net; ppp0 is nonexistent!  I look into the Network settings
and all the information for DNS, Modem and so is all there but nothing
is working.  It's at this point that I decide to go back to using the
previous kernel!


I try something different, download the entire kernel-2.4.22-2g (over
36MGs) from a functioning mirror and I'm pretty elated by now because my
modem is moving as fast as 6.2 KB/s as opposed to the unspeakable rate
of 1 KB/s or 0 KB/s when accessing terrasoft's own servers.  Ok.  I've
got the src, now when I do rpm -i what do I get?

A page full of warnings announcing that group nor user dburcaw exists.
Why does this process expect to have Dan exist on my machine??  But the
very first line of these warnings state:

warning: kernel-2.4.22-2g.src.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID
aeb6b9c4

Ok.  So why is this happening?  I'm on the lists, I've written to
various members of Terra Soft over the years.  I know they know who I am
so why doesn't the program know.  My thinking is this, I'm accessing the
YDL rpms, and downloading to my Linux box which is a YDL system.  Why
can't there be some process or key embedded within a working YDL system
which obviates the need for whatever has to be done now?

Ok.  So what key do I need now so that I can proceed with installing the
kernel?  Looking forward to an answer... Thanks.  

-- 
Cherokee: Mitakuye Oyasin
English Translation: We are all related.

Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.
-- Dolores Ibarruri, 1936

Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political
freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free
market are corollaries.
-- Ayn Rand, "For the New Intellectual"

Life only demands from you the strength you possess.  Only one feat is
possible -- not to have run away.
-- Dag Hammarskjold (July 29, 1905-September 18, 1961)

Be Well...