Linux Kernel newbie questions

[RailsRoller]

Hi everyone and happy aïd :)

well, When trying to install RTAI which is a Real Time Operating
System (RTOS), I discovered (while reading several documents) that I
need to have an already installed distribution, then I have to
download a fresh kernel source (from www.kernel.org) and to get the
RTAI patch for that source, that's mean that I'll have a patched
source of the Linux kernel which i have to compile and to install.

Questions now!

After doing such steps what will happen ?! the doc said that I will
have in the grub one more option which gets me to RTAI, but does that
mean that my already openSuse 10.2 will be unchanged, in fact, i'm
scared of hurting my already installed linux which contains many
precious things! So what are results (and risks) of compiling a
kernel??

PS: I'm not asking how to do, I'll do after being convinced that my
current Linux will be safe :)

Thanks for help.

[Sami Bel Hadj]

Hi mahmoud, happy aîd too,


Well i've read your question carefully, i can assure you that compiling the kernel will not harm your existing installation.  what we need to do is to follow carefully all the instructions in the document and when we  come to the grub stuff you must keep your old configuration ( previous kernel entry) and add the newly one ( the new compiled kernel entry).

That's really what makes linux so powrefull, you run it with different kernel versions without reinstalling the hole thing. But ,as i said, please follow carrefully the Tutorial.

I hope this will  help you with your project, and this question is still open for the community, so don't be shy and answer it.

 
Regards.

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Sami Bel Hadj
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[Mahmoud M'HIRI]

Sorry for the late reply, being busy all the time.

Thanks to all of you. I've red carefully all your messages, and I'm going to start patching and compilation soon, hope everything goes right :)

You'll be feedbacked.

Regards.

--
Mahmoud M'HIRI
mh...@ieee.org
Phone: Under request