“One of the most important things that you must remember when
you are preparing to compile the kernel is that you must be root on
your system. If you are not currently root, then type in su and the
system will prompt you for the root password. Once you are root,
type in cd /usr/src. This will move you to the source directory.
You will then need to copy linux-2.4.0.tar.gz into this directory.
When this is copied, look at the contents of this directory. Make
sure there are no symbolic links called ‘linux’. If there are,
remove them by typing rm /usr/src/linux….”
“Now comes the long, but necessary process of configuring the
kernel. You will need to run one of the configuration tools so that
the computer knows what parts of the kernel to compile, what to
keep as modules or what to not worry about. There are three
different configuration tools that a user can run….”
“Once xconfig is started, the kernel options are presented as a
series of menus. We will list all of these categories in italics.
If you don’t know what something does, click on the help button.
This will explain the option. If you are still stumped, read the
last line of the help description … this will usually tell you if
you need the option or not.”