kernel upgrade

[Ice9]

Im' running a sarge-based system atm (thanks again Void Main)
Now, since the latest kernel listed in the testing repositories is 2.6.8 and I had problems before with the 2.6.8 version I'm still running 2.6.7.

My question is, I've noticed that 2.6.9 is in the unstable repositories, can I install it from "unstable" on my "testing" system, or am I asking for trouble?

[Void Main]

I *think* you should be able to do that without any problems. There should be nothing that is dependent on any one kernel version. You should be able to have both kernels installed at the same time. I would probably download it and install it manually with dpkg though rather than getting it from apt, but that's just me.

[Ice9]

Void Main wrote:

I would probably download it and install it manually with dpkg though rather than getting it from apt, but that's just me.

Really? Why would you do that?
Every kernel I installed until now I installed with apt-get, nice and easy and menu.lst would be updated automatically.

[Void Main]

I would do that so I didn't have to mix repos, maybe you don't have to do that? It's not a big deal doing it with dpkg though. Just pull the kernel you want from the sid repo and install it with dpkg. I might be doing it the hard way though. If you know of a way to mix sarge and sid repos without causing problems I'm all ears. I am a little less versed on Debian admittedly. Also, if I remember correctly Debian replaces your old kernel when you install a new kernel rather than add the kernel like RH systems do it. I could be wrong as it's been a while since I upgraded the kernels on my debian systems (which I don't have access to at the moment). I hate even commenting on it without going to my debian systems and doing it to make sure I'm not spreading BS. :)

[Ice9]

Well I was just gonna do a

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apt-get -t unstable install kernel-image-2.6.9

same as I did for mplayer and a few other packages ...

This way I don't have to touch my sources.list and I can use whatever repo I want for that particular package only.

Edit:
void Main wrote:

Also, if I remember correctly Debian replaces your old kernel when you install a new kernel rather than add the kernel like RH systems do it.

As far as I've seen until now Debian replaces the kernel if the basic version is the same, e.g. 2.4.20-5 will be replaced by 2.4.20-7, but when I installed 2.6.7 kernel it didn't touch my 2.4.20 kernel and installed the new one alongside the old one.

[Void Main]

Aha, I'm learning something. I didn't know about the "-t branch" option, duh. :) I've always tried to stay within the branch as much as possible though. And now that you describe the kernel version behavior that is as I remember it. Even minor upgrades on Red Hat/Fedora do not replace your old kernel. It will add the new kernel and keep the old one, which I actually prefer. I like to manually remove the old kernel just in case there is a problem with the upgraded kernel. So yeah, you might just do the "-t unstable" trick then. :)

[Ice9]

Ok, smooth as silk

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# apt-get -t unstable install kernel-image-2.6.9-i686
# cd /etc/X11
# mv XF86config-4 XF86config-4_nvidia
# mv XF86config-4.bak XF86config-4
# reboot

Choose console login

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# cd ../home/yc/Files/nvidia
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run
#startx


And voila

I admit I have been tempted to run an apt-get dist-upgrade from unstable but I figured I'd gather some more info about Debian prior to doing that

[Void Main]

Like I said, that's what I run (unstable/sid) and I do occassionally have package issues but not that often.

[Ice9]

One more question:
I plan to upgrade my Geforce Ti200 with a Geforce FX5700 in the next few days.
this is the first time I will change anything to this system (except for adding a hard drive) since I started with Red Hat 8, is there anything special to do before I actually do the swap?
Or is the already installed nvidia driver immediately going to address the new GPU?

[Void Main]

I believe the drivers should all be the same for all nVidia cards. The only thing that might be different are card specific options in your xorg.conf. You might want to check the README for both cards. Actually I think there is a PDF on nVidia's site with all the Card specific options, don't recall for sure. I went from a GeForce 2 to an GeForce 4 MX 400 without any problem.