this is obsolete doc -- see http://doc.nethence.com/ instead

Linux kernel configuration 

It is not always best to use the latest kernel: you might want to keep the exact same version the Linux distribution provided and be able to compile the exact same packages. For example, the 'lirc' Slackbuild for Slackware 13.37 needs smp_lock.h, which is in 2.6.37.6 but not in the latest 2.6 kernel versions. 

That said, either use your Linux distribution’s ‘.config’ file and add what is missing or [build a custom kernel] (http://pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysutils_linux/kernel_custom.html). In the former case, simply proceed like e.g. (Slackware64 13.1), 

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.33.4/

make distclean

cp /boot/config-huge-2.6.33.4 .config

cat >> .config <<EOF9

<CHANGES HERE>

EOF9

make silentoldconfig

# Note. -j twice the number of cores

(( jobs = `grep ^processor /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l` * 2 ))

echo jobs: $jobs

time nice make -j$jobs

unset jobs

version=`grep version .config | awk '{print $NF}'`

echo version: $version

ls -lkd /lib/modules/$version/

rm -rf /lib/modules/$version/

unset version

make modules_install

cp -f arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz