Red Hat Fedora 5 Unleashed

Chapter 39. Kernel and Module Management

IN THIS CHAPTER

• The Linux Kernel

• Managing Modules

• When to Recompile

• Kernel Versions

• Obtaining the Kernel Sources

• Patching the Kernel

• Compiling the Kernel

• When Something Goes Wrong

• Reference

A kernel is a complex piece of software that manages the processes and process interactions that take place within an operating system. As a user, you rarely, if ever, interact directly with it. Instead, you work with the applications that the kernel manages.

The Linux kernel is Linux. It is the result of years of cooperative (and sometimes contentious) work by numerous people around the world. There is only one common kernel source tree, but each major Linux distribution massages and patches its version slightly to add features, ...