The custom built kernel is available only for 64-bit systems

Dec 28, 2016 23:59 GMT  ·  By

After announcing the availability of a remix of Raspberry Pi Foundation's Raspbian PIXEL Linux OS that features Refracta Tools, GNU/Linux developer Arne Exton informed us about the availability of a custom Linux 4.9 kernel build for Slackware 14.2, Zenwalk, Slax, SlackEX, or other distros based on them.

Linux kernel 4.9 was officially unveiled more than two weeks ago, on December 11, 2016, by Linus Torvalds himself, and it brought many cool new features. We recommend reading our report if you want to familiarize yourself with its changes, but if you've dreamed of using it on Slackware 14.2 or its derivatives, now you can.

Here's how to install Linux kernel 4.9 on Slackware, Zenwalk, Slax, or SlackEX

Before attempting to install this custom build kernel based on Linux kernel 4.9, you should know that it's compatible only with 64-bit systems. Also, you should keep in mind that your existing kernel will be replaced, and you need to make a backup of /boot/vmlinuz, as well as change the GRUB bootloader configuration if needed.

"When you run the command to install my kernel, vmlinuz will be "created" in /boot. If you have /boot/vmlinuz already that file will be overwritten. In case you want to switch back to your old kernel you should make a backup of /boot/vmlinuz before you run the just mentioned command," said Arne Exton in the announcement.

Additionally, please try to keep in mind that if you have an Nvidia graphics card installed on your Linux computer, you'll need to remove the blacklisting of the Nouveau kernel drive from the blacklist.conf and nvidia-installer-disable-nouveau.conf files located under /etc/modprobe.d before restarting the computer.

If all the above sounds good to you and you still want to install this custom Linux 4.9 kernel version on your Slackware 14.2 computer, download the linux-kernel-4.9-x86_64-exton.txz archive from Arne Exton's website, open a terminal emulator on the download location, and run the following command. Then reboot your PC.

installpkg linux-kernel-4.9-x86_64-exton.txz