14 DAY TRIAL // GNU/Linux developer Arne Exton is known for creating and maintaining a bunch of Linux-based operating systems, as well as for packaging the latest kernels for Slackware Linux.
Slackware is the oldest GNU/Linux distro that's still in active development, and it recently turned 24 years old. To celebrate this event, Arne Exton managed to create a custom 64-bit kernel for Slackware 14.2 based on the recently released Linux 4.13 RC2 kernel, which brings support for new hardware and other optimizations.
"I have compiled a very useful (as I think) 64-bit kernel for Slackware Current (14.2) and/or all Slackware derivatives. For example Slax, Zenwalk and SlackEX," said Arne Exton. "The kernel is compiled exactly in the same way as Slackware’s latest kernel huge. "My" kernel 4.13-rc2-x86_64-exton has even more support for new hardware, etc."
Here's how to install Linux kernel 4.13 RC2 on Slackware 14.2
If you want to install Arne Exton's Linux 4.13 RC2 kernel on your 64-bit Slackware 14.2 distro, you should first make a backup of the /boot/vmlinuz file as it will be overwritten during the installation. Also, you may need to modify your GRUB bootloader configuration if you've done some changes there yourself.
Nvidia GPU users will also need to remove the blacklisting of the open-source Nouveau graphics driver in the nvidia-installer-disable-nouveau.conf and blacklist.conf files located in /etc/modprobe.d before attempting to install this custom Linux 4.13 RC2 kernel.
If you're all set, you can install Arne Exton's custom Linux 4.13 RC2 kernel on your 64-bit Slackware 14.2 distro by downloading the linux-kernel-4.13-rc2-x86_64-exton.txz archive (check the MD5 for integrity), which you must save in your Home directory, and run the following command in a terminal emulator. Don't forget to restart your computer!
installpkg linux-kernel-4.13-rc2-x86_64-exton.txz