replacing kernel in live cd or installer?

[Daniel]

I recently got a Toshiba L500D laptop. I started to install VL on it but the installer said that it couldn't find the hard drive and quit. I tried two different VL live cds and they both failed. After a little googling, I found that some error messages that I saw during the live cd boot process pertained to acpi. I tried again using acpi=off. This however, disables dual core support and sometimes wifi. (and of course for me it did disable wifi) I researched and found that the latest kernel (2.6.34) has some fixes specifically for Toshiba laptops. How would I go about replacing and using this newer kernel in the installer and possibly the live cds?

[nightflier]

A kernel needs to be compiled with certain options to be used in a LiveCD. I don't know off hand what they are.
If you can get so you have a working system, you can then download and install newer kernels.

When you boot a LiveCD with "acpi=off", does it bring the system up and recognize the hard drive?

[Daniel]

Yes, with acpi=off, the LiveCD boots and I can browse files on the hard drive. However, I cannot use wired (need to look at this some more) or wireless networking and only one processor core is being used instead of the two that are there.

Does something special have to be done with the kernel to replace it in the installer cd?

[nightflier]

My thinking was that if you manage to run/install using acpi=off, then you could try other kernels by downloading them using wired network or transferring with a USB drive or similar.

To change the kernel in the installer you need to extract the files from the iso, replace the kernel files and edit the install script to reflect the changes, then re-build the iso. This takes a lot of time, and testing isn't quick and easy.

I use the pre-built kernels from our repo: http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-6.0/kernels/. Note that there are three packages involved; kernel, modules and source. Install instructions here: http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=10385. As the latest version is 2.6.31.8, you may want to post a package request for a new one.