On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, Ed Harrison wrote: <*]Jerry, <*] <*]This may seem ignorant but ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mantel/next/ also has a <*]file called pathes-24.tgz. I know nothing about patches. Is this file <*]necessary? What does it do? How do you apply patches, if it is necessary? Patch files let you replace parts of a single file or many other files without changing the entire package. For instance, by applying the patch file patches-24.tgz to your kernel 2.4, you wont have to download or to wait for a new updated kernel. In your specific case, this patch file solves bugs in the kernel and update to the current version of 2.4.0. These bugs are related to some devices only, or some new features, or some compatibilities with SuSE' system, but not everything. This may not be necessary to apply this patch. Details about these bugs and update details from one version of the test kernel to another can be found here: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mantel/next/lx_sus24.changes To apply a patch for your kernel, unpack the file in /usr/src/linux, and then: 1) patch -p1< patches-24 2) Recompile the kernel and modules as usual... Further readings: man patch (for the patch system...) man diff (to build your own patch files...) Your sound problem may not be related to the 2.4 kernel though... Regards... /NB ________________ Nicolas Beaulieu Economics Department, Universite Laval Centre de Recherches en Economie et Finances Appliquees (CREFA) Quebec, Canada mailto:nicolas.beaulieu@ecn.ulaval.ca _________________ http://patagonia.dyndns.org ICQ 15933500 Teamwork is essential: it allows you to blame someone else. _________________