Let's talk about kernels

[snct]

Real newbie question here, so please bear with me:

One of the things I like about Knoppix and its derivitives is that, they are set up to boot more than one kernel (usually either 2.4 or 2.6). This provides a template for adding more kernels as an option to boot; which is just what I need...

I've got an older Linux game (Railroad Tycoon), and it runs on the 2.2 kernel. So I've downloaded a 2.2 kernel from kernel.org, but it is named as:

linux-2.2.0.tar.gz

That is, archived and compressed. But when I look at the installed kernels in /boot, I see them named as:

vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-kanotix-8

Or some such. This kernel file is only about 2MB in size, so can I assume that it is also compressed, but just named differently? So in order to use the 2.2 kernel, should I rename it vmlinuz... after moving it to /boot and then reference it in Grub after that?

Also, I'm thinking that the kernel is just the tip of the iceberg; in that the game may be expecting an older version of X server/gui environment... Am I looking at making my system take a big step back in time, or just some minor adjustments?

Possibly this post should have gone under Linux Gaming. If so, I'm sure the mods can move it.

[maccorin]

1) a 2.2 kernel may possibly break a current distro. depending on what features/capabilities are assumed in the development of your glibc (read: what headers they were compiled against, you can check this by looking in /usr/include/asm/)

2) try running the game on your current kernel with LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 ie...

$ LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 ./railroad_tycoon

[snct]

1) a 2.2 kernel may possibly break a current distro. depending on what features/capabilities are assumed in the development of your glibc (read: what headers they were compiled against, you can check this by looking in /usr/include/asm/)

2) try running the game on your current kernel with LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 ie...

$ LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 ./railroad_tycoon

Thanks, I'll try the command after looking at the man page to see what LD_ASSUME_KERNEL does .

[snct]

I found a rather techie explanation of it:

link

Most of what I've read about the command mentions Red Hat and Java (JVM) quite a lot. If I tried it on my current distros (Knotix or Knoppix) I'm not sure what would happen. Possibly I should just try to install my old Red Hat 6 distro and run RRT from there (assuming that distro will even run on my Centrino laptop...). RRT requires either Glibc 1.0 or 2.0 . More research, I think.

[maccorin]

i have to use LD_ASSUME_KERNEL to play older games (the_sims, and simcity) on debian, which knoppix is based off of.

The issue w/ older binary programs isn't actually what kernel is running, it's usually the ABI of the glibc compiled against. I believe LD_ASSUME_KERNEL changes the ABI.

[snct]

i have to use LD_ASSUME_KERNEL to play older games (the_sims, and simcity) on debian, which knoppix is based off of.

The issue w/ older binary programs isn't actually what kernel is running, it's usually the ABI of the glibc compiled against. I believe LD_ASSUME_KERNEL changes the ABI.

Yep... That's what the link above says also, but I wasn't sure what the other implications were. I'll give it a try sometime this week (I have to unpack the game from my numerous boxes first). Thanks again!