On Tue, 16 Apr 1996 spectrum@rlion.com wrote:

> Ok, ive now got several kernels to juggle around with to figure out
> which one is best to use... Question: IF i compile something with one
> kernel, will it run under the others? or do i need to recompile (or
> should I recompile) for each kernel that i want to use...

Don't bother to recompile.  Unless, of course, you want to move between
computers such as one computer with a floating point coprocessor and one
without.  I.E.  It's faster to take advantage of the FPU if you've got it,
and some programs compiled with the standard math library may crash
without an FPU.

> And does the active kernel name *have* to be /netbsd ? I was just
> telling the booter to boot the kernel i wanted to use
> "/netbsd.111895.GENERIC.fpe" for instance...

Not entirely, at least for testing purposes.  Some programs such as
ps, uptime, etc. may have trouble, though, but I forget which ones.  I
don't know about multi-user mode....

In the long term, though, due to the nature of certain programs that
access the kernel directly (not the copy in memory, the disk copy) and
thus depend on the corect filename... it's better to set the one you're
using to netbsd... either that or create a link called netbsd and leave
the original files alone.

I wouldn't use the 11/18/95 kernel, simply because that's pretty old.  Try
one of the more current generics, such as Generic #2 or #5.  Either that
or one of the Wittkoski ADB kernels.  All of the recent generic and
ADBTest kernels support FPE built-in.  And, assuming you have no FPU, get
a copy of the FPE math libraries before you start compiling stuff, and
recompile anything that's not part of NetBSD using those libraries.  That
will save you from numerous floating point exception errors.

Good luck,

 /---------------------------------------------------------------------\
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