Compiling A 3.X Linux Kernel

I'll be using a linux mint 12 distribution, but pretty much any debian distribution will do to follow through

download the 3.X kernel you want from www.kernel.org

Uncompress the kernel file, placing the files in /usr/src then open a terminal....we need to make sure things are up to date before continuing

In the console switch to root (sudo su.....or if you know the root password just su will do)

apt-get install gcc build-essential libncurses5-dev

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade to update all packages in your system

From this point on, replace any instance of linux-3.0 with whatever version you downloaded

cd /usr/src/linux-3.0/

make menuconfig

Now this is the tricky part....picking the modules and features you wish to have in your new kerel....I cant be much help her as every system is different....if you just pick the defaults you should be alright. When done just exit and return to console

make

That will take a while, how long depends on how beefy you system is. When finished it will return you back to the console

make modules_install install

This should install the new kernel in your grub boot configuration, to make sure look at /boot/, make sure System.map-3.0.0 vmlinuz-3.0.0 initrd.img-3.0.0 config-3.0.0 are there.

update-grub

This may not be necessary but ive always done it to make sure grub is setup fine...and found it has saved me many times in the past

Now all you need to do is reboot, load up the 3.0 kernel and take it out for a test drive