Hi all
my mandrake takes very long to boot with aurora. it shows that it is checking file system and i this that thats qhy its taking so long. another problem is the compiling of the kernel. the src/usr directory only contains the directory rpm and as such i cant make config or xconfig all help is appreciated.

If its checking the file sytem it usually
means you didnt shut down your computer
correctly...
Next time you want to shut down go to the
console (press ctrl-alt-F1 at the same time),
log in as root and type the following line:

shutdown -h 0

The end character is a zero. When it says
"system halted" or something similar turn
your computer off. I use Mandrake 8.0 and
prefer the text startup as apposed to aurora.
Its easier to see whats happening at startup
witout aurora. Sorry I cant help you with the
kernel problem.

To compile the kernel, you have several possibilities.
Either you want to recompile the present kernel, then you have to install the 'kernel-source' package (and maybe some other 'kernel-***' of which I can't seem to remember at the moment'). Then you would "cd /usr/src/linux" and "make xconfig" or whatever.

Or, you might want to compile a new kernel, which source you downloaded from the Internet or copied from a CD. You might come up with some linux-2.4.*.tar.gz file. go to /usr/src, move the file there, and run "tar xvfz linux-2.*****". It will create the /linux subdir, into which you can go and run the "make xconfig" script.

Ehm, I hope I don't need to mention the aeternal "RTFM" about kernel compiling ;o)
Make sure you ALWAYS keep an old, safe, working kernel entry in you lilo (or any other bootloader) so that if the new one crashes you can boot with the old one and compile again.

Good luck!

An easier way to shutdown your computer is become the root and type init 0, to restart type init 6