thank you, I was affraided of that...

michalz


Mike A. Harris wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, Michal Zeravik wrote:

  
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:16:29 +0100
From: Michal Zeravik <michalz@olomouc.com>
To: fedora-test-list@redhat.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="------------040106090107030308080404"
List-Id: For testers of Red Hat Linux beta releases
   <fedora-test-list.redhat.com>
Subject: Re: rh9 vs. fedora

Originally I'm interested in audio/video processing.
Using Alsa/Jack/Laddca in realtime needs that: 
http://jackit.sourceforge.net/docs/faq.php#q5
So you mean I can install sources of my current kernel (2.4.20-20-9)
and build it on my own with what properties?
    

Correct, that is how you would go about attempting to patch the 
kernel and use it.  The only way you can be guaranteed a patch 
for anything will apply to a given source code tree or not 
however (kernel or otherwise) is to use the source code that the 
author of a given patch used to create their patch.  The majority 
of kernel patches out there are generated against Linus's 
kernels, and so the only way you can be reasonably sure they will 
apply to the kernel source is by using Linus's kernel source.

If you apply a patch to the Red Hat kernel source, which is very 
heavily modified, the patch may apply cleanly if it does not 
overlap on any other areas of the kernel source which other 
patches are already applying to.  It might even apply cleanly 
with a bit of fuzz factor.

If you do get a patch to apply though, wether it applied cleanly, 
with fuzz, or required re-engineering the patch to apply to the 
Red Hat kernel, it may or may not work at all.  It depends on if 
the patch you're using relies on stuff from Linus's kernel to be 
there which may have been changed or even heavily modified by the 
Red Hat kernel's patch set. 

In short, the only way you can be sure any kernel patch will ever 
apply to the kernel source tree you use, is to apply the patch to 
the kernel source that the author of the patch used, or to become 
kernel engineer for a day and port the patch to the kernel source 
that you are using now.

Hope this helps.