I'm new to the list. I've muddled through a RedHat build on X windows to write a custom driver for a touch screen to work, modified from another driver. Rather cryptic understanding what they mean sometimes in the source code, but the examples made things clear with time and mistakes. However, I've never understood the RedHat build model. I get the kernel source and there are dozens of patch files. HUH? Do I need them? I gave up and downloaded the kernel from kernel.org and built. No problems with the build, but the RedHat Tweaks were Gone. I eventually got something I could use, but this is not my day job. Is there a HOWTO anywhere that is RedHat specific that says if you do (1), (2), (3), etc. you will get the original binary? I need this to be for a dummy. I've applied one source code patch about two years ago and it was black magic at that time and appeared to work. I was able to look at the source code files and prove the patch made it in, but I can't remember what I did to this day. Some of the things a dummy has a problem with are (1) where do the files go, (2) how do I get the files out of the source code RPM once the source code RPM has installed the files? Let me explain. I've seen source RPM's for RedHat which dump other files in a directory, and they had to be untar'd to get the source code files out. At that point, I was unsure what directory Redhat built in, and could not get a clean RedHat specific build from it. I may have, but I could not prove it at that time. At that point I gave up and depended upon RedHat to do the updates. Now, I'm fairly stuck and need help. As of December 31, 7.3 and 8.0 are history. This is very frightening, as I have several servers on the internet. Is there perhaps an ISO of the Redhat Build Machine for any of the legacy versions? If I could put a RedHat Build Machine on a computer, I could then make a patch and get something out without a lot of uncertainty on my part as to whether or not it was a RedHat compatible program. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'll even take a flame or two at this point. thanks, wade
