I rescued a Dell GX300(dual P3 Dual 850 / 512 / 30GB x 2) from surplus a while ago for one of my co-workers to use for testing purposes. He ended up giving it to me to use as a kickaround box, so I sat down to install Slackware 10.
When I got to the screen where I chose the kernel to run, the options were not all that spiffy: none utilized multiprocessor systems. I expected as much since Slackware focuses on Stability and simplicity, but %&$#.
Well, I've compiled kernels before! Back...in...9_.....8? I'm sure I'd remember something from that...
Nope, got nothing... So I downloaded 2.6.8 from a kernel.org mirror and started checking out the package. Hmm.... make menuconfig? Nice! The menus are pretty straightforward and any terms you're not familiar with you can google for more info. With the items I wanted selected(SMP, iptables, 24" spinners), I sat down to compile and within 5 minutes, I had a fresh baked kernel, modules, and other goods ready to pop in. So I add it to my /etc/lilo.conf and reboot, fully expecting an error or a crash at some point. Well, it's been up for about 1.5 hours now with no errors, knock on laminate. Next stop is learning how to compile and setup samba to play nice with the ldap on campus, yay!