My First Custom Kernel

I'm compiling my first custom kernel today.

I got going on this when my Debian machine with ASUS A7A266 could access only the first 137GB of a large hard drive I bought recently.

I noticed that KNOPPIX 5.0.1 could see the whole hard drive fine, so I decided to grab the latest stable kernel available on Debian's apt-get repository - 2.6.8 for AMD K7. Well, that didn't solve it.

After some researching, I decided compiling a custom kernel might be the way to go. Among many changes from default setting, I set the CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ALI15X3 option on (A7A266 uses ALi's chipset).

If this doesn't work, I'll be updating fdisk.

(update: Used steps in The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ Chapter 9 - Debian and the kernel, section 9.2)