Hi, first I want to thank maintainers of this excellent distro. I've had no problems, even I'm using quite new motherboard (Asus P5WD2) and dualcore Intel D 820 processor. I've updated all packages when You have announced them. At the moment the kernel is 2.6.9-34ELsmp and it works well. But I've lost some understanding how these kernel versions flow ! I'm also a little confused of some related answers from some forums and lists. Questions : - is the kernel version used in CentOS the same as in kernel.org ? - if the kernel versions don't match, where do I get information which mathes which ? The other question (very much relates to the later part of previous question and the need to do kernel compilation at all) : - if I want to compile new kernel using kernel source from kernel.org, what is the best way regarding to maintain the workability level of exisisting kenel (see top)? -- can I use .config-file from working 2.6.9-34ELsmp source and compile straight using that (first to see a working new kernel and then make some adjustments) ? In this way I can save a lot of time and frustration when setting the flags for compilation. Any other important to remember ? (I've compiled kernel since Linux 0.6 so no newbee recommendations. ;-) ) -- I need monitoring for many servers (thermal etc.) and of course they are remote. I would like to use OpenIPMI which seems to be the most modern method and thus would survive for some years (not expected of some other methods/applications) -- these issues are important to due I've more than 1 server and I'd like to use similar approach in each. Could You point me a) documents to wise upgrade of kernel in CentOS 4.x environment ? b) if there exists, example of use OpenIPMI ? You can also send answers directly as this topic might not interest wider public. Best regards, Kari Salovaara -- Kari Salovaara Hanko, Finland