Guys, I'm trying to patch my Redhat

[Stingreen]

Guys, I'm trying to patch my Redhat 7.3's, 2.4.18-3 kernel to 2.4.19.I downloaded the patch into /usr/src/redhat/ directory and extracted it succesfully. Now when I issue the command "patch -i patch-2.4.19" it gives me the following,

[root@mail redhat]# patch -i patch-2.4.19
can't find file to patch at input line 4
Perhaps you should have used the -p or --strip option?
The text leading up to this was:
--------------------------
|diff -urN linux-2.4.19/CREDITS linux-2.4.20/CREDITS
|--- linux-2.4.19/CREDITS Fri Aug 2 17:39:42 2002
|+++ linux-2.4.20/CREDITS Thu Nov 28 15:53:08 2002
--------------------------
File to patch:

Using other commands like cat, zcat or whatever turns in the same output, saying File to Patch . ??
What should I do next? what file does it talking about,
Sorry about the newbie question...
Thanks in advance.

 

[pupu]

I suggest to forget it for now and try it again when you'll be more familiar with your system.

I guess you are trying to patch kernel sources. If I remember correctly, they reside in /usr/src/linux*. I don't remember RedHat publishes such patches, but maybe I just never needed them... anyway, you have to get patch for specific version - RedHat's version! My guess is that you are trying to patch RedHat's kernel with so-called vanilla kernel patch. That is not possible. If you really want to play with kernel, download RedHat's kernel-source rpm, or get the whole new kernel from kernel.org. Don't mix these two up!

 

[Stingreen]

Actually I was trying to patch my MTA. Then that message I indicated above poped-up. Then I noticed that the same message pops up again when I try to patch my kernel as well.
And wondered what was this all about.
What I don't understand is, how come patching the kernel could possibly rely on the distribution ? from what you're saying.
Thanks.

 

[pupu]

RedHat distributes its own kernel. It means that they incorporate their own patches into it.