[clue-tech] patching Linux kernel

[Jason Ash]

Hi,

I'm running Gentoo with kernel 2.6.32.7 that I downloaded from
Kernel.org and configured. I want to patch it to version 2.6.32.8 with
the patch that I downloaded from there. However, I still want to keep
my gentoo genkernel as a fallback.

Here's the ls -l of my /usr/src directory:
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     22 Feb 13 18:11 linux -> linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r6
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root   4096 Feb 13 18:10 linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r6
drwxrwxr-x 23 root root   4096 Feb 13 17:35 linux-2.6.32.7
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 205390 Feb 13 16:44 patch-2.6.32.8.bz2

When I cd into the linux-2.6.32.7 and issue the command bzip2 -dc
/usr/src/patch-2.6.32.8.bz2 | patch -p1 --dry-run as suggested at
http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ/HowToApplyAPatch, the output is:

patching file Documentation/Changes
Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected!  Assume -R? [n]

I'm not sure what to answer here, and whether or not it's using the
symlink in the /usr/src directory. It still gives me the same output
when I change the symlink to point to linux-2.6.32.7. Google isn't
much help when searching for the proper answer.

What I want to do is to apply the patch to the linux-2.6.32.7 kernel
directory without messing up anything. How do I do this, please? Also,
would it be better or does it matter if I change the symlink to point
to the 2.6.32.7 kernel instead of the gentoo kernel?

Thanks,
Jason