Only the Linux 2.4.x kernels are currently supported by the DRI hardware drivers. 2.5.x kernels may work, but aren't tested.
Most of the DRI drivers require AGP support and using Intel Pentium III SSE optimizations also requires an up-to-date Linux kernel. Configuring your kernel correctly is very important, as features such as SSE optimizations will be disabled if your kernel does not support them. Thus, if you have a Pentium III processor, you must configure your kernel for the Pentium III processor family.
Building a new Linux kernel can be difficult for beginners but there are resources on the Internet to help. This document assumes experience with configuring, building and installing Linux kernels.
Linux kernels can be downloaded from www.kernel.org
Here are the basic steps for kernel setup.
cd /usr/src
rm -f linux
mkdir linux-2.4.x
ln -s linux-2.4.x linux
bzcat linux-2.4.x.tar.bz2 | tar xf -
It is critical that /usr/src/linux point to your new kernel
sources, otherwise the kernel headers will not be
used when building the DRI. This will almost certainly cause
compilation problems.make menuconfig and do the
following:
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux.2.4.x
read-only
root=/dev/hda1
The important part is that you have /boot/vmlinuz without a
trailing version number.
If this is the first entry in your /etc/lilo.conf AND you
haven't set a default, then this will be your default kernel.
cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.x
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
make install
Note that last make command will automatically run lilo for you.