This page documents known problems with running the Linux 2.2.x kernel in Debian 2.1 (slink). It assumes that you are running a fully up-to-date slink system.
The slink release is certified and officially tested for use with the late 2.0.x Linux kernels. Since the freeze of Debian occurred before Linux 2.2's release, and the change of the kernel's major version number can introduce complex issues, it was decided to stick with the proven 2.0 line of kernels.
Debian releases, however, are not necessarily kernel version bound. You may run any kernel you wish in Debian. We simply can give no assurances, however, that everything will function properly. If you do decide to move up to the Linux 2.2 line, and experience problems with a package, you may have luck running the potato (Debian 2.2) version of that package.
There are many links below pointing to potato versions of packages.
Note that if you install these packages on a stable machine, you may
need to also install potato libraries or other packages dependencies.
Notably, you'll probably have to upgrade your libc6 package. We
suggest using apt-get for this purpose, which will get
only the necessary packages when used correctly. However, be warned:
while most users have no trouble running a stable/frozen mixed
system, you may be bitten by transient bugs in potato.
The kernel-source-2.2.1 package is shipped in the distribution to aid users who want to run the Linux 2.2.x kernels. However, it is recommended that you check the standard kernel distribution sites, such as kernel.org, for newer versions of the 2.2.x source tree and additional errata. There are known bugs in 2.2.1, and that version is known to have caused data corruption for some. You should get the patches for the newer 2.2 series kernel and apply them to the Linux kernel source tree.
Note that this list may be incomplete. Please submit a bug against www.debian.org if you find other problems not listed. Check the bug logs for the package in question as well as well; try to make sure that the problem was introduced in Linux 2.2.
ifconfig won't show aliases interfaces, and under some circumstances, ipchains will silently fail to clear packet counters. Some routes built by the netbase init scripts will cause harmless warning messages.
All of these issues are solved in the potato version. If you do not wish to upgrade to potato, Debian 2.1-compatible packages have been made available.
dhcp-client.