How to switch to a new kernel

It's not really required,it's more of a safety measure in case something goes wrong.If you're just changing kernels or installing a theme, do not wipe data or it won't boot and you should always do a back up!

 

Skip wipe when installing kernels, only wipe when installing a new rom, and just make a backup if you don't have a recent backup, those are only options you don't have to check them in.

 

Do exactly what ole 55 says. Do not check those options if you are installing a kernel. Those are options for loading new/different roms.

Good luck.

 

It always asks that when you try to install something through the Rom Manager. I would make a backup just in case you install a kernel that doesn't boot up .... it does happen .... and then you could just restore it to before you installed the kernel. You don't have to do the wipe though so make sure that's unchecked.

 

Is a kernal like a new part of the program that was missing in an earlier build, a patch perhaps? I see there were kernels for wifi, etc over this past week and then I see that one of the ROM's has wifi. I'm struggling to learn whether or not I need to install kernals after I root or if installing a custom ROM of some sort will take care of everything?

 

Custom kernels with wi-fi fixes are usually included automatically with ROMs that include a wi-fi fix. The only non-kernel wi-fi fix I have seen so far is the wi-fi fix for NexFro 1.0.1 ROM.

Most custom ROMs will include a custom kernel that has at least some of these features.

Custom kernels generally provide the following enhancements to a ROM:
1) The voltage provided to the cpu and the clock speed at which the cpu runs.
2) The number of slots that a CPU can be throttled up/down to (usually 5 or 7).
3) Support for additional filesystems not included in the default kernels (ext4, and CIFS being prime examples).
4) Support for JIT and Apps2SD (in 2.1 kernels).
5) Wi-fi tethering support.
6) Various tweaks to manage battery consumption.

Hope this explains some of it. The most I've had to do when installing a new kernel is wipe the cache, but I only do that if the new kernel bootloops, if it still bootloops after that, I try a kernel with either less default overclock, or more voltage.

-Mike