Suse Linux 2.6 kernel for Suse 9.0

It is not difficult, you just need to get hold of the right rpms:

Get files from:
ftp ftp.suse.com (or whatever mirror near you that has the whole os Suse mirrored)
/pub/people/mantel/next/RPM
kernel-default-2.6.4-7.i586.rpm

get the rpms you need.
Also need latest modutils and mkinitrd:
/pub/people/kraxel
mkinitrd-1.0-130.i586.rpm
modutils-2.4.25-78.i586.rpm

Upgrade mkinitrd and modutils, then install the new kernel rpm, for example:
rpm --upgrade mkinitrd-1.0-130.i586.rpm modutils-2.4.25-78.i586.rpm
rpm --install kernel-default-2.6.4-7.i586.rpm

Might be a spot of bother with getting the network module to load.
Could load it with:
modprobe e1000
, but not during boot sequence which was odd.
modprobe eth0 
did not work - aha!

ran strace on modprobe and it was trying to open /etc/modprobe.conf rather
than the usual /etc/modules.conf.
edited /etc/modprobe.conf and added in:
alias eth0 e1000

network card now started up during boot sequence.

Time to test the alledgedly better I/O in kernel 2.6