kernel compilation for eejits?

pickarooney

Anyone got a link to a really good, thorough guide to compiling a kernel? Most of the ones I've found assume you know things and don't give links to bits you might be sketchy on. I tend to get lost after about the first page with these.

It will be 2.6.something for Mandrake 10.0, maybe not the latest, maybe even the same one I'm using now (2.6.3-13mdk) but machine specific.

Ste-

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=252533&highlight=kernel+tutorial

Had a quick browse through that, seems it could be useful.
Best of luck.

OfflerCrocGod

Run "make menuconfig" inside the /usr/src/linux/ directory you choose what you want then "make && make modules_install" that compiles the kernel then just copy the bzImage to /boot ( or whatever you call it ) and change lilo.conf/grub.conf to add the new kernel and that's it. 20 minutes.

tck

http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/Kernel-Build-HOWTO.html

one of the better articles

aidan_walsh

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Run "make menuconfig" inside the /usr/src/linux/ directory you choose what you want then "make && make modules_install" that compiles the kernel then just copy the bzImage to /boot ( or whatever you call it ) and change lilo.conf/grub.conf to add the new kernel and that's it. 20 minutes.

Using this method, I assume you could make multiple loader entries, each using a different compiled kernel?

oscarBravo

doodle_sketch wrote:

Using this method, I assume you could make multiple loader entries, each using a different compiled kernel?

Yup. I have bootloader entries for my Epia-optimised kernel, and a failsafe i386 kernel in case I fsck up the other one.

eggshapedfred

Run "make menuconfig" inside the /usr/src/linux/ directory you choose what you want then "make && make modules_install" that compiles the kernel then just copy the bzImage to /boot ( or whatever you call it ) and change lilo.conf/grub.conf to add the new kernel and that's it. 20 minutes.

running 'make install' after 'make modules_install' does the copying for you, sets up the system.map and stuff, and adds entries to grub.conf so you should just have to reboot and select the new kernel (provided you use grub as your bootloader...)

pickarooney

Cheers, that's the easiest explanation I've seen by far. No mention of all the tricky module configuration steps, which seems a bit strange.

Syth

tck wrote:

http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/Kernel-Build-HOWTO.html

one of the better articles

I used that when I compiled my own kernel. It's quite good. Walks you through everything.

OfflerCrocGod

eggshapedfred wrote:

running 'make install' after 'make modules_install' does the copying for you, sets up the system.map and stuff, and adds entries to grub.conf so you should just have to reboot and select the new kernel (provided you use grub as your bootloader...)

I find that a bit hard to believe, possible but not something I've ever heard of, are you certain? Is this on any Linux distro or something nice added into Fedora or Suse?? I could call my /boot partition /damnilovemilk and how could the script be certain where to put my kernel ( System.map not really important neither is the .config ) Updating grub seems a bit iffy aswell!

oscarBravo

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I find that a bit hard to believe, possible but not something I've ever heard of, are you certain? Is this on any Linux distro or something nice added into Fedora or Suse??

I've done it several times on Debian.

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I could call my /boot partition /damnilovemilk and how could the script be certain where to put my kernel ( System.map not really important neither is the .config )

If you're going to run make install, it should be fair to assume a thing or two. /boot being called /boot is not an unreasonable assumption.

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Updating grub seems a bit iffy aswell!

Again, from my Debian experiences, it updated lilo.conf quite successfully.

eggshapedfred

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I find that a bit hard to believe, possible but not something I've ever heard of, are you certain? Is this on any Linux distro or something nice added into Fedora or Suse??

worked on Fedora, RedHat (same thing, i know) and gentoo. though on the redhat system as grub wasn't installed, it just reported that a template for grub couldn't be found.