SYA710 Building a New Kernel

Building a New Kernel

• download source from kernel.org
  • wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.26.tar.bz2
• unpack source
  • tar xvjf linux-2.6.26.tar.bz2
• create configuration (.config) file
  • cd linux-2.6.26
  • cp /proc/config.gz . (If this file does not exist, skip ahead to the alternate approach below.)
  • gzip -d config.gz
  • mv config .config

Alternate method of getting .config:

• If the file /proc/config.gz does not exist on your system, you can get the required file by issuing the following commands:

1. yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers gcc
2. cp /usr/src/kernels/2.6.23.1-42.fc8-x86_64/.config ./

• make oldconfig
• customize your configuration
  • make menuconfig
• compile kernel and modules
  • make
• copy kernel image to /boot
  • cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26
• copy system map to /boot
  • cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.26
• install the modules
  • make modules_install
• create initial ram disk image
  • mkinitrd -k vmlinuz-2.6.26 -i initrd-2.6.26 (this did not work for me - mkinitrd considered it do be invalid syntax. Using 'mkinitrd initrd-2.6.26 2.6.26' worked, so try that if the first version gives you problems. - Gregory Masseau)
  • For simplicity the syntax of mkinitrd file for here can be as ..

     mkinitrd name-of- image kernel-version .i.e mkinitrd initrd-2.6.26 2.6.26

• • In generel if we have to create a initrd for the current running system the command i normally use

    mkinitrd -v /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

• update GRUB
  • vi /boot/grub/menu.lst
• reboot