[plug] To Build a kernel

[Denis Brown]

At 15:21 24/09/2003 +0800, you wrote:
>Laurie Anderson wrote:
>>
>>    Hi,
>>    I think I need to build another Kernel as the one I am using at present
>>    whould be Debian Woody, which should I thought be version 2.4.**, 
>> discovered
>>    that it is infact version 2.2.20, the Debian 3.0 CD's were used.
>>    How do we achieve this on an existing system???
>>    To what do we upgrade too???.

Hi, Laurie.

Just adding to what Ryan and Craig have said, I think the central issue if 
you want to roll your own kernel is to fully understand what hardware you 
have, and have any specific driver modules or patches available prior to 
building the kernel.   For example I had a Broadcom NIC on one particular 
motherboard and it was not natively supported in any kernel.   So I had a 
choice of downloading a module or patching a kernel.   For whatever reason 
the module method did not bear fruit so I patched the kernel source and 
away she went.   A good read up on the motherboard specs (chipsets, etc) 
put me in good stead to do the configuration side of things.

The Kernel-HOWTO available on The Linux Documentation Project, as mentioned 
by Craig, contains straightforward information.   Prior to building my 
first kernel I also scanned the PLUG archives for hints and tips, and found 
it a useful resource.   Anyway the worst that can happen is that the new 
kernel simply won't boot[1].   As long as you have not over-written your 
original kernel image, you can always reboot into that and try again 
:-)   If it helps to put it in context, I've found more challenges getting 
Xfree86 to play nicely, (and sound!) than I have in compiling kernels.

The various stock kernels, as mentioned by Craig, should suit 
out-of-the-box but may be just a tad more bloated than a custom one.   If 
disk space and memory isn't an issue...   If you can get to a workshop 
(Ryan's suggestion) so much the better.

Hope this helps,
Denis

[1] Insert usual legal disclaimer here!   No responsibility taken for fried 
hardware, dead budgerigars, etc :-)


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