[plug] newer kernels the Debian way

[Tony Breeds]

On Sat, Mar 20, 2004 at 08:46:35PM +0800, smclevie wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Linux version: Debian
> 
> I am running a 2.4.24 kernel.
> I download the 2.6.4 kernel package and unziptar it.
> I begin the process of building a 2.6.4 kernel with make menuconfig (from 
> within the correct symlinked directory)
> 
> Does the configuration that comes up in the first instance take the config 
> from 2.4.24??

No.  You will se the "defconfig"  If you skip the config* stage then
kbuild will pull in the "best" config file it can find.  You can get the
results by jumping straight into make all
 
> Assuming 'yes' ... this would mean I could just do the 'make menuconfig' 
> and compile it and it would run right???
> 
> [It DOESN'T just 'work' if you're wondering ...]
> 
> More stumbling around ....
> 
> Where's the cliff edge ...

It's abig change from 2.4 to 2.6 the easyest way to do it is
unpack the linux-2.6.4.tar.gz file in /usr/src
cd linux-2.6.4
make all install modules_install

Then fix grub/lilo to boot the new kernel.

The biggest gotcha is you need new/differrnt module utils for 2.4 and
2.6.  I don't know if they're available in stable (they certainly are in
unstable).  If you can't find a stable package for "module-init-tools"
then you'll need to grab and install them /before/ doing the kernel
compile/install.

You can get them from:
	http://ftp.au.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/module-init-tools/module-init-tools-3.0.tar.gz

Basically unpack the tgz
./configure --prefix=/
make
make moveold
make install
echo "modutils hold" | dpkg --set-selections[1]

Now build and install your kernel.

HTH

Yours Tony

[1] This will stop debian from updateing your module tools, which means
you miss out on bugfixes\/security updates in modutils.  There is
probbaly a better way of doing this but it worked for me.

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