On 27 Feb 2002, Bill Moseley wrote:
> I had started the process of building a kernel yesterday before being so
> rudely interrupted by sleep.
>
> I'm currently running 2.2.20 but upgrading to 2.4.17. I had tried once
> before to use a kernel-image, but ended up with a kernel-panic that I never
> followed up on. This system was installed Woody and upgraded to Sid.
>
> I'd like to try using kernel-image-2.4.17-k7 for the experience of using a
> packaged kernel, and then also I'd have a very close .config to start with
> when I want to build my own kernel from source.
> So, I'd like to avoid the kernel panic this time with the
> kernel-image-2.4.17-k7 package. What steps do I need to take to make sure
> I will end up with a bootable image? Someone mentioned that moving to the
> more modular 2.4 kernel might have been the problem - something about not
> setting up initrd?
> I'd also like to also use lilo.conf to be able to select which kernel (I
> can figure this out, but I mention it as I'm not sure if just apt-get'ing
> the kernel-image will do this by default).
> Anyway, last time I just apt-get install kernel-image-2.4.17-k7, but
> perhaps that was not enough. I poked around looking for docs, but mostly
> found info about compiling my own. Any pointers?
Hi Bill,
i would personally not bother at all with the precompiled images. It is a
very straightforward matter to compile your own kernel. You also don't
need a .config file to start with. When you start up make menuconfig or
make xconfig it will present you with its list of default settings. If you
were to make no changes at all but simply exit and save you would get a
default .config. In most cases choosing options using xconfig is very
straightforward, unless you have exotic hardware. You can (and should)
generally turn off entire subsystems which are enabled by default like usb
or sound if you don't have the appropriate hardware. If you need to enable
them, you probably should look at te appropriate howtos (if they exist).
Examples of the kinds of issues that come up are
a) Do I compile it into the kernel or as a module? As a rule of thumb,
devices external to the base system (device drivers etc) are a good choice
to compile as modules. Sometimes they need to be loaded in a particular
order.
b) If you are dualbooting with a Windows installation, you might want to
enable fat32/ntfs filesystem read support.
c) You'll want to disable pcmia if you are not using it. This seems to be
something that doesn't have a proper default. At least it I don't explicly
disable it, the kernel compile process always stops and asks me questions
during compilation.
d) You should enable ext3 support. It is simple to configure and works
fine with 2.4.17.
e) In some cases you can't enable some option till you have enabled
another. It is sometimes not obvious (and not well documented) what that
other option should be.
f) You'll need to need to know in advance which drivers are needed by your
sound card, ethernet card, etc. For this, it can be helpful to have
another networked machine handy so you can use Google.
If you want to send me a copy of your .config (as an email attachment) if
you are not sure about something, and a description of your hardware I can
make specific suggestions. I don't know what initrd is, but that has never
affected me, and I've built kernels on several different systems AMD/Intel
with 100% success (no issues whatsoever). The first time I did it I had
just finished reading the docs and didn't know anything more than you do
now. It is quite easy as long as you are careful. Don't let anyone
convince you otherwise.
Sincerely, Faheem Mitha.
