[Novalug] Kernel Compiles

[Maxwell Spangler]

On Mon, 2010-04-12 at 12:55 -0700, Aaron Porter wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 7:49 PM, Maxwell Spangler
> <maxlists at maxwellspangler.com> wrote:
> > Despite starting with Linux around 1992 and compiling kernels so often I
> > could do it without thinking, yesterday I couldn't even figure out what
> > rpm package contained the source code.  The process is now drastically
> > different from what it once was and the guides I found online repeatedly
> > caution you away from recompiling as though you're working with
> > explosives.
> 
> I think you're talking about two different tasks:
> 
> 1) Compiling a kernel
> 2) Packaging a compiled kernel for your distribution of choice
> 
> Compiling a kernel, while the underlying tools have grown a ton, still
> works almost exactly like it did years and years ago. A couple
> advances like 'make oldconfig' have even simplified it.

You are probably right.  It was this page that I used as my guide that
suggests a fairly different approach than the long ago days of simpler
compiles.

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Custom_Kernel 

I completed my kernel rebuild the other night but I was surprised by:

* Difficulty in finding kernel source; yum -y install kernel-source
didn't work and I had to go looking for it.

* Compiling as a normal user (not root) was something I'd never seen
before

* Editing spec files was never necessary in the past

* Building an rpm as the output in order to rpm -ivh the new kernel was
a new, but intelligent approach compared to building vmlinuz and simply
copying the new vmlinuz into /boot

Overall, the process, as you suggest, wasn't that bad, just not what I
had mastered in the past and considered simple for the complexity of
tasks involved.

And any time you're trying to learn or re-learn something, guide
statements like "Are you SURE you want to do this?" aren't encouraging!

I mean, of course I want to rm -fr, otherwise, why would I be typing it,
in /, as root.. :-)

-- 
Maxwell Spangler
========================================================================
        Linux, Unix and Database Administration
        Currently: Boulder, Colorado
        LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellspangler