Ok, just a (not so) quick status update.
For those too lazy to read the entire message, the questions that beg
answering raised in this mail are:
A. Is 64 enough?
B. Is the suggested strategy ok by everyone?
If you didn't understand the questions - tough, read the mail. You can
skip the boring background regarding how RH made their source RPMs for
the kernel. You'll find it ends with a line with asterixes for your
skipping pleasure.
First - this is the first time I am trying to compile a RH kernel. I'll
just give you a quick overview of my findings, I am sorry if this is
nothing new to some (all?) of you.
RH has two kernel sources. One is the "kernel-source-2.2.500.rpm"
(substitue version for whatever is applicable), which installs the
kernel source into /usr/src/linux-2.2.500, and sets a symlink to it from
/usr/src/linux. This RPM is dependant on "kernel-headers-2.2.500.rpm".
The second is the "kernel-2.2.500.src.rpm", which comes from the SRPMS
directory. This one installs to /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES.
The SRPM is an archive of the vanilla kernel, and a whole bunch of
patches that RH applied to this kernel. This is a HUGE pile, and I have
not found any script to automatically apply them. With this large a pile
of patches, I find it highly unlikely that any apply order will do, and
so it can be regarded as impossible to generate the kernel sources from
this list (but it a useful way of knowing which patches RH applied to
their kernel).
The kernel-source RPM is the kernel source tree, already extracted, with
all patches already applied. Why bother with the SRPM then, you ask? The
answer is the .config file. I have only found them on the SRPM tree. If
you want to compile a kernle that is identical to the one arriving with
the kernel-image RPM, you will need them, and I have not been able to
find them in the kernel-source RPM.
************ End of background material **************
My original plan was to install the 2.2.20 kernel. The kernel currently
installed is 2.2.19-6.2.7, and the latest RH supplies for 6.2 is
2.2.19-6.2.12. My course of action was meant to be "get the RH sources,
apply the patch from 2.2.19 to 2.2.20, apply any other patches you want,
and get on with it".
I found out, however, that some of the patches designed to make a 2.2.19
kernel into a 2.2.20 kernel were already applied into 2.2.19-6.2.12. In
particular, the security problem with SYN cookies was already applied.
In addition to that, I got 32 conflicts during the patch process (not a
lot considering the amount of patches RH applied). Since resolving
conflicts is the majour thing I have been doing for the past week at
work, and since it seems the most important patches have been
back-ported, I will opt for a different strategy.
I will compile 2.2.19-6.2.12 as is (with the openwall patch), including
the requested increase in number of allowed loopback mount devices (is
64 enough?). This will be almost identical to the kernel currently
installed, and will therefore, hopefully, not cause any problems.
This is the story. Now, I need your votes. I will probably compile the
kernel tonight. If I don't hear any "Nay"s by tommorow morning, I will
install it. Don't say you weren't warned.....
Shachar
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