On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 10:02:48AM -0300, Pekka Horttanainen wrote:
> My question is, is there any difference in just building the new kernel
> versus building also the API headers from the new kernel? I'm a novice in
> linux building so I tried to search the internet and lfs-support archives
> but did not find a clear "novice" answer, the discussion was between more
> experienced users. I don't mind building the whole system from scratch (or
> from API headers) but I'd like to know the exact difference since new kernel
> versions appear quite frequently. Also, what effect updating kernel will
> have to the packages built with older kernel (in BLFS), is there a need to
> rebuild them?
>
The only reason to install the kernel headers ("building the API
headers") is because you intend to build a new libc (and if you do
that, you have committed yourself to rebuilding the whole system).
In theory, you can just upgrade to a newer kernel and everything
should work (and there is definitely no reason to rebuild all the
applications). Let me turn this around _slightly_ : it's always a
good idea to build a new kernel, and then to test it with the things
which matter to you (applications, connectivity, power management,
whatever) before deciding it is good enough to build a new system.
Keeping the kernel up to date helps reduce the number of known
vulnerabilities you have to worry about.
Building a newer system is a bigger effort. Sometimes, changes in
the kernel headers break the compilation of applications. Even
changes in stable kernels can do this.
ĸen
--
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