On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Alan Cox wrote:
> > moment. The real question, Doug, is why doesn't RH provide "make
> > install"-ready kernel sources in /usr/src/linux, installed by default,
> > in the 5.2 installation? To quote from the GPL:
>
> It does.
I must have missed it. I did a standard follow-the-yellow-brick-road
install, and I could have sworn that all there was in my
/usr/src/linux-2.0.36-0.7 was an include directory. Yup, that's all
that's there even now. Now I know a fair amount about linux and know
how to find kernel sources (or even kernel source RPM's) and how to
alter them to build a custom kernel or an SMP kernel but your typical
new user has no idea how to go about doing these things. When I say "by
default" I mean "without a user having to do anything or even
necessarily knowing that he/she made a choice".
Obviously I'm not alone in wanting this -- three or four people (so far)
have responded that they agree with me. Obviously this wasn't done on
the Dell systems that started the whole thread as well, or the RH
support people could have said something like "Uncomment SMP=1, make
dep;make clean;make bzImage, run installboot" and that would have been
the end of it. Are the RH people perhaps not aware that this does not
happen "by default" (as defined above)?
The thing that really annoyed me at the time (when I first realized that
I needed to build a new kernel) is that the default /usr/src/linux holds
the minimal include, but doesn't even have the .config file and/or a
README directing one to the "real" RH 2.0.36-0.7 sources or RPM and how
to install them/it. As a RH novice I had no idea where to look for
them. So I went to ftp.kernel.org and rebuilt from a clean copy (and
did the 2.2.x upgrade ditto) making guesses as to the .config
(everything possible a module, basically). Seemed to work (after I
messed around here and there, guessing at what was done by the RH
install process).
> The source rpm includes the base package as distributed by Linus, the PCMCIA
> add ons, the various RH applied patches each seperated so you can if you wish
> just apply a few, the and instructions for building it as is used.
Good. Now could you arrange for the kernel source RPM to be installed
by default when one does a standard installation? Or at least have a
question pop up like "install kernel sources (recommended)?" in the
standard install scripts? Maybe there was one and I missed it, but I
installed two or three times and don't >>think<< that I missed it.
rgb
Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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