Randall R Schulz wrote:
> [...]
> 
> It did not seem to lead me totally astray. I went with the suggestion of 
> creating an RPM (because I was using one computer to do the build but 
> the result was intended primarily for my friend's computer). This is 
> where things fell down, probably because I don't know enough about how 
> kernel RPMs work, what happens when they're installed. How the source 
> RPM is fabricated (in particular, why I can have more than one kernel 
> but apparently only one set of kernel sources installed at any one 
> time).

A "make rpm" creates (AFAIK) only a very basic RPM package. If you
really need to build a proper RPM package for your SuSE system, then
I recommend using the SuSE Kernel Source src.rpm and making changes therein.

> If you know of better resources for newbie kernel builders, I'd love to 
> hear about them.

I wrote a kernel howto (actually this project started in 2002) which I
think is well known among German-speaking Linux users - I get quite a
lot of positive feedback. However, since it's written in German it might
not be particularly helpful for you...

> [...some suggestions...]
>
> I think it's too minimal for practical purposes, especially if you want 
> to transport the new kernel to another system.

True. I thought you only wanted to change your local machine.

> [...]
> When I ran menuconfig I gave the configuration a variant name, but 
> somehow I still didn't get a new build directory.

I think this is something different. A build directory is where you
build the actual object files, modules, etc. and the final kernel image.
In principle, /usr/src/linux-obj (or a subdirectory, respectively) is
such a build directory - when using a build directory, you separate all
the files created during a build from the source tree (the kernel source
tree is always a clean tree). If I understood you correctly, then you
wanted to give your new kernel a unique kernel release (which in general
is a good idea when compiling your own kernel). This would translate
into a new /lib/modules/ subdirectory. Did you mean such a directory? Or
really a build directory?

>From the info I've seen so far, it's difficult to say what might be
wrong with your approach and why the vmware script fails on the other
machine. I think, there are several approaches to tackle the problem:
a) build your own complete kernel with USB_DEVICEFS enabled (via "make
   rpm" etc.)
b) build your own complete kernel via src.rpm (default config adjusted)
c) only build a new usbcore.ko module for the standard SuSE kernel,
   copy it or package it as RPM, and install it on the other machine(s)
d) ...

>From my point of view, c) might be the quickest and easiest solution as
it does not require to install a complete new kernel, kernel sources,
etc. on the other machine (remember, if you install a completely new
kernel, you or the RPM package also need to take care of the initrd,
bootloader configuration, etc.). You would only replace a single kernel
module in the SuSE standard installation. However, it seems as if you've
already managed to install and boot a new kernel and it's now only the
vmware part that's going wrong. Correct?

Cheers, Th.



-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to