On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Intelligent Dynamic wrote: > Using Debian Woody... I've installed the kernel source and packages > (unpacked the kernel and applied a patch to it) ... > > I'm about to compile and make a new kernel the traditional way, however I > can remember someone saying an easier way to do it under Debian?
Hi Mike, The traditional way is good, especially for learning, and if you want only the stuff you need. However, it can mean recompiling later on when you find that you need some module you didn't think you needed, like for a new card in the box, or when you find you missed something out, or when it doesn't boot ;-) The alternative is to install a precompiled kernel, which comes with lots of modules or compiled-in components. Most stuff comes as modules, and you basically get all the modules. So you save on kernel source space, and since all the modules are there, you often don't have to worry about the kernel too much again, unless you have specialised needs. Clearly there are some choices in building a kernel that are determined by the kind of computer you have, such as the processor type, and whether or not you use SCSI, and of course many other things. Typically binary kernels come in several varieties to account for this variation. It is only practical to distribute a limited number of packages of differently configured binary kernels, before it is better for people to do their own for specialised needs. So in practice you have to reach a compromise and pick a binary kernel that is close enough, e.g a K7 kernel for an average K7 style PC. On Debian, apt is very useful. Debian packages binary kernels as "kernel-image-*" and kernel sources as "kernel-source-*". To search the package cache for packages starting with kernel-image: # apt-cache search ^kernel-image The other reference you might have noticed was to make-kpkg. This is a way of making your own binary kernel debian package from a configured source tree, which is cool. Let me know if this is off the track ... Patrick Lesslie -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
