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Kernel

Módulos del Kernel Linux

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Fuente: http://web.mit.edu/rhel-doc/3/rhel-sag-es-3/ch-kernel-modules.html

El kernel de Linux tiene un diseño modular. En el momento de arranque, sólo se carga un kernel residente mínimo en memoria. Por ello, cuando un usuario solicita alguna característica que no esta presente en el kernel residente, se carga dinámicamente en memoria un módulo kernel, también conocido algunas veces como un controlador.

Durante la instalación, se prueba el hardware en el sistema. Basado en esta prueba y en la información proporcionada por el usuario, el programa de instalación decide qué módulos necesita cargar en el momento de arranque. El programa de instalación configura el mecanismo de carga dinámica para que funcione de forma transparente.

Si se añade un nuevo hardware después de la instalación y este requiere un módulo kernel, el sistema debe ser configurado para cargar el módulo adecuado para el nuevo hardware. Cuando el sistema es arrancado con el nuevo hardware, se ejecuta el programa Kudzu detecta el nuevo hardware si es soportado y configura el módulo necesario para él. El módulo tambíen puede ser especificado manualmente modificando el archivo de configuración del módulo, /etc/modules.conf.

 

Nota Nota
Los módulos de tarjetas de vídeo usados para desplegar la interfaz del sistema X Window son parte del paquete XFree86, no del kernel; por lo tanto, este capítulo no se aplica a ellos.

Por ejemplo, si un sistema incluye un adaptador de red SMC EtherPower 10 PCI, el archivo de configuración del módulo contiene la línea siguiente:

alias eth0 tulip

Si una segunda tarjeta de red es añadida al sistema y es idéntica a la primera tarjeta, añada la línea siguiente al archivo /etc/modules.conf:

alias eth1 tulip

Consulte el Manual de referencia de Red Hat Enterprise Linux para una lista alfabética de módulos de kernel y hardware soportado por los módulos.

Nota: Kernels antiguos.

40.1. Utilidades del módulo del kernel

Está disponible un grupo de comandos para el manejo de módulos kernel si el paquete modutils está instalado. Use estos comandos para determinar si un módulo ha sido cargado exitósamente o cuando se esté probando módulos diferentes para una nueva pieza de hardware.

El comando /sbin/lsmod muestra una lista de los módulos cargados actualmente. Por ejemplo:

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
iptable_filter          2412   0 (autoclean) (unused)
ip_tables              15864   1 [iptable_filter]
nfs                    84632   1 (autoclean)
lockd                  59536   1 (autoclean) [nfs]
sunrpc                 87452   1 (autoclean) [nfs lockd]
soundcore               7044   0 (autoclean)
ide-cd                 35836   0 (autoclean)
cdrom                  34144   0 (autoclean) [ide-cd]
parport_pc             19204   1 (autoclean)
lp                      9188   0 (autoclean)
parport                39072   1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
autofs                 13692   0 (autoclean) (unused)
e100                   62148   1
microcode               5184   0 (autoclean)
keybdev                 2976   0 (unused)
mousedev                5656   1
hid                    22308   0 (unused)
input                   6208   0 [keybdev mousedev hid]
usb-uhci               27468   0 (unused)
usbcore                82752   1 [hid usb-uhci]
ext3                   91464   2
jbd                    56336   2 [ext3]

Por cada línea, la primera columna es el nombre del módulo, la segunda columna es el tamaño del módulo y la tercera es el recuento de usos.

La información después del recuento de usos varía un poco por módulo. Si se lista (unused) en la línea del módulo, el módulo no está siendo usado actualmente. Si (autoclean) está en la línea para el módulo, este puede ser limpiado automáticamente por el comando rmmod -a. Cuando se ejecuta este comando, cualquier módulo que este etiquetado con autoclean, que no ha sido usado desde la acción previa de autoclean, será descargado. Red Hat Enterprise Linux no realiza esta acción de autoclean por defecto.

Si el nombre de un módulo esta listado al final de la línea entre corchetes, el módulo entre corchetes es dependiente del módulo listado en la primera columna de la línea. Por ejemplo, en la línea

usbcore                82752   1 [hid usb-uhci]

los módulo del kernel hid usb-uhci dependen del módulo usbcore.

La salida /sbin/lsmod es la misma que la salida de /proc/modules.

Para cargar un módulo del kernel, use el comando /sbin/modprobe seguido del nombre del módulo. Por defecto, modprobe intenta cargar el módulo desde los subdirectorios/lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel/drivers/. Hay un subdirectorio para cada tipo de módulo, tal como el subdirectorio net/ para los controladores de interfaces de red. Algunos módulos del kernel tienen dependencias, es decir que otros módulos deben ser cargados antes para que el otro se cargue. El comando /sbin/modprobe verifica estas dependencias y carga los módulos necesarios antes de cargar el módulo específico.

Por ejemplo, el comando

/sbin/modprobe hid

carga cualquier dependencia de módulos y luego el módulo hid.

Para imprimir a la pantalla todos los comandos a medida en que /sbin/modprobe los ejecuta, use la opción -v. Por ejemplo:

/sbin/modprobe -v hid

Se despliega una salida similar a lo siguiente:

/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.4.21-1.1931.2.399.ent/kernel/drivers/usb/hid.o
Using /lib/modules/2.4.21-1.1931.2.399.ent/kernel/drivers/usb/hid.o
Symbol version prefix 'smp_'

El comando /sbin/insmod también existe para cargar módulos kernel; sin embargo no resuelve dependencias. Por ello se recomienda el uso de /sbin/modprobe.

Para descargar módulos del kernel, use el comando /sbin/rmmod seguido por el nombre del módulo. La utilidad rmmod sólo descarga módulos que ya no son usados y que no son una dependencia de otro módulo en uso.

Por ejemplo, el comando

/sbin/rmmod hid

baja el módulo del kernel hid.

Otra utilidad muy conveniente es modinfo. Use el comando /sbin/modinfo para mostrar información sobre el módulo del kernel. La sintaxis general es:

/sbin/modinfo [options] <module>

Las opciones incluyen -d, lo cual muestra una breve descripción del módulo, y -p lo que lista los parámetros que el módulo soporta. Para una lista completa de las opciones, consulte la página del manual de modinfo (man modinfo).

How To Compile A Kernel – The Fedora Way

FUENTE: http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_fedora

Each distribution has some specific tools to build a custom kernel from the sources. This article is about compiling a kernel on Fedora systems. It describes how to build a custom kernel using the latest unmodified kernel sources fromwww.kernel.org (vanilla kernel) so that you are independent from the kernels supplied by your distribution. It also shows how to patch the kernel sources if you need features that are not in there.

I have tested this on Fedora Core 6.

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

 

1 Preliminary Note

In this article I will describe two ways of building a kernel for Fedora systems. The first one is Fedora-specific, and in the end you will have a kernel rpm package that you can install or share with others. The second way is the same for all Linux distributions, but you don’t end up with an rpm package.

I prefer to do all the steps here as the root user. However, it’s possible to run most commands as a non-privileged user (e.g. user tom). Some commands such as yum orrpm still require root privileges, so you should add tom (or whatever your username is) to /etc/sudoers by running

visudo

Add this line:

tom  ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now whenever you run a command that requires root privileges, such as

yum install fedora-rpmdevtools unifdef

the command will tell you so, and you must run

sudo yum install fedora-rpmdevtools unifdef

instead. Remember: you can forget about sudo if you run all commands as root. It’s up to you which way you prefer.

 

2 Building A Kernel rpm Package

This chapter shows how to build a kernel and end up with an rpm package that you can install and share with others.

 

2.1 Create Your rpmbuild Directory

Create your rpmbuild directory as follows:

cd ~
cp -a /usr/src/redhat/ rpmbuild
echo ‘%_topdir %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild’ >> .rpmmacros

Then install the required packages for building rpm packages

yum install fedora-rpmdevtools unifdef

and run

fedora-buildrpmtree

 

2.2 Download And Install A Fedora Kernel src.rpm

Next we download the latest kernel src.rpm for our Fedora version. For Fedora Core 6, the src.rpm packages are located inhttp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/source/SRPMS/, for Fedora Core 5 it’shttp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/5/source/SRPMS/, and so on.

The latest Fedora Core 6 kernel src.rpm is kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.src.rpm, so we download and install it now:

cd /usr/src
wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/source/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.src.rpm
rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.src.rpm

If you see these warnings:

warning: user brewbuilder does not exist – using root
warning: group brewbuilder does not exist – using root

you can ignore them.

We have just installed the kernel sources for the 2.6.18 kernel together with lots of Fedora patches and a patch for kernel 2.6.18.1, so if we continued to build a kernel from this src.rpm we’d end up with kernel 2.6.18.1.

 

2.3 Patch The Kernel

Instead of kernel 2.6.18.1 I want to install kernel 2.6.18.2. The src.rpm we installed came with kernel 2.6.18 plus a patch for kernel 2.6.18.1. We will now replace that patch with the patch for kernel 2.6.18.2.

cd ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/patch-2.6.18.2.bz2

You could also use the http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/patch-2.6.19-rc5.bz2 prepatch if you want to end up with kernel 2.6.19-rc5. Please note that this works only for prepatches, i.e. patches for kernels that aren’t available in a final version yet, such as the 2.6.19 kernel. You can apply that patch to the 2.6.18 kernel sources, but not to kernel 2.6.18.1 or 2.6.18.2, etc. This is explained on http://kernel.org/patchtypes/pre.html:

Prepatches are the equivalent to alpha releases for Linux; they live in the testing directories in the archives. They should be applied using the patch(1) utility to the source code of the previous full release with a 3-part version number (for example, the 2.6.12-rc4 prepatch should be applied to the 2.6.11 kernel sources, not, for example, 2.6.11.10.)

Now we must modify the kernel-2.6.spec file so that it knows about our new kernel patch:

cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/

vi kernel-2.6.spec

Search for the line

Patch1: patch-2.6.18.1.bz2

and replace it with this one:

Patch1: patch-2.6.18.2.bz2

(or whatever patch you downloaded before).

Then run

rpmbuild -bp kernel-2.6.spec

(If you want to build the kernel for a specific architecture such as i386, i586, i686, or x86_64, you can do it like this:

rpmbuild -bp –target=i686 kernel-2.6.spec

I don’t specify it in this example and end up with a i386 kernel here. Your system might build a kernel for a different architecture instead if you don’t specify it, so keep this in mind when you follow this tutorial.)

Now comes the tricky part. The src.rpm comes with a lot of Fedora-specific patches. Some of them don’t work with our 2.6.18.2 patch, so if you see something like this in the rpmbuild output:

+ echo ‘Patch #300 (linux-2.6-ppc-dac960-ipr-clash.patch):’
Patch #300 (linux-2.6-ppc-dac960-ipr-clash.patch):
+ patch -p1 -s
Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected! Assume -R? [n]
Apply anyway? [n]
1 out of 1 hunk ignored — saving rejects to file drivers/block/DAC960.c.rej
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.46287 (%prep)

RPM build errors:
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.46287 (%prep)

you must edit kernel-2.6.spec again and comment out the patch #300:

vi kernel-2.6.spec

[...]
#Patch300: linux-2.6-ppc-dac960-ipr-clash.patch
[...]
#%patch300 -p1
[...]

Then run your rpmbuild command again, e.g.

rpmbuild -bp kernel-2.6.spec

You must repeat this over and over until there are no more patches that fail to be applied.

 

2.4 Specify A Kernel Identification String

Now we should specify a string that allows us to identify our kernel later on. Therefore we do this:

cd ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-2.6.18/linux-2.6.18.i386
vi Makefile

In the EXTRAVERSION line, you can put the kernel identification. I think it’s good to append the kernel version to that string, so something like this is ok:

EXTRAVERSION = -custom-2.6.18.2

 

2.5 Configure The Kernel

Now we run

make menuconfig

which brings up the kernel configuration menu. Go to Load an Alternate Configuration File and choose .config as the configuration file:

Then browse through the kernel configuration menu and make your choices. When you are finished and select Exit, answer the following question (Do you wish to save your new kernel configuration?) with Yes:

 

2.6 Build The Kernel

Now we build our kernel rpm package by simply running

make rpm

Afterwards you will find a new src.rpm package in the ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS/ directory, e.g. ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.18custom2.6.18.2-1.src.rpm, and the kernel rpm package in ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i386/ (or ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i586/, ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i686/, etc. depending on your architecture), e.g. ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i386/kernel-2.6.18custom2.6.18.2-1.i386.rpm. As you see your kernel identification has been added to the package name.

 

2.7 Install The New Kernel

Now go the directory where your new kernel rpm package has been created (depending on your architecture, e.g. ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i386/), and install the rpm package:

cd ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i386
rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.18custom2.6.18.2-1.i386.rpm

(You can now even transfer the rpm package to other Fedora systems and install them there exactly the same way, which means you don’t have to compile the kernel there again.)

Next we create a ramdisk for our new kernel, because otherwise the system will most likely not boot our new kernel:

mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-custom-2.6.18.2.img 2.6.18-custom-2.6.18.2

Then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. Have a look at your existing (working) kernel stanzas there and take one of them as a sample for your new stanza and replace the kernel and ramdisk, then add the stanza above all other stanzas.

vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

For example, my menu.lst looks like this before I add the new stanza:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

and like this afterwards:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Fedora Core (2.6.18-custom-2.6.18.2)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-custom-2.6.18.2 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-custom-2.6.18.2.img

title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

(You can find out about the right vmlinuz and initrd files by running

ls -l /boot

)

Now reboot the system:

shutdown -r now

If everything goes well, it should come up with the new kernel. You can check if it’s really using your new kernel by running

uname -r

This should display something like

2.6.18-custom-2.6.18.2

If the system doesn’t start, restart it, and when you see this:

press any key to enter the GRUB menu:

Select your old kernel and start the system. You can now try again to compile a working kernel. Don’t forget to remove the stanza of the not-working kernel from/boot/grub/menu.lst.

3 Building A Kernel The Traditional Way

This chapter describes a different approach that can be used on any Linux system. As there’s nothing Fedora-specific in this, of course you will not end up with a kernel rpm package.

 

3.1 Download The Kernel Sources

We download our desired kernel to /usr/src. Go to www.kernel.org and select the kernel you want to install, e.g. linux-2.6.18.2.tar.bz2 (you can find all 2.6 kernels here: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/). Then you can download it to /usr/src like this:

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.18.2.tar.bz2

Then we unpack the kernel sources and create a symlink linux to the kernel sources directory:

tar xjf linux-2.6.18.2.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-2.6.18.2 linux
cd /usr/src/linux

 

3.2 Apply Patches To The Kernel Sources (Optional)

Sometimes you need drivers for hardware that isn’t supported by the new kernel by default, or you need support for virtualization techniques or some other bleeding-edge technology that hasn’t made it to the kernel yet. In all these cases you have to patch the kernel sources (provided there is a patch available…).

Now let’s assume you have downloaded the needed patch (I call it patch.bz2 in this example) to /usr/src. This is how you apply it to your kernel sources (you must still be in the /usr/src/linux directory):

bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch.bz2 | patch -p1 –dry-run
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch.bz2 | patch -p1

The first command is just a test, it does nothing to your sources. If it doesn’t show errors, you can run the second command which actually applies the patch. Don’t do it if the first command shows errors!

You can also apply kernel prepatches to your kernel sources. For example, if you need a feature that is available only in kernel 2.6.19-rc5, but the full sources haven’t been released yet for this kernel. Instead, a patch-2.6.19-rc5.bz2 is available. You can apply that patch to the 2.6.18 kernel sources, but not to kernel 2.6.18.1 or2.6.18.2, etc. This is explained on http://kernel.org/patchtypes/pre.html:

Prepatches are the equivalent to alpha releases for Linux; they live in the testing directories in the archives. They should be applied using the patch(1) utility to the source code of the previous full release with a 3-part version number (for example, the 2.6.12-rc4 prepatch should be applied to the 2.6.11 kernel sources, not, for example, 2.6.11.10.)

So if you want to compile a 2.6.19-rc5 kernel, you must download the 2.6.18 kernel sources (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.18.tar.bz2) in step 3.1 instead of kernel 2.6.18.2!

This is how you apply the 2.6.19-rc5 patch to kernel 2.6.18:

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/patch-2.6.19-rc5.bz2
cd /usr/src/linux
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch-2.6.19-rc5.bz2 | patch -p1 –dry-run
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch-2.6.19-rc5.bz2 | patch -p1

 

3.3 Configure The Kernel

It’s a good idea to use the configuration of your current working kernel as a basis for your new kernel. Therefore we copy the existing configuration to /usr/src/linux:

make mrproper
cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config

Then we run

make menuconfig

which brings up the kernel configuration menu. Go to Load an Alternate Configuration File and choose .config (which contains the configuration of your current working kernel) as the configuration file:

Then browse through the kernel configuration menu and make your choices. When you are finished and select Exit, answer the following question (Do you wish to save your new kernel configuration?) with Yes:

 

3.4 Build And Install The Kernel

To build and install the kernel, execute these three commands:

make all
make modules_install
make install

Now be patient, the kernel compilation can take some hours, depending on your kernel configuration and your processor speed. The last command will also automatically create a ramdisk for you as well as configure /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Now edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. You should find a stanza for your new kernel at the top of the list, but to make sure that the new kernel gets booted instead of your old one, you must set the value of default to 0.

vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

My menu.lst looks like this:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Fedora Core (2.6.18.2)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18.2 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18.2.img

title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

Now reboot the system:

shutdown -r now

If everything goes well, it should come up with the new kernel. You can check if it’s really using your new kernel by running

uname -r

This should display something like

2.6.18.2

If the system doesn’t start, restart it, and when you see this:

press any key to enter the GRUB menu:

Select your old kernel and start the system. You can now try again to compile a working kernel. Don’t forget to remove the stanza of the not-working kernel from/boot/grub/menu.lst.

 

4 Links

How To Compile A Kernel – Debian Etch

  • admin 

FUENTE: http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_debian_etch

Each distribution has some specific tools to build a custom kernel from the sources. This article is about compiling a kernel on a Debian Etch system. It describes how to build a custom kernel using the latest unmodified kernel sources fromwww.kernel.org (vanilla kernel) so that you are independent from the kernels supplied by your distribution. It also shows how to patch the kernel sources if you need features that are not in there.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I will describe two ways of compiling a new kernel. Using the first method, you will end up with a kernel .deb package that can be installed on the system, and that you can share with others and install on other Debian Etch systems.

The second method is to compile a kernel the «traditional» way. This way works on any Linux distribution, but of course you don’t end up with a kernel .deb package.

2 Building A Kernel .deb Package

This chapter shows how to build a kernel and end up with a .deb package that you can install and share with others.

2.1 Install Required Packages For Kernel Compilation

First we update our package database:

apt-get update

Then we install all needed packages like this:

apt-get install kernel-package libncurses5-dev fakeroot wget bzip2 build-essential

2.2 Download The Kernel Sources

Next we download our desired kernel to /usr/src. Go to www.kernel.org and select the kernel you want to install, e.g. linux-2.6.21.3.tar.bz2 (you can find all 2.6 kernels here: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/). Then you can download it to /usr/src like this:

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.21.3.tar.bz2

Then we unpack the kernel sources and create a symlink linux to the kernel sources directory:

tar xjf linux-2.6.21.3.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-2.6.21.3 linux
cd /usr/src/linux

2.3 Apply Patches To The Kernel Sources (Optional)

Sometimes you need drivers for hardware that isn’t supported by the new kernel by default, or you need support for virtualization techniques or some other bleeding-edge technology that hasn’t made it to the kernel yet. In all these cases you have to patch the kernel sources (provided there is a patch available…).

Now let’s assume you have downloaded the needed patch (I call it patch.bz2 in this example) to /usr/src. This is how you apply it to your kernel sources (you must still be in the /usr/src/linux directory):

bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch.bz2 | patch -p1 –dry-run
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch.bz2 | patch -p1

The first command is just a test, it does nothing to your sources. If it doesn’t show errors, you can run the second command which actually applies the patch. Don’t do it if the first command shows errors!

You can also apply kernel prepatches to your kernel sources. For example, if you need a feature that is available only in kernel 2.6.22-rc3, but the full sources haven’t been released yet for this kernel. Instead, a patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2 is available. You can apply that patch to the 2.6.21 kernel sources, but not to kernel 2.6.21.1 or 2.6.21.2, etc. This is explained on http://kernel.org/patchtypes/pre.html:

Prepatches are the equivalent to alpha releases for Linux; they live in the testing directories in the archives. They should be applied using the patch(1) utility to the source code of the previous full release with a 3-part version number (for example, the 2.6.12-rc4 prepatch should be applied to the 2.6.11 kernel sources, not, for example, 2.6.11.10.)

So if you want to compile a 2.6.22-rc3 kernel, you must download the 2.6.21 kernel sources (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2) in step 3 instead of kernel 2.6.21.3!

This is how you apply the 2.6.22-rc3 patch to kernel 2.6.21:

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2
cd /usr/src/linux
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2 | patch -p1 –dry-run
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2 | patch -p1

2.4 Configure The Kernel

It’s a good idea to use the configuration of your current working kernel as a basis for your new kernel. Therefore we copy the existing configuration to /usr/src/linux:

make clean && make mrproper
cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config

Then we run

make menuconfig

which brings up the kernel configuration menu. Go to Load an Alternate Configuration File and choose .config (which contains the configuration of your current working kernel) as the configuration file:

Then browse through the kernel configuration menu and make your choices. When you are finished and select Exit, answer the following question (Do you wish to save your new kernel configuration?) with Yes:

2.5 Build The Kernel

To build the kernel, execute these two commands:

make-kpkg clean
fakeroot make-kpkg –initrd –append-to-version=-custom kernel_image kernel_headers

After –append-to-version= you can write any string that helps you identify the kernel, but it must begin with a minus (-) and must not contain whitespace.

Now be patient, the kernel compilation can take some hours, depending on your kernel configuration and your processor speed.

2.6 Install The New Kernel

After the successful kernel build, you can find two .deb packages in the /usr/src directory.

cd /usr/src
ls -l

On my test system they were called linux-image-2.6.21.3-custom_2.6.21.3-custom-10.00.Custom_i386.deb (which contains the actual kernel) and linux-headers-2.6.21.3-custom_2.6.21.3-custom-10.00.Custom_i386.deb (which contains files needed if you want to compile additional kernel modules later on). I install them like this:

dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.21.3-custom_2.6.21.3-custom-10.00.Custom_i386.deb
dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.21.3-custom_2.6.21.3-custom-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

(You can now even transfer the two .deb files to other Debian Etch systems and install them there exactly the same way, which means you don’t have to compile the kernel there again.)

That’s it. The GRUB bootloader configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst has been modified automatically, and a ramdisk for the new kernel has been create in /boot.

Now reboot the system:

shutdown -r now

At the boot prompt, select your new kernel (should be selected by default):

If everything goes well, it should come up with the new kernel. You can check if it’s really using your new kernel by running

uname -r

This should display something like

2.6.21.3-custom

If the system doesn’t start, restart it, and select your old kernel at the boot prompt. You can now try again to compile a working kernel. Don’t forget to remove the stanza(s) of the not-working kernel from /boot/grub/menu.lst.

3 Building A Kernel The Traditional Way

This chapter describes a different approach that can be used on any Linux system (apart from details such as creating a ramdisk or updating the bootloader). Of course you will not end up with a kernel .deb package.

3.1 Install Required Packages For Kernel Compilation

First we update our package database:

apt-get update

Then we install all needed packages like this:

apt-get install kernel-package libncurses5-dev fakeroot wget bzip2 build-essential

3.2 Download The Kernel Sources

Next we download our desired kernel to /usr/src. Go to www.kernel.org and select the kernel you want to install, e.g. linux-2.6.21.3.tar.bz2 (you can find all 2.6 kernels here: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/). Then you can download it to /usr/src like this:

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.21.3.tar.bz2

Then we unpack the kernel sources and create a symlink linux to the kernel sources directory:

tar xjf linux-2.6.21.3.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-2.6.21.3 linux
cd /usr/src/linux

3.3 Apply Patches To The Kernel Sources (Optional)

Sometimes you need drivers for hardware that isn’t supported by the new kernel by default, or you need support for virtualization techniques or some other bleeding-edge technology that hasn’t made it to the kernel yet. In all these cases you have to patch the kernel sources (provided there is a patch available…).

Now let’s assume you have downloaded the needed patch (I call it patch.bz2 in this example) to /usr/src. This is how you apply it to your kernel sources (you must still be in the /usr/src/linux directory):

bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch.bz2 | patch -p1 –dry-run
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch.bz2 | patch -p1

The first command is just a test, it does nothing to your sources. If it doesn’t show errors, you can run the second command which actually applies the patch. Don’t do it if the first command shows errors!

You can also apply kernel prepatches to your kernel sources. For example, if you need a feature that is available only in kernel 2.6.22-rc3, but the full sources haven’t been released yet for this kernel. Instead, a patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2 is available. You can apply that patch to the 2.6.21 kernel sources, but not to kernel 2.6.21.1 or 2.6.21.2, etc. This is explained on http://kernel.org/patchtypes/pre.html:

Prepatches are the equivalent to alpha releases for Linux; they live in the testing directories in the archives. They should be applied using the patch(1) utility to the source code of the previous full release with a 3-part version number (for example, the 2.6.12-rc4 prepatch should be applied to the 2.6.11 kernel sources, not, for example, 2.6.11.10.)

So if you want to compile a 2.6.22-rc3 kernel, you must download the 2.6.21 kernel sources (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2) in step 3 instead of kernel 2.6.21.3!

This is how you apply the 2.6.22-rc3 patch to kernel 2.6.21:

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2
cd /usr/src/linux
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2 | patch -p1 –dry-run
bzip2 -dc /usr/src/patch-2.6.22-rc3.bz2 | patch -p1

3.4 Configure The Kernel

It’s a good idea to use the configuration of your current working kernel as a basis for your new kernel. Therefore we copy the existing configuration to /usr/src/linux:

make clean && make mrproper
cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config

Then we run

make menuconfig

which brings up the kernel configuration menu. Go to Load an Alternate Configuration File and choose .config (which contains the configuration of your current working kernel) as the configuration file:

Then browse through the kernel configuration menu and make your choices. When you are finished and select Exit, answer the following question (Do you wish to save your new kernel configuration?) with Yes:

3.5 Build And Install The Kernel

To build the kernel, execute these commands:

make all
make modules_install
make install

Now be patient, the kernel compilation can take some hours, depending on your kernel configuration and your processor speed.

3.6 Post-Installation Steps

The new kernel is now installed, but we still need a ramdisk for our new kernel (otherwise the system will most likely not boot!), and we need to tell the GRUB bootloader about our new kernel.

First, we do this:

depmod 2.6.21.3
apt-get install yaird

Then we create a ramdisk with the following command:

mkinitrd.yaird -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.21.3 2.6.21.3

The GRUB configuration is very easy on Debian Etch. All we have to do is run

update-grub

This will detect the new kernel and ramdisk and update /boot/grub/menu.lst for us.

Now reboot the system:

shutdown -r now

At the boot prompt, select your new kernel (should be selected by default). If everything goes well, it should come up with the new kernel. You can check if it’s really using your new kernel by running

uname -r

This should display something like

2.6.21.3

If the system doesn’t start, restart it, and select your old kernel at the boot prompt. You can now try again to compile a working kernel. Don’t forget to remove the stanza(s) of the not-working kernel from /boot/grub/menu.lst.

4 Links