Custom Kernel HOWTO

[Mandar Deodhar]

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 23:54:58 -0400, William Sullivan
<sulli219 at chartermi.net> wrote:

> Could anyone point me the way of a straight forward HOW TO on building a 
> custom kernel.  I have found a few but they were a little confusing.  
> Thanks

* Download kernel image - latest is 2.6.4 from www.kernel.org
* extract them in /usr/src - u'll have sources of kernel 2.4. something in
that directory already.
* upgrade modutils tools to latest version.
* goto 2.6.4 directory
* do the following
- make mrproper (this cleans intermediate files which r created when u
run make. if u r doing it first time then this is not required.)
- make moveold (backup previous kernel)
- make select one of <xconfig, gconfig or menuconfig> e.g. make xconfig
select your processor configuration, network card, sound, video card
driver etc. Unselect things you dont want. Dont forget to select  support
for ext3 file system as 'ticked' and not in module form.
- make (just make to make the kernel .. this will take several minutes)
- make modules_install (make modules)
get a package called module-init-tools and extract it, make it and
- run ./generate-modprobe.conf /etc/modules.conf

__________
   Red Hat( and Fedora) users will have to patch the "/etc/rc.sysinit"
script to set
    "/proc/sys/kernel/modprobe" to "/sbin/modprobe"
__________

- make install (to copy files to target location .. e.g. /boot etc)
- reboot.
You will find entry in bootloader namely Fedora something 2.6.4 select it
and enjoy if it works properly.

- This will make X, Lan card/modem , or basic devices working. For sound
if it is giving problems, search google for device specific help. there
are many solutions, some of them work - requires luck... no one can be
sure of what *exactly* works. "Automation increases faith in God" ;-)

In case of problems, you can mail me personaly.

-Mandar Deodhar
1st year MTech Student,
KReSIT, IIT Bombay.