logo © 1996 Phil Waclawski
Felitaur Site
Offerings
About Me
Crafts
Services
ftp files
Help Files
What's New?
Home Page
Other Links
Anatomy &
Physiology
Arthropods
Biology
Computers
Ferrets
Fun Links
Internet
Linux
S.C.A.
Win 95/NT
Comments or
Suggestions
webmaster@ felitaur.com
   
Week 8 for CIS126DL Linux Administration Course
Lecture Overview Index | Linux SysAdmin Homepage
Overview
Kernel ReCompiling

The following commands/programs will be used/discussed this week:

make
cd /usr/src/linux/ (or /usr/src/linux-2.x.x)
make mrproper
make config vs. make menuconfig (gconfig and xconfig don't work ?)
patch -p0
diff and colordiff (yum install colordiff)
make dep
make clean
make zImage vs make BzImage
make modules
make modules_install
make install
lilo
grub
ldd
ldconfig and /etc/ld.so.conf
depmod -a and the file modprobe.dep (which is not in /etc)
insmod and modprobe, with modules.conf (which IS in /etc)
mkbootdisk
mkbootdisk --device /boot/newkern.iso --iso 2.6.xxxx.EL
(Make sure you get the FULL kernel version number from the /boot directory, which is the part AFTER vmlinux- and should start with 2.6, and on Centos, end with .el5)

Questions
Give 3 reasons you may want to recompile the kernel.
What do the different config options do?
What are patches? How are they created?
What do the following do?
make dep
make clean

Questions after this point are not important for class at this time.

You have recompiled your kernel. What do you do now? (how/why do you use the following). make modules
lilo.conf and the lilo program (Or Grub now)
place kernel image where?
Your computer has 256Megs of ram, yet Linux only finds 64Megs at boot up. How would you edit lilo.conf to correct that?
You want lilo to be able to load the new and the old kernel. How and why?

Activities & Assignments

  1. THIS IS OPTIONAL!!!
  2. Run 'make xconfig' (or possibly 'make menuconfig')
  3. Check out the various options
  4. Why do they ask y n m ??
  5. Remove things that you don't feel are necessary.
  6. run make dep and make clean
  7. run make zImage
  8. WHERE did it stick your new kernel?
  9. What size is your old kernel? How big is the new one?
  10. What are modules? How do you use them?
Resources
Check out the various web page resources on the Linux System Administration home page.