It’s useful manual if you want to compile kernel from sources in Debian environment.
Get all required software over apt-get:
# apt-get install kernel-package ncurses-dev fakeroot wget bzip2 module-init-tools initrd-tools procps
Next, get latest linux kernel from kernel.org :
# cd /usr/src # wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.30.tar.bz2
you can also done it over apt-get as well:
# apt-get install linux-source
Extract it:
# tar -xjvf linux-2.6.30.tar.bz2
and make symbolic link pointed out your sources and go there:
# ln -s linux-2.6.30.tar.bz2 linux # cd linux
Configure your new kernel with
make menuconfig
or
make oldconfig
or
# make xconfig
and so on.
After you will finished. Run :
# make-kpkg clean # fakeroot make-kpkg --revision=kernel_name-version kernel_image
Where is kernel_name-version – kernel name and version(e.g.: custom-1.0).
If compilation done without errors. Go to the /usr/src and install new kernel over
dpkg
tool:
# cd /usr/src # dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.30.2_custom-1.0_i386.deb
Create ramdisk from new kernel :
# cd /boot/ # mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30 2.6.30
Last one step is loader configuration. I will describe how to do this for two most popular(grub and lilo) loaders. If you have lilo loader just add new section into the /etc/lilo.conf and edit directive default. Like this:
default=MYKERN
image=/vmlinuz
label=MYKERN
read-only
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.30
Now, install new loader at boot sector:
# lilo -c /etc/lilo.conf
In case of GRUB loader. Put next section into the /boot/grub/menu.lst file:
title My Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.30 root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30 root=/dev/sda1 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30
For GRUB loader no installs is require.
After loader section done well you have to restart you machine:
# reboot
Check you current kernel version with uname if during your booting time no problems were occurred:
# uname -r 2.6.30
If it’s matched with you installed kernel version then you done everything right.
