Compiling kernel 2.6.21
This is an example how to compile a Linux kernel. It has been tested for SUSE Linux 10.2 and kernel 2.6.21, but should work same or similar for every combination.
Holy Toledo, so glad I cilcked on this site first!
Get the code
- Download the kernel from ftp.kernel.org
wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
- unpack the kernel
bunzip linux-2.6.21.tar.bz2
- unpack the kernel for the second time
tar xvf linux-2.6.21.tar
Build it
- configure the kernel
cd linux-2.6.21 make oldconfig
- answer some un-understandable questions
The sense of the step make oldconfig is to tell the kernel its configuration, e.g. which parts should be built as a module, which parts should not be built at all and the name of your special build. oldconfig takes over the settings from the running kernel that you can check with zcat /proc/config.gz. The settings for the new kernel are stored in the file .config. E.g. a line CONFIG_LOCALVERSION="-thorsten" in .config would tell kernel 2.6.27 to call himself 2.6.27-thorsten.
- compile the kernel, note: on a two-CPU VMWare virtual machine with 2.4 GHz, this lasted 19m28.605s
make -j4
- compile the drivers
make -j4 modules
Superb inforatmion here, ol'e chap; keep burning the midnight oil.
Newer kernels
x86_64 and x86_32 were merged into the x86 folder.
