Compiling a kernel

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.

• Make sure you have a compiler installed

yast -i gcc

• Download the kernel from ftp.kernel.org

wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.20.tar.bz2

• unpack the kernel

bunzip linux-2.6.20.tar.bz2

• unpack the kernel for the second time

tar xvf linux-2.6.20.tar

• configure the kernel

cd linux-2.6.20
make oldconfig

• answer some un-understandable questions
• compile the kernel

make -j4

• compile the drivers

make -j4 modules

• install the drivers

make modules_install

• install the kernel

cp arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20

• prepare the initial ramdisk

mkinitrd

• add an entry to the bootloader. Let's take grub's /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title 2.6.20-selfcompiled
   root (hd0,0)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20 root=/dev/sda1
   initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.20