[CentOS-devel] Kernel used on installation media.

Sat Feb 24 00:18:42 UTC 2007
Ray Van Dolson <rvandolson at esri.com>

On Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 12:06:03AM +0000, Karanbir Singh wrote:
> Ray Van Dolson wrote:
> >Hi all, I hope this is not too off topic.  I've searched the -devel 
> >archives,
> >but haven't found clear-cut information on this, so thought I'd ask.
> >
> >I am trying to determine the kernel configuration used to build the kernel
> >used on the installation media (CD #1 or the vmlinuz/initrd.img files in 
> >their
> >respective images/boot.iso or images/diskboot.img files).
> >
> >My guess is the kernel configurations are not identical to the ones 
> >ultimately
> >used to build the kernels used on the system once it is up and running....
> >
> >I ask because I am interested in rebuilding the kernel used on CD #1 to 
> >boot
> >into the installer.
> >
> 
> look in the distro tree : 
> http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/CentOS/RPMS ( eg, for the i386  )
> the kernel-2.6.9-*.<i686|i586>.rpm are the ones used for the installer, 
> each contain a .config file which will give you the config file used at 
> build time for that kernel rpm.

K, so just the same kernel then that's used on the OS.  That makes it fairly
straightforward.

> Why do you need to rebuild the installer kernel ? doing DriverDisks for 
> some piece of non-supported-by-default-hardware isnt hard.

Well, the driver is an updated ata_piix and libsata driver for the ICH8
chipset.  Neither Intel nor Dell appears to have a driver for download on
their page.

jbaron's beta release of the -48 kernel for RHEL4 includes driver support for
it, but obviously the .ko's in his kernel are for the -48 kernel.  I would
either have to backport the driver to the kernel used on the U4/CentOS install
CD's or update the kernel on those CD's to be -48 and work with the new
drivers out of the box.

I haven't taken a stab at backporting these drivers into the current stable
kernels (and kernel used on the boot CD), maybe that would be easier...