[CentOS] newbie kernel question

Bogdan Nicolescu bo2k2 at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 1 23:16:46 UTC 2006


"And, yes, you can compile your own kernel..."

Please do tell how, or post a link to the procedure. 
I'm assuming you are taking the default Centos kernel,
and not a vanilla/unsupported kernel.



--- Maciej ¯enczykowski <maze at cela.pl> wrote:

> You're missing the point... If you want to get into
> customizing the 
> kernel, you might as well switch to another
> non-enterprise distribution, 
> more bleeding edge and the like (fedora, gentoo,
> etc.).  An 
> enterprise-level/class distribution is meant to work
> with _minimum_ 
> user/admin intervention.  Compiling the kernel is
> not a small thing and 
> can potentially affect a lot of things, this simply
> is NOT what you want 
> to do on a system you want to be a stable server. 
> Furthermore a lot of 
> modules can be compiled outside the kernel tree
> proper (I've compiled a 
> few netfilter modules for CentOS this way).  And,
> yes, you can compile 
> your own kernel, you can do it for one machine,
> maybe two, maybe three. 
> But what happens when you start to have to
> administer and provide updates 
> for more computers (18 in my case) - do you really
> want to go to the pain 
> of running a kernel compilation for every single one
> of those machines - 
> and rerunning that every two months when a kernel
> update comes out? 
> What for, what does this give me which the
> centosplus kernel doesn't?
> In almost all cases the centosplus kernel is the far
> better solution.
> 
> MaZe.
> 
> On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, Bogdan Nicolescu wrote:
> 
> > [sarcasm]And all this time, decade+, I though the
> > ability to recompile especially the kernel was the
> > main difference/advantage between a source based
> O.S.
> > and a binary-only O.S. I don't know how you came
> out
> > with the statistics but I have a funny feeling you
> are
> > 100% wrong.[/sarcasm]
> >
> > Everybody should want to recompile the kernel, if
> not
> > for the experience, but for removing the bloat. 
> Does
> > everybody really need every chipset compiled in
> the
> > kernel!  If the degree of dificulty of building a
> > custom kernel on Centos change from the
> traditional
> > method (make clean, make mrproper, make xconfig,
> etc)
> > than say so, and point to an authoritative howto
> > guide, if there is any.  But whatever you do
> please
> > don't insult by deciding for 98% of us what is and
> > what is not "something you really want to do".  I
> can
> > only speak for myself, and I really want to be
> able to
> > recompile the Centos kernel, otherwise I wouldn't
> > waste my energy  asking a zillion times how to
> compile
> > Centos' kernel.
> >
> > Second irony (from second hand information) is
> that
> > the vanila kernel compile just fine on Centos
> using
> > the traditional method.
> >
> >
> > --- Maciej ?enczykowski <maze at cela.pl> wrote:
> >
> >> That's because 98% of the time recompiling the
> >> kernel is not something you
> >> really want to do, and the remaining 2% of the
> time
> >> you just use
> >> rpmbuild --rebuild kernel-.....src.rpm
> >>
> >> And if that doesn't work _then_ you're out of
> luck
> >> (the above works for me
> >> with a couple different kernels).  Want to change
> >> something?  Unpack the
> >> srpm into the appropriate directories (just
> install
> >> the src.rpm) and edit
> >> the spec file and configuration files and or add
> >> kernel patches to the
> >> spec file, etc...
> >>
> >> Of course you should do all the above as a
> non-root
> >> user for safeties
> >> sake, but that's a tad harder (need to have a
> good
> >> macro file - here's
> >> mine, although it's rather minimal and not all
> that
> >> good:
> >> ~/.rpmmacros:
> >> %packager	Maciej Zenczykowski
> >> %distribution	CentOS4
> >> %vendor		TCS-II-UJ
> >> %_signature	gpg
> >> %_gpg_name	maze at tcs.ii.uj.edu.pl
> >> %_gpg_path	~/.gnupg
> >>
> >> %_topdir	/home/buildcentos/rpm
> >> %_tmppath	%{_topdir}/tmp
> >>
> >> #%_rpmtopdir	%{_topdir}/%{name}
> >> #%_builddir	%{_rpmtopdir}/BUILD
> >> #%_rpmdir	%{_rpmtopdir}/RPMS
> >> #%_sourcedir	%{_rpmtopdir}/SOURCES
> >> #%_specdir	%{_rpmtopdir}/SPECS
> >> #%_srcrpmdir	%{_rpmtopdir}/SRPMS
> >>
> >> %disttag	centos4
> >> %repotag	maze
> >>
> >> # Change default RPM query format to show ARCH
> >> %_query_all_fmt
> >> %%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}
> >> # %_query_all_fmt
> >>
> %%{epoch}:%%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> MaZe.
> >>
> >> On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, Bogdan Nicolescu wrote:
> >>
> >>> Nick,
> >>>
> >>> The question of kernel compilation is a periodic
> >>> question, and usually the answer will be
> anything
> >> else
> >>> except the process itself.  I asked the same
> >> question
> >>> just a couple of days ago. Don't bother wasting
> >> time
> >>> waiting for an answer, and start searching the
> >> web.
> >>> rpmbuild seems to be part of the method required
> >> for a
> >>> custom kernel.
> >>>
> >>> The irony is that for a distributions which
> prides
> >>> itself to be a recompilation of another
> >> distribution
> >>> (RH) (and we're all grateful for that), the
> >> process of
> >>> recompiling one of the integral part of the
> >>> districtution, the kernel, is one of the best
> kept
> >>> secrets.  Why can't some just give a straight
> >> answer
> >>> or point to a page that has the answer?
> >>>
> >>> Anyway, I have searched, and found this guides
> >> which
> >>> might help:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
>
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/release-notes/fc4/errata/#sn-kernel
> >>>
> >>> and
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
>
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-kernel-fc4.html
> >>>
> >>> Didn't have the time to try it out yet myself.
> >> Next
> >>> week sometimes.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --- Nick Smith <nick.smith79 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Im sorry if this is a newb question, but how do
> >> you
> >>>> recompile the
> >>>> kernel in CentOS 4.3? I need to add reiserfs
> >> support
> >>>> (even though the
> >>>> setup detected it) the kernel it gave me didnt
> >> have
> 
=== message truncated ===




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