[CentOS] newbie kernel question

Sat Apr 1 23:33:36 UTC 2006
Maciej Żenczykowski <maze at cela.pl>

Already did so.

On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, Bogdan Nicolescu wrote:

> "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 ===
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>