Howto: Kernel Compilation 2.6.27.x

[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="6"]Due To The Closure Of Other OS Talk, This Guide Is No Longer Maintained. For An Up To Date Version Click Here[/SIZE][/FONT]

I've made this guide to give a bit of information on compiling a custom kernel for Slackware. This is just something to get you started in compiling a kernel and removing options. Please make sure that before you remove things from the kernel you know what hardware is in your system and what things you can and cannot remove.

All Stages will require that you are logged in as root.

Which Kernel Version

You can either install the kernel sources package when you install Slackware (On 12.2 it is 2.6.27.7) or you can download the latest version (At the time of writing 2.6.27.10)

To download the latest version of the kernel please do the following:

cd /usr/src && wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.27.10.tar.bz2

Once the file has downloaded enter the following command:

bunzip linux-2.6.27.10.tar.bz2 && tar xvf linux-2.6.27.10.tar

ln -s linux-2.6.27.10 /usr/src/linux

*If you installed the kernel source package and you are using the latest version from kernel.org you will have to remove the link to the old kernel source:*

rm /usr/src/linux

You are now ready to compile the kernel.

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You should already have a working Slackware system running with a kernel which has a variety of hardware support out of the box.

The easiest way to compile your own kernel is to start by using what already worked with Slackware and building up and removing modules from there. To copy the current config file of the version of Slackware you are running you can run this command:

zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config

If you're using a newer version of the kernel you must run oldconfig because of added/removed features:

make oldconfig

Now you can begin compiling your own Kernel:

make menuconfig

make xconfig

You will want to change the name of your kernel so that you know that you are running the latest version. Go to *General Setup>Change the release name*

You can then go through all the subcategories of menuconfig and disable/enable what you need. Once you have done this you can save the .config before you exit.

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To actually compile the kernel use:

make

Then to install the modules:

make modules_install

Set up booting:

cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-custom

Configure lilo:

nano /etc/lilo.conf

Add the following to the end of your lilo.conf file:

# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = vmlinuz-custom
label = linux-custom
root = /dev/(Whatever your primary hard drive is)
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

To update lilo run:

lilo

Hopefully this will work for a basic kernel compilation. Please feel free to contribute any changes or error fixes you may find.

For the sake of conciseness and simplicity, the first two steps can be done this way (I'm using [font="monospace"]sudo[/font] because old habits die hard, but feel free to do that while logged in as root instead, if you prefer):

After changing to a directory of your choice :

wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.27.10.tar.bz2
sudo tar xjf linux-2.6.27.10.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src

Also, in case [font="monospace"]/usr/src/linux[/font] is already there, a new symlink to another version of the kernel can be created in one step :

sudo ln -snf linux-2.6.27.10 linux

Another very important step, especially now that the version of the kernel has changed, is to run [font="monospace"]make oldconfig[/font] after copying over the config of your current kernel, so that any options that have been added/removed in the kernel will also be added/removed in your configuration.

Another very important step, especially now that the version of the kernel has changed, is to run make oldconfig after copying over the config of your current kernel, so that any options that have been added/removed in the kernel will also be added/removed in your configuration.

Yes you're right, I forgot to include that one. I've added it. I'm using su in this guide and not sudo because I don't like sudo and it's not used by default on Slackware.

Vince4Amy said:

Set up booting:

cp arch/i386/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-custom

Should be:

cp arch/i386[COLOR=Blue]**/boot**[/COLOR]/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-custom

Yes you're right, I was typing this at school without access to Slackware at the time so I was working from memory.

Has anyone tried 2.6.28 on Slackware yet?

Vince4Amy said: Has anyone tried 2.6.28 on Slackware yet?

I did, right after 2.6.28 came out. A couple of days later, I switched back to Gentoo. I use the vanilla kernel sources on Gentoo as well, currently 2.6.28.2.

RedSquirrel said: I did, right after 2.6.28 came out. A couple of days later, I switched back to Gentoo. I use the vanilla kernel sources on Gentoo as well, currently 2.6.28.2.

Interesting. Any big differences from gentoo-sources?

yabbadabbadont said: Interesting. Any big differences from gentoo-sources?

Nothing that I've noticed, but then I haven't used gentoo-sources for a while (months, I guess), so it's difficult for me to compare them.

Someday when I'm bored, I'll have to look through the patches the Gentoo devs apply to the kernel sources. I know they add a little functionality and address some bugs, but I don't know much about the specifics.

RedSquirrel said: Nothing that I've noticed, but then I haven't used gentoo-sources for a while (months, I guess), so it's difficult for me to compare them.

Someday when I'm bored, I'll have to look through the patches the Gentoo devs apply to the kernel sources. I know they add a little functionality and address some bugs, but I don't know much about the specifics.

I should probably install the latest vanilla-sources and see if the shutdown issue with libata and sata_promise have been fixed. I would have to have them installed anyway if I were to try to file a bug upstream. Currently I just reboot and use the halt command in grub. It's a pain to go through all the hoops required to file a kernel bug that will be accepted. :)