Andrew Miehs wrote:
I have the issue that I need to compile a RedHat kernel due to a driver/ support issue.I pulled the SRPM from ftp.redhat.com:/pub/..../updates/.../This file contains a vanilla kernel, lots of patches and a kernel26.spec file. kern2deb can convert this to a normal kernel - but it only seems to do this for specific versions of the kernel - it does not seem to know how to use the .spec file.
Do you mean "kern2deb can only convert the vanilla kernel"? "kern2deb can only recognize a few specific patches"?
Does anyone have more experience on getting this done?
Hrm. You might be best off just snagging the binary kernel .rpm (which you may have to snag from a third-party RHEL repackager like CentOS), installing that, and putting up with the (minor, IMO) headache of your kernel not integrating with the rest of the Debian packages.
Other than that, you might try a tool I wrote that can build .deb packages from RPM spec files. See http://www.deepnet.cx/debbuild/.
Note that this tool does NOT build "Debian Packages", it builds .deb packages which should install without trouble via normal Debian package tools (assuming you've got a simple-enough valid .spec file). Also, I suspect it would fail miserably on a kernel .spec, since IIRC they contain a lot of macros I haven't written any support for (yet).
PS: Is there any way of getting the normal kernel from the RedHat site/ not an update?
Define "normal" vs "update". Do you mean the kernel that shipped with the original release of whichever RedHat release you're looking at? Try ftp.redhat.com:/pub/..../os/.../ instead.
-kgd