Re: Custom kernel building and mkinitrd
--- Marty <martyb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> I think this is normally done by the command "make modules install"
> (after
> compiling the modules using "make modules." There is a more
> fundamental
> issue here, however, regarding custom kernels in a debian system,
> which I
> address below.
>
> >
> > OK. So I went ahead and downloaded the latest kernel off of
> kernel.org,
> > compiled it and installed it. Still mkinitrd doesn't output the
> image.
>
> I don't know anything about initrd since I always compile my own
> kernels
> and therefore it's been many years since I've used modules and
> experienced
> the headaches connected with them, but I will offer the following
> comment
> which I hope is helpful: I would advise against bypassing the Debian
> package
> system (including the Debian kernel build process which I think uses
> a package
> called make-kpkg) until you know your way around the distribution.
>
> The Debian kernel build process builds your custom kernels
> automagically and
> presumable avoids these problems like what you are reporting here.
> If you
> bypass that process then it may affect users' willingness to address
> any
> problems that crop up. (Unfortunately by force of habit I also
> bypass the
> make-kpkg custom kernel build process, so I won't be of much help to
> you
> about that package, but as a result I also avoid bring any resulting
> problems to this list, since I have brought those problems upon
> myself by
> bypassing the recommended process. I therefore can't recommend my
> own appraoch
> to anyone else.)
>
>
> > So I tried to mkinitrd of the running kernel. Still nothing. I am
> > guessing it is an initrd-tools bug. But not really sure.
> >
> > I tried the -k option to see if it does anything. And yes. The tmp
> > directory gets filled. But I don't know what to do from there to
> start
> > debugging.
> >
> > If you are not going to respond to this, can you at least tell me
> where
> > I should go with this problem? Thanks.
>
> apt-get install make-kpkg;man make-kpkg
>
Well, I am not bypassing anything. I am using make-kpkg. I use this
guide http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html.en
So all is done with the "Debian" stuff. It's just that after I use dpkg
-i my_kernel_image.deb, I never get an initrd.img of the new installed
kernel in /boot. And the only symlink in / is initrd.img.old. Creating
an initrd image of the newly installed kernel is the ONLY thing I do
manually. However, /vmlinuz is updated for me.
It is not a driver problem either as the only driver I have to compile
is ati's graphics drivers and I do it with make-kpkg too. This is how I
do it :
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html
I use the --added-modules option.
Maybe the guide I use is outdated (can you tell me if so?) but it is
the only guide I found about compiling custom, somewhat recent, kernels
for Debian (still with 2.4 kernels :( ). I just tried a "debian custom
kernel build" google search and still nothing with any 2.6 kernels. I
tried to add a "2.6" at the end of the search string but still no
guides using make-kpkg.
ib
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