Re: Kernel building not idempotent?
Caeles wrote:
I have trouble with building a custom kernel and hope somebody can help.
Short story:
The last thing I tried was to unpack the kernel sources, unpack
/proc/config.gz to .config, run make-kpkg, install the resulting binary
package, and try the lines new for grub.
I would have expected, that this should have given me the exact same
kernel that I had before. Instead it gave me a kernel that panics on boot.
The current running kernel also has its config in /boot/config-`uname -r`
I assume I have to apply the kernel-patches at some point. But I could
not figure out, how that is done. Where is the documentation for the
kernel-patches package? Running
/usr/src/kernel-patches/apply/debian -h
gives some cryptic instructions. But how do I tell this script where the
kernel sources needing to be patched are? And is this the right script
after all?
Are you using vanilla sources or the debian ones? AFAIK the debian
sources you download with apt-get are already patched.
I did try running this script from within the sources directory. It then
told me it had nothing to do. If that was the right way to invoke the
script, then I am again mystified as to why the new kernel differed from
the old one.
Longer story:
The kernel panic has to do with the kernel not finding the root partition.
I originally had that problem when trying to install sarge. Then, even the
installer did not find my SATA II disc. What I then did was to install
woody, upgrade to sarge without replacing the kernel, and wait for etch.
Now the installer of etch as well as the installed kernel find the disc,
but the compiled kernel does not. Knoppix as well as etch address the disc
as /dev/sda (ie SCSI), woody adressed it as /dev/hde (ie IDE). In the mean
time I tried compiling a kernel in the old way without make-dpkg. Similar
results.
One maybe noteworthy fact is, that the custom kernel does not use an
initramfs, while the installed kernel does (at least according to grub's
menu.lst).
Thought so, his is the problem. Debian kernels build the majority of
the drivers as modules and include them in an initrd. You need to pass
the --initrd option to make-kpkg when building the kernel.
Alternatively, build the modules for your SATA controller and root
filesystem into the kernel an no need for initrd.
The CPU is an AMD sempron. The previous woody and sarge installs were i386,
the etch install is amd64.
Thankful for any help,
Mark Weyer
P.S.: Sorry for incorrect details, most likely file and package names.
I do not write this mail from the box in question, so cannot check.
HTH
Wackojacko
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