Re: kernel-package??
Randy Patterson wrote :
> On Thursday 30 April 2009 09:51:54 Michael Pobega wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 09:24:43AM -0500, Randy Patterson wrote:
>>> I'm looking to start using my own custom kernels for various reasons. At
>>> this point I'm just researching the various options or ways in going
>>> about this and in the process installed kernel-package. I learned the
>>> hard way a couple years ago when I first started using Linux that before
>>> diving into documentation I first need to try to determine it's age. So
>>> after installing kernel-package the first thing I did was go to the
>>> bottom of the man page and looked at the date, May 25, 1999! Now I
>>> realize that is not necessarily the date of the last update but this
>>> doesn't give me a good feeling about diving into it's details that could
>>> be 10 years old. So is it better to just use an upstream source from
>>> kernel.org and build that or will that only create more work trying to
>>> get that running with a current Debian distro? I'm certainly not looking
>>> for a detailed howto on this list, but looking for advise on the road to
>>> take to get there. Or at least the road with more pros than cons. Thanks,
>>> Randy
>> Just fyi, kernel-package isn't a kernel itself; it's the tools used to
>> build a vanilla kernel (like the ones from kernel.org) into a deb file.
>>
>
> I guess I assumed that kernel-package was to build the kernel from the source
> used by the current Debian distro installed. So if that's not the case and I
> decided to use the latest stable from kernel.org, is it advantageous to use
> kernel-package or find a good howto and learn to build and install using a more
> low level approach. I'm mainly looking at just optimizing the config file for a
> particular systems to building a leaner meaner kernel. I have some older
> systems that don't do anything but grid computing. I thought if I removed a
> lot of the stuff that wasn't being used in the kernel I could speed these up a
> little.
>
> Randy
>
>
Kernel-package really speeds up the process of building a kernel, but
the bulk of what you want to do will occur during the configuration.
Basically kernel-package allows you to build a kernel, all modules, an
initrd (if desired), pack it up in .deb in one shot. Then you just have
to install the created .deb with "dpkg -i". The basic command, once the
configuration is done, is:
make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version -custom_name --revision 1 \
kernel-image kernel-headers
initrd and headers are non-essential.
Installing the created .deb will take care of all the linking (/initrd,
/vmlinuz, build dir...), boot-loader update (with grub at least), initrd
creation/update and such.
Without it you'll have to go with the "make - make modules_install -
make install" routine, no such thing as a .deb, and take care of the
rest yourself (initrd, links, boot-loader update...).
So in my opinion it's worth looking into kernel-package, that's one of
the feature I most appreciated when trying to Debian. (I usually build
my kernels from vanilla kernel.org sources, out of habit and curiosity
more than technical need.).
Tom
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