The Linux Kernel HOWTONext Previous Contents 


The Linux Kernel HOWTO
Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan) alavoor[AT]yahoo.com 
v4.1, 11 Jan 2003 


This is a detailed guide to kernel configuration, compilation, upgrades, and 
troubleshooting for ix86-based systems. 


1. Introduction 
2. Quick Steps - Kernel Compile
  2.1 Precautionary Preparations 
  2.2 For the Impatient 
  2.3 Building Kernel - Explanation of Steps 
  2.4 Troublshoot Common Mistakes 
  2.5 Post Kernel Building 
  2.6 Sample lilo.conf 
3. A word on style
4. Important questions and their answers 
  4.1 What does the kernel do, anyway? 
  4.2 Why would I want to upgrade my kernel? 
  4.3 What kind of hardware do the newer kernels support? 
  4.4 What version of gcc and libc do I need? 
  4.5 What's a loadable module? 
  4.6 How much disk space do I need? 
  4.7 How long does it take? 
5. How to actually configure the kernel 
  5.1 Getting the source 
  5.2 Unpacking the source 
  5.3 Configuring the kernel 
  5.4 Now what? (The Makefile) 
6. Compiling the kernel 
  6.1 Cleaning and depending 
  6.2 Compile time 
  6.3 Other ``make''ables 
  6.4 Installing the kernel 
7. Patching the kernel 
  7.1 Applying a patch 
  7.2 If something goes wrong 
  7.3 Getting rid of the .orig files 
  7.4 Other patches 
8. Additional packages
  8.1 kbd 
  8.2 util-linux 
  8.3 hdparm 
  8.4 gpm 
9. Some pitfalls 
  9.1 make clean 
  9.2 Huge or slow kernels 
  9.3 The parallel port doesn't work/my printer doesn't work 
  9.4 Kernel doesn't compile 
  9.5 New version of the kernel doesn't seem to boot 
  9.6 You forgot to run LILO, or system doesn't boot at all 
  9.7 It says `warning: bdflush not running' 
  9.8 I can't get my IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drive to work 
  9.9 It says weird things about obsolete routing requests 
  9.10 Firewalling not working in 1.2.0 
  9.11 ``Not a compressed kernel Image file'' 
  9.12 Problems with console terminal after upgrade to 1.3.x 
  9.13 Can't seem to compile things after kernel upgrade 
  9.14 Increasing limits 
10. Note for upgrade to version 2.0.x, 2.2.x
11. Modules
  11.1 Installing the module utilities 
  11.2 Modules distributed with the kernel 
12. Tips and tricks 
  12.1 Redirecting output of the make or patch commands 
  12.2 Conditional kernel install 
  12.3 Kernel updates 
13. Other relevant HOWTOs that might be useful
14. Misc
  14.1 Author 
  14.2 To do 
  14.3 Contributions 
  14.4 Copyright notice, License, and all that stuff 
15. Other Formats of this Document
  15.1 Acrobat PDF format 
  15.2 Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format 
  15.3 Convert to MS WinHelp format 
  15.4 Reading various formats 


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