Scott at 00:18, 5 February 2011

2011-02-05T00:18:31Z

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* Make a boot disk in case the boot loader gets screwed up. Insert a floppy and type
<pre>
/sbin/mkbootdisk `uname -r`
</pre>

* Choose an appropriate kernel identifier. For this example, we use "-test".

* Obtain kernel source, unpack it to <code>/usr/src/</code> and append "-test" to the directory name, e.g. <code>/usr/src/linux-2.4.21-test</code>. We'll refer to this as the "source" directory. cd to the source directory.

* Edit the <code>EXTRAVERSION</code> variable in the <code>Makefile</code> in the source directory to add a custom descriptor to the kernel version.

* If a <code>.config</code> file exists and you care about it, back it up now. Run
<pre>
make mrproper
</pre>
to clean out the source tree, returning it to a pristine state. This deletes the <code>.config</code> file.

* Copy an appropriate config to <code>.config</code> in the source directory. This will serve as a base for configuration.

* Run
<pre>
make menuconfig
</pre>
(or "<code>make xconfig</code>" under X Windows) to configure the kernel. This will overwrite the <code>.config</code> file.

* Now run through these steps in order:
<pre>
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
make install
</pre>
This last command installs the new kernel to the boot loader.

== Troubleshooting ==
<pre>
Kernel panic: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on 00:00
</pre>
May need to replace "<code>root=LABEL=/</code>" with "<code>root=/dev/hda2</code>" in <code>grub.conf</code>.

How to build a Linux kernel - Revision history

Scott at 00:18, 5 February 2011