How to build a Linux kernel

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  • Make a boot disk in case the boot loader gets screwed up. Insert a floppy and type
/sbin/mkbootdisk `uname -r`
  • Choose an appropriate kernel identifier. For this example, we use "-test".
  • Obtain kernel source, unpack it to /usr/src/ and append "-test" to the directory name, e.g. /usr/src/linux-2.4.21-test. We'll refer to this as the "source" directory. cd to the source directory.
  • Edit the EXTRAVERSION variable in the Makefile in the source directory to add a custom descriptor to the kernel version.
  • If a .config file exists and you care about it, back it up now. Run
make mrproper

to clean out the source tree, returning it to a pristine state. This deletes the .config file.

  • Copy an appropriate config to .config in the source directory. This will serve as a base for configuration.
  • Run
make menuconfig

(or "make xconfig" under X Windows) to configure the kernel. This will overwrite the .config file.

  • Now run through these steps in order:
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install
make install

This last command installs the new kernel to the boot loader.

Troubleshooting

Kernel panic: VFS : Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

May need to replace "root=LABEL=/" with "root=/dev/hda2" in grub.conf.

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