Kernel compilation Question

Kernel compilation Question

[Balaji Ravindran]

Hi all,

I tried compiling the wireless 2.6 kernel on my debian machine using
make-kpkg and being lazy, i just did make defconfig, and saw that my
compilation went fine without any issues, but i noticed that there was
no ramdisk image that was generated when i installed the linux-image*.deb.

i did use --initrd option,

Was it because, using make defconfig compiles everything on the kernel
itself? Aren't there any 'm' option in defaults?(dunno just asking if
this is the case)

or did i miss something out

Please see if i missed some step

Summary of steps performed.

extracted wireless 2.6 source onto /usr/src

created symbolic link

make defconfig (i did not copy my existing config file to .config, i
just wanted to try out make defconfig option)

make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=foo --revision=bar kernel_image
modules_image kernel_headers

this created 2 files linux-image* and linux-headers*, i was missing the
modules image also(but that was a second question)

did dpkg -i linux-image*

updated grub and placed files in /boot, but did not create initrd image.
Why is that?

Thanks

Balaji R

Re: Kernel compilation Question

[Stefan Lippers-Hollmann]

Hi

On Saturday 21 November 2009, Balaji Ravindran wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I tried compiling the wireless 2.6 kernel on my debian machine using
> make-kpkg and being lazy, i just did make defconfig, and saw that my
> compilation went fine without any issues, but i noticed that there was
> no ramdisk image that was generated when i installed the linux-image*.deb.

For questions about Debian specific packaging helpers like 
kernel-package[1], you would better contact debian-user@lists.debian.org 
instead.

> i did use --initrd option,
[...]

Please read /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz [2], it explains which 
hook scripts you have to configure for generating an initramfs, --initrd is
not sufficient anymore[3] (since kernel-package 12.000).

Also consider that the Debian kernel team considers kernel-package to be 
deprecated in favour of the upstream kernel build system's own 
"make deb-pkg" target[4]. 

Unrelated to this topic, I'd suggest to take the configs of your running 
(distribution-) kernel as starting point, because this likely introduces 
the least amount of surprise (ide vs. libata storage layer, etc.).

Regards
	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann

[1]	http://packages.debian.org/sid/kernel-package
[2]	http://git.debian.org/?p=users/srivasta/debian/kernel-package.git;a=blob;f=README (line 284ff)
[3]	http://www.golden-gryphon.com/blog/manoj//blog/2009/04/07/Not_your_father__39__s_kernel-package/
[4]	http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2009/10/msg00613.html

Re: Kernel compilation Question

[Balaji Ravindran]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your reply. Wow, the four references that you provided makes lot more sense to me. I shall try using some examples in readme mentioned below.

Thanks

Balaji R
On Nov 21, 2009, at 10:10 AM, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann wrote:

> Hi
> 
> On Saturday 21 November 2009, Balaji Ravindran wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I tried compiling the wireless 2.6 kernel on my debian machine using
>> make-kpkg and being lazy, i just did make defconfig, and saw that my
>> compilation went fine without any issues, but i noticed that there was
>> no ramdisk image that was generated when i installed the linux-image*.deb.
> 
> For questions about Debian specific packaging helpers like 
> kernel-package[1], you would better contact debian-user@lists.debian.org 
> instead.
> 
>> i did use --initrd option,
> [...]
> 
> Please read /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz [2], it explains which 
> hook scripts you have to configure for generating an initramfs, --initrd is
> not sufficient anymore[3] (since kernel-package 12.000).
> 
> Also consider that the Debian kernel team considers kernel-package to be 
> deprecated in favour of the upstream kernel build system's own 
> "make deb-pkg" target[4]. 
> 
> Unrelated to this topic, I'd suggest to take the configs of your running 
> (distribution-) kernel as starting point, because this likely introduces 
> the least amount of surprise (ide vs. libata storage layer, etc.).
> 
> Regards
> 	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann
> 
> [1]	http://packages.debian.org/sid/kernel-package
> [2]	http://git.debian.org/?p=users/srivasta/debian/kernel-package.git;a=blob;f=README (line 284ff)
> [3]	http://www.golden-gryphon.com/blog/manoj//blog/2009/04/07/Not_your_father__39__s_kernel-package/
> [4]	http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2009/10/msg00613.html