patching the kernel

patching the kernel

[joe briggs]

My apologies for this question that is so basic to all of you, but can any of 
you please point me toward a howto or instructions for exactly how to 'patch 
a kernel'?  For example, at kernel.org, the latest stable kernel is 2.4.20, 
and is actually a patch.  I currently use 2.4.19 under Debian and routinely 
rebuild & install it no problem.  If I download a kernel 'patch', do I apply 
it to the entire directory, or the compiled kernel, etc.?  Thanks so much.

Joe

Re: patching the kernel

[Sam Ravnborg]

On Sun, Mar 09, 2003 at 05:11:21PM -0500, joe briggs wrote:
> My apologies for this question that is so basic to all of you, but can any of 
> you please point me toward a howto or instructions for exactly how to 'patch 
> a kernel'?  For example, at kernel.org, the latest stable kernel is 2.4.20, 
> and is actually a patch.  I currently use 2.4.19 under Debian and routinely 
> rebuild & install it no problem.  If I download a kernel 'patch', do I apply 
> it to the entire directory, or the compiled kernel, etc.?  Thanks so much.

Did you read README in the top-level directory of your kernel src?
It is wise to run
$ cp .config ../saved-config
$ make mrproper   <= this one deletes all .o files etc.
$ cp ../saved-config .config
$ make oldconfig dep bzImage modules
after patching the kernel

Did not build a 2.4.* kernel for a while, but the README should provide
all the details.

	Sam

Re: patching the kernel

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

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On Sun, 2003-03-09 17:11:21 -0500, joe briggs <jbriggs@briggsmedia.com>
wrote in message <200303091711.21652.jbriggs@briggsmedia.com>:
> My apologies for this question that is so basic to all of you, but can any of 
> you please point me toward a howto or instructions for exactly how to 'patch 
> a kernel'?  For example, at kernel.org, the latest stable kernel is 2.4.20, 
> and is actually a patch.  I currently use 2.4.19 under Debian and routinely 
> rebuild & install it no problem.  If I download a kernel 'patch', do I apply 
> it to the entire directory, or the compiled kernel, etc.?  Thanks so much.

	tar xzf .../linux-2.4.19.tar.gz
		-or-
	tar xjf .../linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2

and then apply the patch:

	cd linux-2.4.19
	zcat .../patch-2.4.20.gz | patch -p1
		-or-
	bzcat .../patch-2.4.20.bz2 | patch -p1

MfG, JBG

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Re: patching the kernel

[scott thomason]

On Sunday 09 March 2003 04:11 pm, joe briggs wrote:
> My apologies for this question that is so basic to all of you,
> but can any of you please point me toward a howto or
> instructions for exactly how to 'patch a kernel'?  For
> example, at kernel.org, the latest stable kernel is 2.4.20,
> and is actually a patch.  I currently use 2.4.19 under Debian
> and routinely rebuild & install it no problem.  If I download
> a kernel 'patch', do I apply it to the entire directory, or
> the compiled kernel, etc.?  Thanks so much.

I usually use these patch commands, as they make finding any 
errors so much easier:

bunzip patchfile.bz2 ## or...
gunzip patchfile.gz

cd linux-2.4.x
## To see if the patch is actually going to work
patch -p1 --batch --quiet --dry-run < ../patchfile
## To actually apply the patch
patch -p1 --batch --quiet < ../patchfile

---scott