[Techtalk] the finer points of kernel customization

[John Clarke]

On Mon, Mar 22, 2004 at 09:03:33PM -0800, Carla Schroder wrote:

> > -make clean

You don't need this; "make mrproper" deletes everything that "make
clean" deletes and more.

>    $make bzImage  <=== build the kernel image

You can actually leave this one out - "make install" will build it for
you :-)  In fact, "make install" always rebuilds the kernel, even if
you've just done a "make bzImage".

I usually build and install with:

  make oldconfig && make dep && make bzImage modules install modules_install

then edit grub.conf to make the new kernel the default.  "bzImage" and
"modules" aren't really needed - they're dependencies of "install" and
"modules_install" respectively.

For those not familiar with "make", you can give it multiple targets
(arguments) and it will build them all in turn, stopping at the first
failure (unless you add "-k").  The "&&" between each command ensures
that each is run only if the previous ones ran successfully.

I do "make dep" as a separate command because it fails if included with
other targets.  The workaround is so simple that I've never cared
enough to figure out why it doesn't work.


Cheers,

John
-- 
kernel, n.:
        A part of an operating system that preserves the medieval
        traditions of sorcery and black art.