Kernel Compilation

Kernel compilation

Go to the /usr/src directory

Unpack the source code with tar -xvzf linux-2.x.x.tag.gz.

Move to the /usr/src/linux sub-directory.

make mrproper

make menuconfig

make all

– make vmlinux
– make modules
– make bzimage

make modules_install

make install

cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage /zImage

Making an initrd Image

An initrd image is needed for loading your SCSI module at boot time or if you are compiling the kernel with ext3 support as a module. If you do not need an initrd image, do not make one and do not edit lilo.conf or grub.conf to include this image.

Use the /sbin/mkinitrd shell script to build an initrd image for your machine. To use this command, the loopback block device must be available.

To build the new initrd image, run /sbin/mkinitrd with parameters such as this:

/sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-0.12-jul2001.img 2.4.18-0.12-jul2001

In the above example, /boot/initrd-2.4.18-0.12-jul2001.img is the file name of the new initrd image. 2.4.18-0.12-jul2001 is the kernel whose modules (from /lib/modules) should be used in the initrd image. This is not necessarily the same as the version number of the currently running kernel.

Cleaning targets:

clean - Remove most generated files but keep the config and enough build support to build external modules

mrproper - Remove all generated files + config + various backup files

distclean - mrproper + remove editor backup and patch files

Configuration targets:

config - Update current config utilising a line-oriented program

menuconfig - Update current config utilising a menu based program

xconfig - Update current config utilising a QT based front-end

gconfig - Update current config utilising a GTK based front-end

oldconfig - Update current config utilising a provided .config as base

silentoldconfig - Same as oldconfig, but quietly

randconfig - New config with random answer to all options

defconfig - New config with default answer to all options

allmodconfig - New config selecting modules when possible

allyesconfig - New config where all options are accepted with yes

allnoconfig - New config where all options are answered with no

Other generic targets:

all - Build all targets marked with [*]

vmlinux - Build the bare kernel

modules - Build all modules

modules_install - Install all modules to INSTALL_MOD_PATH (default: /)

dir/ - Build all files in dir and below

dir/file.[ois] - Build specified target only

dir/file.ko - Build module including final link

rpm - Build a kernel as an RPM package

tags/TAGS - Generate tags file for editors

cscope - Generate cscope index

kernelrelease - Output the release version string

kernelversion - Output the version stored in Makefile

headers_install - Install sanitised kernel headers to INSTALL_HDR_PATH(default: /usr/src/linux-.6.24.3/usr)

Static analysers

checkstack - Generate a list of stack hogs

namespacecheck - Name space analysis on compiled kernel

export_report - List the usages of all exported symbols

headers_check - Sanity check on exported headers

Kernel packaging:

rpm-pkg - Build the kernel as an RPM package

binrpm-pkg - Build an rpm package containing the compiled kernel and modules

deb-pkg - Build the kernel as an deb package

tar-pkg - Build the kernel as an uncompressed tarball

targz-pkg - Build the kernel as a gzip compressed tarball

tarbz2-pkg - Build the kernel as a bzip2 compressed tarball

Documentation targets:

Linux kernel internal documentation in different formats:

htmldocs - HTML

installmandocs - install man pages generated by mandocs

mandocs - man pages

pdfdocs - PDF

psdocs - Postscript

xmldocs - XML DocBook

Architecture specific targets (i386):

bzImage - Compressed kernel image (arch/x86/boot/bzImage)

install - Install kernel using

(your) ~/bin/installkernel or

(distribution) /sbin/installkernel or

install to $(INSTALL_PATH) and run lilo

bzdisk - Create a boot floppy in /dev/fd0

fdimage - Create a boot floppy image

isoimage - Create a boot CD-ROM image

make V=0|1 [targets] 0 => quiet build (default), 1 => verbose build

make V=2 [targets] 2 => give reason for rebuild of target

make O=dir [targets] Locate all output files in “dir”, including .config

make C=1 [targets] Check all c source with $CHECK (sparse by default)

make C=2 [targets] Force check of all c source with $CHECK

Execute “make” or “make all” to build all targets marked with [*]

For further info see the ./README file