T H E   P L E A S U R E   O F   C O M P I L I N G   Y O U R   O W N   K E R N E L
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(c) by CreepyNodque aka NoVa aka M,r;D


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What´s this tutorial intended to be?
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It will guide you threw the process of installing the (new) 2.6.6 kernel or newer versions!

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What da hell is a Kernel?
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No idea, lets ask Google:

define:Kernel


"The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience; "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story" 
Would be some options, or
"The inner and usually edible part of a seed or grain or nut or fruit stone"


I hope now you know what a Kernel is- lets get into some serious stuff!

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Is also a newbie able to do this without crashing the system?
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Don`t worry about that, we won´t delete the "old" kernel until the new one runs perfectly!


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What about the adage "Never change a running system?"
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Thats crap! -> Without fixing no funning........!?!?

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Do I have to prepare anything?
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Well, the proggies you are going to use are available in every common distro. But keep in mind that the versions are also very important!

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A geeks`s grocery list for a kernel v.2.6.6:*
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Gnu C-Compiler v. 2.95.3
Gnu make v.3.78
Gnu Binutils v.2.12
Util-Linux v.2.100
Module-Init-Tools v.0.9.10


Those versions [and higher] are recommended, and it might be possible that different ones also work, but don´t dare to blame me if it doesn`t work!


You can find these tools on the FTP-server of your distributor or somewhere else like www.rpmfind.com !

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Where can I get the kernel sources from?
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There are different ways! You can suck it directly from kernel.org or get it from my site: www.creepyproducts.tk.


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1st Part:
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T h e   B o r i n g   S t u f f
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Make sure you are root!

Download the sources.

Check if /usr/src/linux already exists [often in older Linux-Versions]. If so, then run 

#mv linux linux_old

and delete it later if it isn`t longer nessecary.

Unpack the sources with

#tar xjvf linux-2.6.6.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src

Now we need a symbolic link to the folder linux ,we modified:

#ln -s linux-2.6.6 linux

Use

#cd linux 

to change directory.

Now we prepared nearly everything, but we still need some hardware info for configuring the kernel.
Type

#lspci

for a list of the PCI-Stuff and 

#lsmod

for a list of all loaded modules and

#cat /proc/cpuinfo 

for the processor-info.


Okay, lets take a quick overview over what we have done:

The kernel is unpacked in /usr/src/linux and all nessecary programs are installed. But before we compile the kernel we have to configure its components.
Type

#make mrproper

to delete all previous configurations.


There are different ways to configure the shit:
Type

#make menuconfig

for a console-based configuration

#make gconfig

for a configuration based on the Gtk-Libs

#make xconfig

for a config based on the Qt-Libs.


The X-Config proggys got a documentation, so its very easy also for "newbies" to handle with those two.


Okay. We finish the configuration and save our changes.



2nd Part:
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C o m p i l i n g   I s   F u n
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Here we go:

Type:

#make bzImage 
#make modules
#make modules_install

These commands are pretty selfexplaining...nomen est omen...
This gonna take a while, so get some coffee!

Ps:If you type "#make bzdisk" instead of bzImage you can save the kernel to a floppy-this gives you the possibility to boot the new kernel without editing the config-file of your bootloader!

After it compiled the new kernel is in ./i386/boot - this is obviously not the correct directory for the kernel:
Type:

#cp ./i368/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-new

To copy the kernel in /boot.


Now we need a entry in the bootloader:

I take GRUB as an example-


#title    Linux (2.6.6)
#         root (hd1,0)
#         kernel /boot/bzImage-new ro


This is the new entry in /boot/grub/grub.conf for our new kernel - but don´t edit any other entries!
-The entry looks pretty similar for lilo (/etc/lilo.conf)!





--Now reboot! Select "Linux 2.6.6" in the bootloader to start our new kernel!



Congratulations-You compiled your own kernel! BIG HIM UP!!

Don´t worry if there are error messages and a kernel crash, you got your second, your old kernel!



C o n t a c t:    www.CreepyProducts.Tk 
                  nova [at] aon.at
                  
              ICQ:288078542
              AIM:CreepyNodque
              IRC:irc.anomalous-security.org - #CreepyProducts #noVa #HackerLounge



N o t e: Don´t dublicate,don´t edit and don´t take credit for what you didn't do. If you would like to host it on your server please give me full credit and include a link with my e-mail!


Ps: Boycott Micro$oft, SCO and Nazism.


-M,r;D