My first kernel build!

[hazel]

I just built my first kernel yesterday. Tadaa! Admittedly I cheated by using the old config file that came with my RH9 system (which meant the computer spent hours compiling modules for every kind of hardware and his wife, stuff I shall never use) but the new kernel boots and runs OK. Does this count as an initiation rite or am I still a newbie?

[deltaflyer]

congrats on the compile,done it a few times myself, still consider my self a learner (been using linux for 5 years now!!)

have a few

[budman7]

Compiling your own kernel is definitely a step in the right direction.

I have been using linux for over a year now and I still think of myself as a newbie.

[fingal]

Well done! I've only done it a couple of times and was amazed when the thing worked. That was on Slackware.

Have a narny bar

[Dalani]

Sorry for asking a really newbie question, but what is the real advantage to kernel compilation????

[Darl]

Customization, you can include parts that you need, exclude parts that you don't need. Makes for a more efficient, and therefore faster, system.

[hazel]

Actually I did it because I wanted to compile a driver for my Lucent modem. The compiled driver which I downloaded earlier didn't work (still doesn't!) so I thought if I compiled it myself from source, I could switch on the built-in debugging options and find out what was going wrong. Also I hoped it might just work if I used a vanilla kernel instead of the patched Red Hat one. It did'nt actually help much; I found out the place where an endless loop is occurring but I just don't know enough about modems or serial ports to work out why. Downloading and compiling a kernel was only an intermediate step. All the same, I'm glad I did it.