Compiling 2.6.19.1 based on 2.6.16......

[smolloy]

Hi all,
I'm trying to make an installable rpm of the 2.6.19.1 kernel to update my SuSE 10.1 system that is currently using 2.6.16.blahblah, and I'm having some difficulties. I was wondering if it was possible to just copy over the old config file from my earlier kernel and use that, or will there be too many differences between that and the 2.6.19 kernel to allow this to work smoothly.

Am I better off starting from scratch with no config file?

[Dapper Dan]

Am I better off starting from scratch with no config file?

Hi smolloy,

I wouldn't. It would be a big gamble to try and guess what should be included, whereas you know your existing .config has been custom made for SuSE's needs. I'd transfer the old .config to the new, run menuconfig (or whatever kernel configuration utility SuSE recommends) and possibly add a few things you might want and exclude some others you know for a fact you absolutely do not need, then compile from there.

I just compiled 2.6.19.1 for CentOS. It works very well but I did use the old .config from the previous CentOS (RHEL) kernel.

[smolloy]

I just compiled 2.6.19.1 for CentOS. It works very well but I did use the old .config from the previous CentOS (RHEL) kernel.

Thanks Dan. Can you tell me what your previous kernel was? Was it as "old" as 2.6.16?

[antidrugue]

Exactly like Dapper Dan says it.

You are better off using Suse's config file from the default kernel.

Then you can use Dapper Dan guide to compile your kernel, it should work nicely in Suse too :
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/red...ell-about.html

You can take a look at this how-to as well, though I find Dan's guide more to the point (some steps in this one are simply not needed) :
http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_suse

[smolloy]

Thanks antidrugue.

I hadn't seen Dapper Dan's nice how-to (well done Dapper Dan!), but I had been following along with the second one you posted.

I used the old configuration file, with no modifications, but it failed to boot cos it didn't recognise my SATA drives. I tried recompiling the kernel with SATA support included, but I was dumb and overwrote the old rpm. Now, of course, I can't uninstall the old kernel, and I can't install the new one since it has the same name (which would be easy enough to change I suppose). Is there another way to uninstall the badly configured 2.6.19 kernel?

EDIT: I have already tried recompiling the old rpm with exactly the same configuration, but with no success.

[antidrugue]

Well, starting with 2.6.19 SATA and IDE configuration are quite different from what they used to be.

Did you saw the relevant section in make menuconfig ?

For example, on my laptop I have a ICH8 SATA/IDE controller :

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 04)

So I need to enable those for SATA support :

Devide Drivers --->
SCSI device support  --->
 <*> SCSI disk support
 <*> SCSI CDROM support


Devide Drivers --->
Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers  --->
<*> ATA device support
  <*>   AHCI SATA support
  <*>   Intel PIIX/ICH SATA support

And of course the root filesystem, I use ext3, so I enable both EXT2 and EXT3.

So either you build all those statically (with a *), or you build them as module (with a M).

If you choose the module option, you will need to generate an initrd.

[smolloy]

Thanks antidrugue. I guess I just need to be more careful, and go through all the configuration options to make sure everything is as it should be.

Do you know of a way to uninstall the broken kernel I installed using the rpm I compiled? Do I even need to (since I'm not worried about space, it's fine to have a few unnecessary files on my system)?

[antidrugue]

Do you know of a way to uninstall the broken kernel I installed using the rpm I compiled?

Perhaps the classic

rpm -e name_of_package.rpm

would work.


In general, I would recommend at first not to deviate much from Suse's default kernel configuration. In that case you have to change it a bit because the SATA/IDE related arrangement changed quite a bit in 2.6.19.

Choosing to build features as module and using an initrd is generally simpler.

Once you get a working one, you can start to cut down some fat, and try to make another one as adapted to your machine as possible.

Just look carefully at

/sbin/lspci

output and go from there.