7.12. Linux-2.6.17.13

Building the kernel involves a few steps—configuration, compilation, and installation. Read the README file in the kernel source tree for alternative methods to the way this book configures the kernel.

The following patch fixes on intialization issue with the tulip network driver:

patch -Np1 -i ../linux-2.6.17.13-tulip-1.patch

The following patch merges changes from Linux-MIPS into the kernel:

patch -Np1 -i ../linux-2.6.17.13-mips-2.patch

The following patch merges updates for Linux-MIPS kernel:

patch -Np1 -i ../linux-2.6.17.13-mips_fixes-2.patch

To ensure that your system boots and you can properly run both 32 bit and 64 bit binaries, please make sure that you enable support for ELF and emulations for 32bit ELF into the kernel.

Prepare for compilation by running the following command:

make mrproper

This ensures that the kernel tree is absolutely clean. The kernel team recommends that this command be issued prior to each kernel compilation. Do not rely on the source tree being clean after un-tarring.

If your keyboard isn't a US one and you have Kbd installed on your host system, you can build the proper keymap for your keyboard layout inside the kernel. If you wish to do this, run the following command (replace [path to keymap] with the keymap location on the host - a common location is in /usr/share/kbd):

loadkeys -m [path to  keymap] > \
    drivers/char/defkeymap.c

For example, if using a Dutch keyboard, use /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/nl.map.gz.

Configure the kernel via a menu-driven interface:

make ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=${CLFS_TARGET}- menuconfig

Compile the kernel image and modules:

make ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=${CLFS_TARGET}-

If the use of kernel modules can't be avoided, an /etc/modprobe.conf file may be needed. Information pertaining to modules and kernel configuration is located in the kernel documentation in the Documentation directory of the kernel sources tree. The modprobe.conf man page may also be of interest.

Be very careful when reading other documentation relating to kernel modules because it usually applies to 2.4.x kernels only. As far as we know, kernel configuration issues specific to Hotplug and Udev are not documented. The problem is that Udev will create a device node only if Hotplug or a user-written script inserts the corresponding module into the kernel, and not all modules are detectable by Hotplug. Note that statements like the one below in the /etc/modprobe.conf file do not work with Udev:

alias char-major-XXX some-module

Install the modules, if the kernel configuration uses them:

make ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=${CLFS_TARGET}- \
   INSTALL_MOD_PATH=${CLFS} modules_install

After kernel compilation is complete, additional steps are required to complete the installation. Some files need to be copied to the ${CLFS}/boot directory.

Issue the following command to install the kernel:

cp -v vmlinux ${CLFS}/boot/vmlinux-2.6.17.13
gzip -9 ${CLFS}/boot/vmlinux-2.6.17.13

System.map is a symbol file for the kernel. It maps the function entry points of every function in the kernel API, as well as the addresses of the kernel data structures for the running kernel. Issue the following command to install the map file:

cp -v System.map ${CLFS}/boot/System.map-2.6.17.13

The kernel configuration file .config produced by the make menuconfig step above contains all the configuration selections for the kernel that was just compiled. It is a good idea to keep this file for future reference:

cp -v .config ${CLFS}/boot/config-2.6.17.13