problems compiling AS2.1 kernels for enterprise evaluation

[Max Pakhutkin]

Greetings,

I'm compiling Advanced server 2.1 sources in an effort to create an 
AS2.1 pilot installation so that management could evaluate it with the 
possibility of later buying one of the support licenses from RedHat.

So far I've compiled sources on a RH7.2, created the installation CD's 
and installed from CD, using the earliest available kernel package 
(2.4.9-e.9). The installation went fine and I'm not having any problems 
with the resulting system so far.

Now I'm compiling the sources again (this time on my initial install of 
AS2.1 build) to make sure the result is as close to what would come in 
an official AS2.1 distribution as possible. Naturally, I'm interested in 
including the most recent kernel in the resulting CD set. However, none 
of the kernel-2.4.18-* source RPMS from the updates compile. Each of 
them includes at least half a dozen patches that seem to want to patch 
files that don't exist in the sources. After removing references to the 
problem patches from the spec file and recompiling, either the make 
config stage complains about there not being defaults for some of the 
configuration settings (easily fixed), or the "make" stage can't find a 
target to make something. And since I'm not a kernel hacker, I'm not 
sure how to fix that.

I'd really like to be able to evaluate the most recent kernels for AS 
since they seem to include a lot of useful patches (especially the 
Oracle-related ones and the new driver modules), otherwise we might as 
well go with RH7.3 for deployment. So if anyone can point me in the 
right direction for compiling the most recent kernel packages, I'd 
greatly appreciate it.

My system is an i686 one, I use rpmbuild --rebuild kerne*.src.rpm 
command, or rpmbuild -ba /pathtospecfile command. I'm compiling as a 
non-root user with %top_dir set properly. Every single applicable AS2.1 
package that I compiled on 7.2 (about 1200 of them in total) is installed.

Thanks in advanced.

Max Pakhutkin

[Xose Vazquez Perez]

Max Pakhutkin wrote:
> Now I'm compiling the sources again (this time on my initial install of
> AS2.1 build) to make sure the result is as close to what would come in
> an official AS2.1 distribution as possible. Naturally, I'm interested in
> including the most recent kernel in the resulting CD set. However, none
> of the kernel-2.4.18-* source RPMS from the updates compile. Each of

kernel-2.4.18-* are _only_ for ia64. Base kernel still is kernel-2.4.9-*:
latest http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/updates/enterprise/2.1AS/en/os/SRPMS/...

[Max Pakhutkin]

Thanks Xose. I had that suspicion after seeing some of the comments in 
the sources, but wasn't sure. I'll be following AS related news more 
closely now that I've started working with it, so hopefully won't run 
into something like this again.

Xose Vazquez Perez wrote:
> Max Pakhutkin wrote:
> > Now I'm compiling the sources again (this time on my initial install of
> > AS2.1 build) to make sure the result is as close to what would come in
> > an official AS2.1 distribution as possible. Naturally, I'm interested in
> > including the most recent kernel in the resulting CD set. However, none
> > of the kernel-2.4.18-* source RPMS from the updates compile. Each of
>
> kernel-2.4.18-* are _only_ for ia64. Base kernel still is kernel-2.4.9-*:
> latest http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/updates/enterprise/2.1AS/en/os/SRPMS/...

[OT] Re: problems compiling AS2.1 kernels for enterprise evaluation

[Xose Vazquez Perez]

Max Pakhutkin wrote:
> Thanks Xose. I had that suspicion after seeing some of the comments in
> the sources, but wasn't sure. I'll be following AS related news more
> closely now that I've started working with it, so hopefully won't run
> into something like this again.

maybe you want to be a subscriber of http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/enterprise-watch-list

[Kevin Sonney]

Max Pakhutkin  writes:
> I'm compiling Advanced server 2.1 sources in an effort to create an
> AS2.1 pilot installation so that management could evaluate it with the
> possibility of later buying one of the support licenses from RedHat.

While this is technically cool, I don't know if it's an accurate
representation of a true RHEL 2.1 environment. Please contact me off list so
that we can work out a real pilot for your environment.

If you wish to evaluate something newer, try the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 3 Beta at ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/taroon/en/
> Now I'm compiling the sources again (this time on my initial install
> of AS2.1 build) to make sure the result is as close to what would come
> in an official AS2.1 distribution as possible. Naturally, I'm
> interested in including the most recent kernel in the resulting CD
> set. However, none of the kernel-2.4.18-* source RPMS from the updates

We do not ship a 2.4.18 kernel for RHEL. In order to get the updates for
RHEL, you need an RHN subscription with the appropriate entitlements.

FWIW, the current errata kernel for RHEL is 2.4.9-e.27.