mixing and matching vanilla kernel & Fedora

[Joe Byrne]

Is there a howto or other guide to mixing a vanilla kernel.org kernel w/ Fedora?  More importantly, if so, where?

Per my previous message, I'm looking for specific driver support.  It happens to be baked into 2.6.13.  If I could mix 2.6.13 w/ my FC3 installation, I would be all set.

[John Wendel]

Joe Byrne wrote:
> Is there a howto or other guide to mixing a vanilla kernel.org kernel w/ 
> Fedora?  More importantly, if so, where?
>
> Per my previous message, I'm looking for specific driver support.  It 
> happens to be baked into 2.6.13.  If I could mix 2.6.13 w/ my FC3 
> installation, I would be all set.

I always use a vanilla kernel with my FC3 system. Currently running 
2.6.13 with no problems.

The trick is getting the kernel config file properly constructed.

[1] download the kernel source tarfile and latest patch
[2] untar it in a private directory
     you don't need to make any links or anything
[3] run "make menuconfig" or the config program you like.
[4] run "make"
[5] as root - run "make modules_install"
[6] as root - run "make install"
[7] check /boot/grub/grub.conf (it should contain an entry for the new 
kernel)
[8] boot the new kernel
[9] when it doesn't work, boot the Fedora kernel
[A] goto [3]

Good luck!

John

[John Pierce]

> [1] download the kernel source tarfile and latest patch
> [2] untar it in a private directory
>      you don't need to make any links or anything

##### added this step call it 2a
###
###
[2a] copy the current running kernel config file from
/boot/config????????? to the directory where you un tarred the kernel
source and name it .config
###
###
#####
> [3] run "make menuconfig" or the config program you like.
> [4] run "make"
> [5] as root - run "make modules_install"
> [6] as root - run "make install"
> [7] check /boot/grub/grub.conf (it should contain an entry for the new
> kernel)
> [8] boot the new kernel
> [9] when it doesn't work, boot the Fedora kernel
> [A] goto [3]

[Peter Gordon]

John Pierce wrote:
> [2a] copy the current running kernel config file from
> /boot/config????????? to the directory where you un tarred the kernel
> source and name it .config

If you're going to do this then you should also run `make oldconfig` in
the root of your kernel's source tree. This will adapt an old kernel config
to the new kernel and ask you about anything new. Note that this is good
for 2.6.x --> 2.6.y and 2.4.x --> 2.4.y kernel changes, and not 2.4 -> 2.6,
since they have different configuration file formats.

[Strong]

On Fri, 2005-09-09 at 12:04 -0700, John Wendel wrote:
> I always use a vanilla kernel with my FC3 system. Currently running

What is the vanilla kernel?
> [2a] copy the current running kernel config file
> from /boot/config????????? to the directory where you un tarred the
> kernel source and name it .config

Is the .config that the current kernel was compiled with?! - So that
when I get newly installed system I can see what the options it was
built with, right?!

[John Wendel]

Strong wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-09-09 at 12:04 -0700, John Wendel wrote:
> > I always use a vanilla kernel with my FC3 system. Currently running
>
> What is the vanilla kernel?
> > [2a] copy the current running kernel config file
> > from /boot/config????????? to the directory where you un tarred the
> > kernel source and name it .config
>
> Is the .config that the current kernel was compiled with?! - So that
> when I get newly installed system I can see what the options it was
> built with, right?!

"vanilla kernel" is the kernel source from kernel.org, as opposed to a 
kernel that has distro patches added.

The Fedora kernel config file for the current kernel is installed in 
/boot with a name like config-2.6.12-1.1380_FC3.

Hope this helps.

John