Stock kernels

[Mike A. Harris]

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Maynard Kuona wrote:

>Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:25:36 +0200
>From: Maynard Kuona <knxmay001 at mail.uct.ac.za>
>To: rhl-beta-list at redhat.com
>Content-Type: text/plain;
>	charset="iso-8859-1"
>List-Id: For testers of Red Hat Linux beta releases
>    <rhl-beta-list.redhat.com>
>Subject: Re: Stock kernels
>
>Not the binary kernel. I was referring to kernel source only, so that those
>who felt so inclined could compile it themselves.

Oh, I misunderstood.  In that case, we do already provide the 
stock kernel source code.  If you take the kernel src.rpm and 
install it, inside you'll find the stock Linus Torvalds released 
kernel source code, unmodified, along with numerous patches 
(unapplied) and config files, etc.  You can just take the kernel 
tarball from there and compile it by hand just as if you 
downloaded it from kernel.org

>We could then make use of the spec file that Redhat uses to make
>its own kernel rpms, if they are compatible.

Absolutely.

>Like recently, the kernel.org kernels will not build because of
>how Redhat split rpm into rpm and rpmbuild.

I don't quite understand what you're saying here.  kernel.org 
kernels compile just fine on Red Hat Linux.  Not sure what your 
link to rpm is, except perhaps a misunderstanding.

>So if you could provide stock kernels, unsupported though, even
>for download, it would really be appreciated.

We do.  ;o)

rpm -ivh kernel-x.y.z-n.src.rpm
cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES
ls -al linux-*


>The thing is that if they build at Redhat, then there should be
>less trouble building in the users' hands.

That is only dependant on the experience level of the person 
building the kernel.  If you're compiling it from sources without 
using rpm, then you more or less follow the documentation that 
comes inside Linus's kernel tarball.  If you're trying to compile 
the kernel using RPM, then you have to understand how RPM works, 
and how the kernel build procedure works, as well as being 
familiar with RPM package development, in addition to the kernel, 
and some of the special things done in the Red Hat kernel spec 
file.  It is a learning process not unlike learning other 
developmental topics.


>I think I should mention again that I was not intending for Redhat to ship a
>stock kernel binary, as users might install this and end up with real big
>problems.

Indeed.  ;o)

-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat