Kernel build question

[Michael K. Johnson]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2003 at 05:03:59PM -0700, John Wendel wrote:
> Could someone explain the reason for storing the uncompressed
> kernel (vmlinux) in the lib/modules/<kernel.version> directory?
> 
> What uses this kernel?

One can use it for debugging symbols.  It's in /lib/modules/`uname -r`
in order to keep /boot usage down; you'll see a symlink in /boot to it.
If you read kernel-2.4.spec, you'll see that we pull debuginfo information
thence:
#   now separate out the debug info from the modules/vmlinux
   /usr/lib/rpm/find-debuginfo.sh %{_builddir}/%{?buildsubdir} || :

If you look at the size of the kernel-debuginfo packages, you'll be
glad we pull it out.  :-)

> I noticed that my custom kernel, installed by "make install"
> didn't put a copy of vmlinux in the modules directory. Should I
> do it?

No need for you to do that.

michaelkjohnson

 "He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book."
 Linux Application Development                     -- Ben Franklin
 http://people.redhat.com/johnsonm/lad/