Installing kernel-<version>.src.rpm under my own build root

[Robert L Cochran]

Kenneth Porter wrote:

> On Monday, January 09, 2006 7:00 PM -0500 Robert L Cochran 
> <cochranb at speakeasy.net> wrote:
>
>> I have this kernel file downloaded to ~
>> [rlc at bobcp4 ~]$ ls -al kernel*
>> -rw-rw-r-- 1 rlc rlc 40523094 Jan 9 18:53
>> kernel-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4.src.rpm
>>
>> Which I want to install in the rpm build root in my home directory 
>> (so it
>> is not in /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES):
>>
>> drwxrwxr-x 7 rlc rlc 4096 Jan 5 00:36 rpmbuild
>> -rw-rw-r-- 1 rlc rlc 135 Jan 5 00:36 .rpmmacros
>>
>> For a kernel build, does doing this make sense? Or should I be 
>> installing
>> to /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES and /usr/src/redhat/SPECS?
>
>
> It depends. ;) Why are you installing the kernel source RPM?
>
> For a single-user box, you can just chown /usr/src/redhat to your 
> packaging identity and do all packaging under the system default 
> packaging tree. If you have multiple packagers sharing a host, give 
> each his own packaging tree in his home directory.
>
> "Installing" a source RPM is conceptually the same as unpacking a 
> source tarball, in the sense that it's unpacking an archive that must 
> then be passed through translators to convert it into a binary object 
> suitable for installation. There's nothing special about the kernel 
> source RPM that justifies giving it special treatment.
>
>
I'm installing kernel source because I want to fool with the stacks 
option needed by the ndiswrapper driver, which in turn may help 
ndiswrapper to work correctly with the Buffalo AirStation WLI-CB-G54A 
wireless network PC card I want to pop into my laptop. I also want to 
fool with kernel builds for the heck of it. And finally, because these 
will let me get a good measure of how fast my Athlon X2 dual core 
processor is. And although I just have a single user system it seems 
safer to do the build in my home directory. As I haven't done a kernel 
build in at least a couple of years, I am sure I can be entirely wrong.

Bob