compiling 2.6.5 kernel from rh9 .. a better distro?
Recently downloaded the 2.6.5 kernel from kernel.org as a tgz source file .. and tried to install on rh9 .. but the new installation fails at boot. I am now thinking of converting to an alternative distro that will allow this easily .. I understand rh has a whole lot of distro specfic stuff which has to be organised .. Could someone advise me on either how to get it going using rh9 .. or which alternate distro would be best ..rh is the one I'm familiar with. Also ..can you install a new distro without a reformat of the disk .. to preserve all my personal files? Lastly, can anyone provide me with a copy of such a distro .. I can pay postage and media cost. Thanks Stephen Pearce
On Wed, 2004-05-12 at 10:50, Stephen Pearce wrote:
Could someone advise me on either how to get it going using rh9 .. or which alternate distro would be best ..rh is the one I'm familiar with. Also ..can you install a new distro without a reformat of the disk .. to preserve all my personal files?
The key to getting a new kernel to boot with RH9 is to make sure that you change as few options as possible. I would suggest grabbing the config of the currently running kernel which you will find in /boot and copying that to .config in your kernel build tree, then run make oldconfig - I usually just accept the defaults in this. Once you have done that you can make menuconfig and change the options that you need - remember to change as little as possible. Then build and install as per usual. The complexity is due to Redhat assuming that you will have certain things compiled as modules etc. In some cases you may also have to create an initrd but I've never had to do this so I have no idea how. HTH -- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM: +64 21 611 544
Stephen Pearce wrote:
Recently downloaded the 2.6.5 kernel from kernel.org as a tgz source file .. and tried to install on rh9 .. but the new installation fails at boot. I am now thinking of converting to an alternative distro that will allow this easily .. I understand rh has a whole lot of distro specfic stuff which has to be organised ..
Could someone advise me on either how to get it going using rh9 .. or which alternate distro would be best ..rh is the one I'm familiar with. Also ..can you install a new distro without a reformat of the disk .. to preserve all my personal files?
Lastly, can anyone provide me with a copy of such a distro .. I can pay postage and media cost.
A stock kernel should compile reasonably well under RH, and I wouldn't expect the process to be any easier with any other distro. I've compiled 2.4 kernels from source under RH8 and I've just compiled the new 2.6.6 under debian. Some things you probably need to be aware of, however; Most stock kernels use an initrd image, and this can be a bit fiddly. It's probably easiest to compile in support for your drive controller and root filesystem if you can't figure out how initrd works. The default for 2.6 kernels doesn't seem to compile in support for IDE, not even as a module. Check all the options and make sure you selected everything you need, and make sure that everything you need to boot up (ide controlled, ide disk drive support and est2/ext3, or ramdisk and initrd support if you decide to use it) is not a module. Make sure your lilo or grub config is pointing to the right kernel, the right initrd, the right root filesystem, etc. All this is very likely to be on a wiki page already.. I haven't checked :)
Recently downloaded the 2.6.5 kernel from kernel.org as a tgz source file .. and tried to install on rh9 .. but the new installation fails at boot. I am now thinking of converting to an alternative distro that will allow this easily .. I understand rh has a whole lot of distro specfic stuff which has to be organised ..
An option, perhaps a better one, is to get a Red Hat compiled kernel from Red Hat's kernel guy. Start at http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/2.6/readme.txt. In saying that it is perfectly possible to run Red Hat using a kernel.org kernel, I know that Greig does it; you might need to upgrade modutils if this is the first 2.6 kernel you've tried to run as the module format has changed in 2.6.
Could someone advise me on either how to get it going using rh9 .. or which alternate distro would be best ..rh is the one I'm familiar with. Also ..can you install a new distro without a reformat of the disk .. to preserve all my personal files?
Fedora Core 2 (perhaps aka "Red Hat Linux 9.2") is out in a week; it's 2.6 enabled out of the box, and it's a simple insert-cds-and-go upgrade. When it's out, I'm sure someone will give you a copy. Craig
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