topic Kernel Configurations in Operating System - Linux

Kernel Configurations

Ragni Singh — Wed, 08 Jan 2003 18:58:24 GMT

Hello Linux gurus,

I'm trying to install something on our advance server 2.1 running kernel 2.4.9 It is telling me to check if the following features are enabled. Where do I look for these features. Any help is greatly appreciated.

CONFIG_NET
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF
CONFIG_INET
CONFIG_NETDEVICES.

Any help is greatly appreciated and points will be assigned.

Re: Kernel Configurations

Kelli Ward — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 05:20:36 GMT

Hi,
On my Suse 8.1 system, those entries can be found in:

/boot/vmlinux.config
/boot/vmlinux.autoconf.h

HTH,
Kel

Re: Kernel Configurations

U.SivaKumar_2 — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 05:46:30 GMT

Hi,

kernel features are defined in .config file

First install Kernel source RPM
Then
#cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.9
#vi .config

regards,
U.SivaKumar

Re: Kernel Configurations

Stuart Browne — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 06:40:02 GMT

As you are using RHAS, Kelli's example won't be much help unfortunately (as far as I'm aware, RH don't keep the config settings anywhere with an RPM install of just the kernel).

If you've compiled your own kernel, U.SivaKumar's response will be right on the money.

With a little reading (/usr/share/doc/kernel-doc/Configure.help), and some nutting out we can duduce the following things.

The existance of /proc/sys/net says that CONFIG_NET is enabled, just as /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ says that CONFIG_INET is enabled.

If you have a working network card in the system, CONFIG_NETDEVICES is enabled.

As for CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF, well this requires a little more exploration. Type:

file `which file`

It should return a string similar to:

/usr/bin/file: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

The fact that you could run this, and ELF binary, means that this config setting is set to either Y or M. Issuing:

lsmod | grep binfmt_elf

will show whether it's a module (M, it will show a line) or compiled into the kernel (Y, the above won't return anything).

Hope this helps.

Re: Kernel Configurations

Kelli Ward — Thu, 09 Jan 2003 15:26:40 GMT

Thanks for the info Stuart.
Although I have used a few versions of RH (quickly dropped in favor of Mandrake and Suse)
I have never had the opportunity to use Advanced Server.
Good to know, thanks again,
Kel