kernel recompilation

[Claudio Cilloni]

hello everybody.

did you ever recompiled the redhat 9 kernel (2.4.20-8)? I get
a compilation error when running 'make modules' about a 'printk' function... now i cannot copy here the error message 'cause I'm recompiling kernel for my home machine (I'm at work now :-)

It is possible that a newly installed redhat 9 can't recompile it's own kernel source using it's default unchanged configuration (found in configs/ dir in kernel source home dir)? It's my fault or Red Hat is going crazy? :-)

thanks,
Claudio

[Jarle Bjorgeengen]

You have installed the kernel-headers rpm that match the kernel source you are trying to compile , right ?

Rgds Jarle

[Claudio Cilloni]

ummmmmh... I didn't think about this... maybe you're right. I'm going to verify this evening.
See ya tomorrow :-)

tx

Claudio

[Claudio Cilloni]

the kernel headers are installed (glibc-kernheaders package).

any ideas?

tx

[Jarle Bjorgeengen]

Hmm I don't understand . On RH 8.0 , the kernel-headers, and the glibc were different packages. I was thinking only of the kernel-headers package, and that the version number of the kernel header package match the kerne-source version you are trying to compile.

If you install a newer kernel-source rpm than what RH 9 was shipped with, you need to upgrade kernel-headers package, to match the newer kernel-source.

I definately think this should work straight out of the box. If it don't there is definately an errata posted on RedHat's web site.

Rgds Jarle

[Manuel Wolfshant]

Please try the command
make distclean
or even
make mrproper (after saving the file .config)
afterwards retry compiling

[Claudio Cilloni]

Jarle, I remember something about a 'kernel-headers' package, but maybe is was used in an old version of redhat. looking in redhat 7.3 CDs (my desktop machine at work) there are no 'kernel-headers .rpm' file but there's a 'glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.14.i386.rpm'
like in redhat 9.

could you tell me the right steps to compile a kernel?
I follow these:

1. make menuconfig
2. load configuration from the configs/ directory
3. exit from menuconfig (saving configuration)
4. make dep
5. make bzImage
6. make modules - here I get the error above.

tx
Claudio

[Jarle Bjorgeengen]

Hi Claudio,

I'm not talking about .rpm files hanging around in your filesystem, but installed packages .

if you do an
#rpm -qa
you will get a listing of all installed rpms.
#rpm -qa|grep kernel
will list all packages containing "kernel" in their names.

Check that your kerne-source package has exactly the same version and relase number as the kernel-headers on your system. If not, update your kernel-headers package.

#make mrproper before the make menuconfig is probably wise too to clear up after the failed compilations.

Rgds Jarle

[Claudio Cilloni]

the 'kernel-headers' package isn't installed, and it doesn't exists in RH73 and later distributions; it exists in RH72.
It is replaced by (I think) glibc-kernheaders.

Could you give an url where I can get the redhat official source packages of an updated kernel for RH9? Maybe this is a known problem and it is fixed in new a version of the kernel...

tx
Claudio

[Paddy_1]

This may not solve your problem but after you are sorted with the headers thing do this.
I am not sure if you really want the headers as /usr/src/linux should have all the source necessary to compile the kernel.
try this after make menuconfig.

make dep && make clean && make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install

When this finishes you have a compressed compiled kernel and you have the modules installed where they belong. You will now need to install the kernel.