kernel location

[Nobody's Hero]

After I run make dep, bzimage, modules...
What file does it cerate?
And where do I move it in order for the lilo boot loader to execute it?

[Nobody's Hero]

Running RH9.

[Stuart Browne · Accepted solution]

If you're making a custom kernel, the last few steps you need are:

make modules_install

to install the modules from their various homes. You also need to copy the 'arch/i386/bzImage' file to '/boot/vmlinuz' (or some variant) and make grub/lilo entries.

If you are using lilo, you should be able to 'make bzlilo'.

[Matti_Kurkela]

*Never* overwrite your /boot/vmlinuz if that is your current, known-good kernel or a symlink to it!

Instead, copy your arch/i386/boot/bzImage to /boot/vmlinuz- and configure your boot loader to have a new option for your new kernel. That way, you won't be stuck with a non-bootable machine if something went wrong with the kernel settings.

(That problem is usually easy enough to fix with a "rescue" boot from RH9 CD-ROM, but it's easy to avoid the risk altogether.)

After you've successfully booted the new kernel and found out that all the necessary drivers are working, you can remove the old kernel.

If you're using LILO, the configuration file for it is /etc/lilo.conf. Remember that you must *always* run the "lilo" command after makin changes to the lilo.conf file or moved the kernel files, otherwise your changes won't take effect.

If you're using GRUB (as I recall RH9 did by default), the configuration file is /boot/grub/grub.conf (RedHat style) or /boot/grub/menu.lst (GRUB default style).
With GRUB, you don't need to do anything special after changing the configuration file.

[Gopi Sekar]

as stuart pointed out you have to run make modules_install first. It will install the compiled modules to /lib/modules/ directory.

The compiled kernel would be located under /usr/src//arch/i386/boot

copy the vmlinuz file to /boot directory and make sure it is having unique name so that it does not overwrite any existing files there.

Then add grub or lilo entries to point to this new kernel and reboot the system and you should be able to see the new entry and boot with that.

Regards,
Gopi