John DeDourek wrote:
> From my point of view only...I very seldom would even consider
> adapting most applications for my specific hardware. The applications
> run on top of Linux quite well. However, the kernel is quite
> different with respect to hardware variation. I am trying to keep
> Fedora running on a dozen different machines, all with slightly
> different hardware. This has, in some instances required
> reconfiguring (from a simple "vi" of the .config to a full "make
> menuconfig") to get the right combination of stuff for one system or
> another. This is precisely what the kernel-sourcecode made very easy.
> Install the "sourcecode", run "make config", "make", "make install"
> etc. and done. I do remain unconvinced that using the "src" provides
> for this "common case", as opposed to true kernel development, in
> quite as convenient form and without requiring a significant amount
> more harddrive space on some of the limited systems involved.
The familiar kernel source tree is still readily available. It gets
generated during the %prep stage of the build process.
1. Install the kernel src RPM.
2. cd to the topdir of the build tree (default: /usr/src/redhat).
3. Run "rpmbuild --target=i686 -bp SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec" (adjust
architecture and kernel version as needed).
4. cd to BUILD/kernel*/linux*
You'll find the source tree and makefile you're used to seeing, and
with assorted config files in the "configs" directory. You can
apply patches and use the standard kernel build process in the usual
way.
One note -- If you run "make modules_install" you'll discover that
the installed modules use far more disk space than do the modules
built from the procedures in the SPEC file. You can examine the
SPEC file to find out why. Alternatively, you can learn to _use_
the rpmbuild process instead of fighting it and not worry about
such details.
--
Bob Nichols rnichols42@xxxxxxxxxxx
