Kernel compilation

Go to the /usr/src directory

Unpack the source code with tar -xvzf linux-2.x.x.tag.gz.

Move to the /usr/src/linux sub-directory.

make mrproper

make menuconfig

make all

—    make vmlinux
—    make modules
—    make bzimage

make modules_install

make install

cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage /zImage

Making an initrd Image

An initrd image is needed for loading your SCSI module at boot time or if you are compiling the kernel with ext3 support as a module. If you do not need an initrd image, do not make one and do not edit lilo.conf or grub.conf to include this image.

Use the /sbin/mkinitrd shell script to build an initrd image for your machine. To use this command, the loopback block device must be available.

To build the new initrd image, run /sbin/mkinitrd with parameters such as this:

/sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-0.12-jul2001.img 2.4.18-0.12-jul2001

In the above example, /boot/initrd-2.4.18-0.12-jul2001.img is the file name of the new initrd image. 2.4.18-0.12-jul2001 is the kernel whose modules (from /lib/modules) should be used in the initrd image. This is not necessarily the same as the version number of the currently running kernel.

Cleaning targets:

clean – Remove most generated files but keep the config and enough build support to build external modules

mrproper – Remove all generated files + config + various backup files

distclean – mrproper + remove editor backup and patch files

Configuration targets:

config          – Update current config utilising a line-oriented program

menuconfig      – Update current config utilising a menu based program

xconfig         – Update current config utilising a QT based front-end

gconfig         – Update current config utilising a GTK based front-end

oldconfig       – Update current config utilising a provided .config as base

silentoldconfig – Same as oldconfig, but quietly

randconfig      – New config with random answer to all options

defconfig       – New config with default answer to all options

allmodconfig    – New config selecting modules when possible

allyesconfig    – New config where all options are accepted with yes

allnoconfig     – New config where all options are answered with no

Other generic targets:

all             – Build all targets marked with [*]

vmlinux         – Build the bare kernel

modules         – Build all modules

modules_install – Install all modules to INSTALL_MOD_PATH (default: /)

dir/            – Build all files in dir and below

dir/file.[ois]  – Build specified target only

dir/file.ko     – Build module including final link

rpm             – Build a kernel as an RPM package

tags/TAGS       – Generate tags file for editors

cscope          – Generate cscope index

kernelrelease   – Output the release version string

kernelversion   – Output the version stored in Makefile

headers_install – Install sanitised kernel headers to INSTALL_HDR_PATH(default: /usr/src/linux-.6.24.3/usr)

Static analysers

checkstack      – Generate a list of stack hogs

namespacecheck  – Name space analysis on compiled kernel

export_report   – List the usages of all exported symbols

headers_check   – Sanity check on exported headers

Kernel packaging:

rpm-pkg         – Build the kernel as an RPM package

binrpm-pkg      – Build an rpm package containing the compiled kernel and modules

deb-pkg         – Build the kernel as an deb package

tar-pkg         – Build the kernel as an uncompressed tarball

targz-pkg       – Build the kernel as a gzip compressed tarball

tarbz2-pkg      – Build the kernel as a bzip2 compressed tarball

Documentation targets:

Linux kernel internal documentation in different formats:

htmldocs        – HTML

installmandocs  – install man pages generated by mandocs

mandocs         – man pages

pdfdocs         – PDF

psdocs          – Postscript

xmldocs         – XML DocBook

Architecture specific targets (i386):

bzImage       – Compressed kernel image (arch/x86/boot/bzImage)

install       – Install kernel using

(your) ~/bin/installkernel or

(distribution) /sbin/installkernel or

install to $(INSTALL_PATH) and run lilo

bzdisk       – Create a boot floppy in /dev/fd0

fdimage      – Create a boot floppy image

isoimage     – Create a boot CD-ROM image

make V=0|1 [targets] 0 => quiet build (default), 1 => verbose build

make V=2   [targets] 2 => give reason for rebuild of target

make O=dir [targets] Locate all output files in “dir”, including .config

make C=1   [targets] Check all c source with $CHECK (sparse by default)

make C=2   [targets] Force check of all c source with $CHECK

Execute “make” or “make all” to build all targets marked with [*]

For further info see the ./README file