Compile using make-kpkg on Debian. Kernel compiles as a .deb (initrd image + modules) and can be directly installed using
dpkg -i. (Steps, UbuntuWiki). The problem with make-kpkg is that every time you make a change to the kernel code it recompiles everything from scratch, which is a pain in the neck! To avoid that, it is better to compile the kernel from scratch and not use jazzy distro scriptsThe old fashioned way
1. Go to the kernel directory (say, kernel_dir) and edit the Makefile to specify the
EXTRAVERSION. (This is what --append-to-version does in make-kpkg). It is good to do this as it helps to identify your kernel from the rest.2. Configure the kernel
make menuconfigIf you do not know where to start for, use
make defconfigThis creates a default configuration for i386. You can then confirm the configuration with
make menuconfig[OLD]It might be useful to run (not required)
make oldconfig3. Compile the kernel and modules
make bzImage
make modules In the 2.6+ kernel, you can just do the following instead
make -j N, where N is the number of parallel compilation tasks you want to kick in for a faster compile. (N = 2,4,...)TIP: If you have already compiled and installed the kernel once and later made changes ONLY to the kernel, doing a
make would build the modules too. To avoid that do make bzImageTIP: To reduce the compilation noise you can forward the output of make to
/dev/null.4. Install the modules in
/lib/modules sudo make modules_install Confirm that
/lib/modules/ has the modules corresponding to your kernel version.5. Copy the kernel image binaries to
/bootLets say that the kernel version (along with the EXTRAVERSION) is 2.6.24-custom.010209
cd kernel_dir
sudo mv arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-custom.010209
sudo mv .config /boot/config-2.6.24-custom.010209
sudo mv System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.24-custom.0102096. Create the RAM Disk image (initrd).
In Ubuntu the
mkinitrd is no longer supported. Instead mkinitramfs is used.update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.24-custom.010209 # your kernel version Note that update-initramfs looks at
/lib/module for the kernel version. Make sure that you have installed the modules in step 4.The initrd file
initrd-2.6.24-custom.010209 would be created in /bootNOTE: Usually the following are selected by default at the time of kernel configuration. If these are not set, you might get a kernel panic while booting.
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
CONFIG_CRAMFS=y 7. Last step is to update grub
sudo update-grub Check in
/boot/grub/menu.lst and confirm.8. Reboot, and select your kernel
