Compiled my first kernel - it was easy.

[Flemur]

I'd done a lot of C/unix programming the in the past but no system/kernel stuff, so most of this was new to me.

I put this here because most descriptions make compiling a kernel sound harder than it is:

1: Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/ ... .5.tar.bz2 (or the version you want, of course).

2: uncompress/untar, and cd into "linux-3.5.0"

3: $ make mrproper
(This "cleans" the code - whatever tht means?)

4: Plug in all your gizmos - sd cards, camera, USB drives - and turn them on, mount, etc.

5: $ make localmodconfig
(This'll see what drivers and such are needed for your devices, and make the config. There's a zillion obscure options on the "menuconfig" method, so I didn't do it that way.)
Edit: Now I'm making another: after localmodconfig run "$ make gconfig", which is MUCH better than menuconfig but requires gtk-dev, etc.

6: $ make -j2 ( -j2 = use 2 processors)
(This takes a long time - half hour or more, typically)

I backed up /boot and /lib/modules, then:
7: $ sudo make modules_install (creates files in /lib/modules/version-name)

8: $ sudo make install (creates files in /boot)
(I had some errors on vbox stuff - which probably shouldn't even be there - and ignored them. This step took several minutes).

9: $ cd /boot

10: $ sudo mkinitramfs -o initrd.img-3.5.0 3.5.0 (make the initrd file).

9: Run update-grub or edit the grub file (grub.cfg or menu.lst).

Much to my amazement it booted on the first try and all gizmos seem to work

[Oscar799]

Moved here by moderator

[atari800]

Good deal!!!

[Flemur]

Beginners' luck, apparently!

I did another with kernel 3.6.0-rc7, trying to get the disk drivers into the kernel so it wouldn't need initrd.img (never got that to work), and it took 40 seconds to boot vs about 20 seconds (w/autologin to fluxbox GUI) with the generic kernel.

Then kernel 3.5.4, using the config for 3.2.0-31-generic, and couldn't get it to boot; the "make install" ran forever and made a /lib/modules directory that was several times as big as the others. ??

Also, the process of making the kernels (each one) used close to 10GB of disk space...yikes.

My conclusion is: the tricky part is the configuration (.config file). And everything else.