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as I've already wrote in the topic, I compiled a new Kernel with make defconfig, the bzImage is where it there, so is vmlinux.bin. I've installed modules with make modules_install.

Now, what is the next step? should I rename bzImage to my liking and put it into /boot? And how do I create an initramfs?

vmlinux.bin is executable, is that my Kernel?

I'm using GRUB, and I'm quite familiar with using and configuring it. But I'm having a hard time putting the kernel together.

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Once you've made make modules_install, the next steps are:

  • make install this will take care to move the bzImage, System.map and .config to /boot with the right names, e.g. config-2.6.39-rc1, System.map-2.6.39-rc1, etc...

  • the next step is to build the initramfs. That depends on the distro. On a debian-like distro, it would be mkinitramfs -c -k 2.6.39-rc1. A RH like distro that would be mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.39-rc1.img 2.6.39-rc1

  • Add the new kernel to your boot loader, on a modern distro, that would be a simple update-grub

Note: make defconfig may generate a kernel that lacks the proper drivers for your hardware. Safer alternatives would be to either copy the .config of your currently running kernel (look in /boot or /proc/config.gz), or to manually determine the necessary drivers by 'hand' and running a make xconfig

Note2: -rc1 is very fresh, expect it to contain bugs.

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I know about freshness, etc. This is just a test, though. I'll configure with make gconfig later. – polemon Apr 5 '11 at 6:47
Wouldn't using high-level distribution-specific tools eg. Debian's kernel-package (though it seems to not have the favor of Debian's kernel packaging team) be more efficient? This would automate the lower level steps. – Faheem Mitha Apr 5 '11 at 9:18
@Faheem I does, but I personaly found easier to learn the low level steps, so that you don't have to relearn everything every time you switch to another distro. I guess it depends on how many different distros you deal with on a regular basis. – Frederik Deweerdt Apr 5 '11 at 22:01
@Frederik: good point – Faheem Mitha Apr 5 '11 at 22:30
Also, this Kernel is not meant to make too much sense. It's just for testing out stuff. – polemon Apr 6 '11 at 1:38
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