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2 <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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4 <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
8 <sect1 id="ch-bootable-kernel" role="wrap">
9 <?dbhtml filename="kernel.html"?>
11 <sect1info condition="script">
12 <productname>linux</productname>
13 <productnumber>&linux-version;</productnumber>
14 <address>&linux-url;</address>
17 <title>Linux-&linux-version;</title>
19 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel">
20 <primary sortas="a-Linux">Linux</primary>
23 <sect2 role="package">
26 <para>The Linux package contains the Linux kernel.</para>
29 <segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
30 <segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>
33 <seg>&linux-ch8-sbu;</seg>
34 <seg>&linux-ch8-du;</seg>
40 <sect2 role="installation">
41 <title>Installation of the kernel</title>
43 <para>Building the kernel involves a few steps—configuration,
44 compilation, and installation. Read the <filename>README</filename> file
45 in the kernel source tree for alternative methods to the way this book
46 configures the kernel.</para>
48 <para>Prepare for compilation by running the following command:</para>
50 <screen><userinput remap="pre">make mrproper</userinput></screen>
52 <para>This ensures that the kernel tree is absolutely clean. The
53 kernel team recommends that this command be issued prior to each
54 kernel compilation. Do not rely on the source tree being clean after
57 <!-- Support for compiling a keymap into the kernel is deliberately removed -->
59 <para>Configure the kernel via a menu-driven interface. For general
60 information on kernel configuration see <ulink
61 url="&hints-root;kernel-configuration.txt"/>. BLFS has some information
62 regarding particular kernel configuration requirements of packages outside
64 url="&blfs-root;view/svn/longindex.html#kernel-config-index"/>:</para>
66 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>make LANG=<replaceable><host_LANG_value></replaceable> LC_ALL= menuconfig</userinput></screen>
69 <title>The meaning of the make parameters:</title>
72 <term><parameter>LANG=<host_LANG_value> LC_ALL=</parameter></term>
74 <para>This establishes the locale setting to the one used on the host.
75 This is needed for a proper menuconfig ncurses interface line
76 drawing on UTF-8 linux text console.</para>
78 <para>Be sure to replace <replaceable><host_LANG_value></replaceable>
79 by the value of the <envar>$LANG</envar> variable from your host.
80 If not set, you could use instead the host's value of <envar>$LC_ALL</envar>
81 or <envar>$LC_CTYPE</envar>.</para>
87 <para>Alternatively, <command>make oldconfig</command> may be more
88 appropriate in some situations. See the <filename>README</filename>
89 file for more information.</para>
91 <para>If desired, skip kernel configuration by copying the kernel
92 config file, <filename>.config</filename>, from the host system
93 (assuming it is available) to the unpacked <filename
94 class="directory">linux-&linux-version;</filename> directory. However,
95 we do not recommend this option. It is often better to explore all the
96 configuration menus and create the kernel configuration from
99 <para>Compile the kernel image and modules:</para>
101 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
103 <para>If using kernel modules, module configuration in <filename
104 class="directory">/etc/modprobe.d</filename> may be required.
105 Information pertaining to modules and kernel configuration is
106 located in <xref linkend="ch-scripts-udev"/> and in the kernel
107 documentation in the <filename
108 class="directory">linux-&linux-version;/Documentation</filename> directory.
109 Also, <filename>modprobe.conf(5)</filename> may be of interest.</para>
111 <para>Install the modules, if the kernel configuration uses them:</para>
113 <screen><userinput remap="install">make modules_install</userinput></screen>
115 <para>After kernel compilation is complete, additional steps are
116 required to complete the installation. Some files need to be copied to
117 the <filename class="directory">/boot</filename> directory.</para>
119 <para>The path to the kernel image may vary depending on the platform being
120 used. The filename below can be changed to suit your taste, but the stem of
121 the filename should be <emphasis>vmlinux</emphasis> to be compatible with
122 the automatic setup of the boot process described in the next section. The
123 following command assumes an x86 architecture:</para>
125 <screen><userinput remap="install">cp -v arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinux-&linux-version;-lfs-&version;</userinput></screen>
127 <para><filename>System.map</filename> is a symbol file for the kernel.
128 It maps the function entry points of every function in the kernel API,
129 as well as the addresses of the kernel data structures for the running
130 kernel. It is used as a resource when investigating kernel problems.
131 Issue the following command to install the map file:</para>
133 <screen><userinput remap="install">cp -v System.map /boot/System.map-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
135 <para>The kernel configuration file <filename>.config</filename>
136 produced by the <command>make menuconfig</command> step
137 above contains all the configuration selections for the kernel
138 that was just compiled. It is a good idea to keep this file for future
141 <screen><userinput remap="install">cp -v .config /boot/config-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
143 <para>Install the documentation for the Linux kernel:</para>
145 <screen><userinput remap="install">install -d /usr/share/doc/linux-&linux-version;
146 cp -r Documentation/* /usr/share/doc/linux-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
148 <para>It is important to note that the files in the kernel source
149 directory are not owned by <emphasis>root</emphasis>. Whenever a
150 package is unpacked as user <emphasis>root</emphasis> (like we did
151 inside chroot), the files have the user and group IDs of whatever
152 they were on the packager's computer. This is usually not a problem
153 for any other package to be installed because the source tree is
154 removed after the installation. However, the Linux source tree is
155 often retained for a long time. Because of this, there is a chance
156 that whatever user ID the packager used will be assigned to somebody
157 on the machine. That person would then have write access to the kernel
160 <para>If the kernel source tree is going to be retained, run
161 <command>chown -R 0:0</command> on the <filename
162 class="directory">linux-&linux-version;</filename> directory to ensure
163 all files are owned by user <emphasis>root</emphasis>.</para>
166 <para>Some kernel documentation recommends creating a symlink from
167 <filename class="symlink">/usr/src/linux</filename> pointing to the kernel
168 source directory. This is specific to kernels prior to the 2.6 series and
169 <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be created on an LFS system as it can cause
170 problems for packages you may wish to build once your base LFS system is
175 <para>The headers in the system's
176 <filename class="directory">include</filename> directory should
177 <emphasis>always</emphasis> be the ones against which Glibc was compiled,
178 that is, the sanitised headers from this Linux kernel tarball.
179 Therefore, they should <emphasis>never</emphasis> be replaced by either
180 the raw kernel headers or any other kernel sanitized headers.</para>
185 <sect2 id="conf-modprobe" role="configuration">
186 <title>Configuring Linux Module Load Order</title>
188 <indexterm zone="conf-modprobe">
189 <primary sortas="e-/etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf">/etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf</primary>
192 <para>The <filename>/etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf</filename> file needs to be
193 created so that if the USB drivers (ehci_hcd, ohci_hcd and uhci_hcd) have
194 been built as modules, they will be loaded in the correct order; ehci_hcd
195 needs to be loaded prior to ohci_hcd and uhci_hcd in order to avoid a
196 warning being output at boot time.</para>
198 <para>Create a new file <filename>/etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf</filename> by running
199 the following:</para>
201 <screen><userinput>install -v -m755 -d /etc/modprobe.d
202 cat > /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf << "EOF"
203 <literal># Begin /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf
205 install ohci_hcd /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd ; /sbin/modprobe -i ohci_hcd ; true
206 install uhci_hcd /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd ; /sbin/modprobe -i uhci_hcd ; true
208 # End /etc/modprobe.d/usb.conf</literal>
209 EOF</userinput></screen>
213 <sect2 id="contents-kernel" role="content">
214 <title>Contents of Linux</title>
217 <segtitle>Installed files</segtitle>
218 <segtitle>Installed directories</segtitle>
221 <seg>config-&linux-version;,
222 vmlinux-&linux-version;-lfs-&version;-&linux-version;, and
223 System.map-&linux-version;</seg>
224 <seg>/lib/modules, /usr/share/doc/linux-&linux-version;</seg>
229 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
230 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
231 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
233 <varlistentry id="config">
234 <term><filename>config-&linux-version;</filename></term>
236 <para>Contains all the configuration selections for the kernel</para>
237 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel config">
238 <primary sortas="e-/boot/config">/boot/config-&linux-version;</primary>
243 <varlistentry id="lfskernel">
244 <term><filename>vmlinux-&linux-version;-lfs-&version;</filename></term>
246 <para>The engine of the Linux system. When turning on the computer,
247 the kernel is the first part of the operating system that gets loaded.
248 It detects and initializes all components of the computer's hardware,
249 then makes these components available as a tree of files to the
250 software and turns a single CPU into a multitasking machine capable
251 of running scores of programs seemingly at the same time</para>
252 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel lfskernel">
253 <primary sortas="b-lfskernel">lfskernel-&linux-version;</primary>
258 <varlistentry id="System.map">
259 <term><filename>System.map-&linux-version;</filename></term>
261 <para>A list of addresses and symbols; it maps the entry points and
262 addresses of all the functions and data structures in the
264 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel System.map">
265 <primary sortas="e-/boot/System.map">/boot/System.map-&linux-version;</primary>