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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. BLFS has some
60 information regarding particular kernel configuration requirements of
61 packages outside of LFS at <ulink
62 url="&blfs-root;view/svn/longindex.html#kernel-config-index"/>:</para>
64 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>make LANG=<replaceable><host_LANG_value></replaceable> LC_ALL= menuconfig</userinput></screen>
67 <title>The meaning of the make parameters:</title>
70 <term><parameter>LANG=<host_LANG_value> LC_ALL=</parameter></term>
72 <para>This establishes the locale setting to the one used on the host.
73 This is needed for a proper menuconfig ncurses interface line
74 drawing on UTF-8 linux text console.</para>
76 <para>Be sure to replace <replaceable><host_LANG_value></replaceable>
77 by the value of the <envar>$LANG</envar> variable from your host.
78 If not set, you could use instead the host's value of <envar>$LC_ALL</envar>
79 or <envar>$LC_CTYPE</envar>.</para>
85 <para>Alternatively, <command>make oldconfig</command> may be more
86 appropriate in some situations. See the <filename>README</filename>
87 file for more information.</para>
89 <para>If desired, skip kernel configuration by copying the kernel
90 config file, <filename>.config</filename>, from the host system
91 (assuming it is available) to the unpacked <filename
92 class="directory">linux-&linux-version;</filename> directory. However,
93 we do not recommend this option. It is often better to explore all the
94 configuration menus and create the kernel configuration from
97 <para>Compile the kernel image and modules:</para>
99 <screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>
101 <para>If using kernel modules, an <filename>/etc/modprobe.conf</filename>
102 file may be needed. Information pertaining to modules and kernel
103 configuration is located in <xref linkend="ch-scripts-udev"/> and in the
104 kernel documentation in the <filename
105 class="directory">linux-&linux-version;/Documentation</filename> directory.
106 Also, <filename>modprobe.conf(5)</filename> may be of interest.</para>
108 <para>Install the modules, if the kernel configuration uses them:</para>
110 <screen><userinput remap="install">make modules_install</userinput></screen>
112 <para>After kernel compilation is complete, additional steps are
113 required to complete the installation. Some files need to be copied to
114 the <filename class="directory">/boot</filename> directory.</para>
116 <para>The path to the kernel image may vary depending on the platform
117 being used. The following command assumes an x86 architecture:</para>
119 <screen><userinput remap="install">cp -v arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/lfskernel-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
121 <para><filename>System.map</filename> is a symbol file for the kernel.
122 It maps the function entry points of every function in the kernel API,
123 as well as the addresses of the kernel data structures for the running
124 kernel. Issue the following command to install the map file:</para>
126 <screen><userinput remap="install">cp -v System.map /boot/System.map-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
128 <para>The kernel configuration file <filename>.config</filename>
129 produced by the <command>make menuconfig</command> step
130 above contains all the configuration selections for the kernel
131 that was just compiled. It is a good idea to keep this file for future
134 <screen><userinput remap="install">cp -v .config /boot/config-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
136 <para>Install the documentation for the Linux kernel:</para>
138 <screen><userinput remap="install">install -d /usr/share/doc/linux-&linux-version;
139 cp -r Documentation/* /usr/share/doc/linux-&linux-version;</userinput></screen>
141 <para>It is important to note that the files in the kernel source
142 directory are not owned by <emphasis>root</emphasis>. Whenever a
143 package is unpacked as user <emphasis>root</emphasis> (like we did
144 inside chroot), the files have the user and group IDs of whatever
145 they were on the packager's computer. This is usually not a problem
146 for any other package to be installed because the source tree is
147 removed after the installation. However, the Linux source tree is
148 often retained for a long time. Because of this, there is a chance
149 that whatever user ID the packager used will be assigned to somebody
150 on the machine. That person would then have write access to the kernel
153 <para>If the kernel source tree is going to be retained, run
154 <command>chown -R 0:0</command> on the <filename
155 class="directory">linux-&linux-version;</filename> directory to ensure
156 all files are owned by user <emphasis>root</emphasis>.</para>
159 <para>Some kernel documentation recommends creating a symlink from
160 <filename class="symlink">/usr/src/linux</filename> pointing to the kernel
161 source directory. This is specific to kernels prior to the 2.6 series and
162 <emphasis>must not</emphasis> be created on an LFS system as it can cause
163 problems for packages you may wish to build once your base LFS system is
168 <para>The headers in the system's
169 <filename class="directory">include</filename> directory should
170 <emphasis>always</emphasis> be the ones against which Glibc was compiled,
171 that is, the sanitised headers from this Linux kernel tarball.
172 Therefore, they should <emphasis>never</emphasis> be replaced by either
173 the raw kernel headers or any other kernel sanitized headers.</para>
178 <sect2 id="conf-modprobe" role="configuration">
179 <title>Configuring Linux Module Load Order</title>
181 <indexterm zone="conf-modprobe">
182 <primary sortas="e-/etc/modprobe.conf">/etc/modprobe.conf</primary>
185 <para>The <filename>/etc/modprobe.conf</filename> file needs to be created
186 so that if the USB drivers (ehci_hcd, ohci_hcd and uhci_hcd) have been built
187 as modules, they will be loaded in the correct order; ehci_hcd needs to be
188 loaded prior to ohci_hcd and uhci_hcd in order to avoid a warning being
189 output at boot time.</para>
191 <para>Create a new file <filename>/etc/modprobe.conf</filename> by running
192 the following:</para>
194 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/modprobe.conf << "EOF"
195 <literal># Begin /etc/modprobe.conf
197 install ohci_hcd /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd ; /sbin/modprobe -i ohci_hcd ; true
198 install uhci_hcd /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd ; /sbin/modprobe -i uhci_hcd ; true
200 # End /etc/modprobe.conf</literal>
201 EOF</userinput></screen>
205 <sect2 id="contents-kernel" role="content">
206 <title>Contents of Linux</title>
209 <segtitle>Installed files</segtitle>
212 <seg>config-&linux-version;, lfskernel-&linux-version;, and
213 System.map-&linux-version;</seg>
218 <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
219 <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
220 <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>
222 <varlistentry id="config">
223 <term><filename>config-&linux-version;</filename></term>
225 <para>Contains all the configuration selections for the kernel</para>
226 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel config">
227 <primary sortas="e-/boot/config">/boot/config-&linux-version;</primary>
232 <varlistentry id="lfskernel">
233 <term><filename>lfskernel-&linux-version;</filename></term>
235 <para>The engine of the Linux system. When turning on the computer,
236 the kernel is the first part of the operating system that gets loaded.
237 It detects and initializes all components of the computer's hardware,
238 then makes these components available as a tree of files to the
239 software and turns a single CPU into a multitasking machine capable
240 of running scores of programs seemingly at the same time</para>
241 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel lfskernel">
242 <primary sortas="b-lfskernel">lfskernel-&linux-version;</primary>
247 <varlistentry id="System.map">
248 <term><filename>System.map-&linux-version;</filename></term>
250 <para>A list of addresses and symbols; it maps the entry points and
251 addresses of all the functions and data structures in the
253 <indexterm zone="ch-bootable-kernel System.map">
254 <primary sortas="e-/boot/System.map">/boot/System.map-&linux-version;</primary>