Kernel

Given that I want to have my own setup (LVM and RAID) I decide to compile my own kernel. I also like the fact that it gives me more control. However I do make my kernels "The Debian Way".

• apt-get build-dep kernel-image-2.4.19
  to install all necessary packages to build a kernel. Incidentially the kernel source will be downloaded as well. That doesn't hurt but I will download the original source anyway. It also helps when I want to report bugs.
  Here is the current list, when starting from a base install: binutils perl-modules perl patch make dpkg-dev file libbz2-1.0 bzip2 debconf-utils html2text debhelper kernel-package (and kernel-source-...)
  I also need to be able to compile the kernel, i.e., apt-get install gcc
• apt-get install wget bzip2 gnupg
cd /usr/src
wget ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/linux/kernel/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2
wget ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/linux/kernel/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2.sign
gpg linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2.sign
  Testing the signature should be a habit. However, by itself this tests only the consistency of the signature with the source archive file. I still don't know whether a trustworthy person signed it. I can download the signature from a key server with gpg --recv-keys 517D0F0E. I can then test that the same person (or commitee) is signing all the kernels. If one kernel does'nt get negative press then the next kernel will likely be trustworthy too.
• wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rml/preempt-kernel/v2.4/preempt-kernel-rml-2.4.19-2.patch
tar xjvf linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-2.4.19 linux ; cd linux
patch -p1 < ../preempt-kernel-rml-2.4.19-2.patch
  I like to use the preemptible kernel patch by Robert Love for desktop workstations. It improves interactive response. (Ingo Molnar's O(1) scheduler might be useful too, but I don't have any experience with it.)
• Kernel configuration: If I want to do a make menuconfig I need ncurses, i.e., apt-get install libncurses5-dev. The following items of the /usr/src/linux-2.4.19/.config file are important for my setup:

  #
  # Multi-device support (RAID and LVM)
  #
  CONFIG_MD=y
  CONFIG_BLK_DEV_MD=y
  CONFIG_MD_RAID1=y
  CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LVM=y
  #
  # ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support
  #
  CONFIG_IDE=y
  CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
  CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
  #
  # File systems
  #
  CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y
  CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
  CONFIG_DEVFS_FS=y
  CONFIG_DEVFS_MOUNT=y
      

• make-kpkg clean
make-kpkg --append_to_version=-heebs.1.5 --revision=heebs.1.5 kernel_image
  this creates the Debian package for the new kernel (ca. 10 - 15 minutes)
• dpkg -i /usr/src/kernel-image-2.4.19-heebs.1.5_heebs.1.5_i386.deb
  installs the new kernel
• apt-get install lvm10
lvmcreate_initrd 2.4.19-heebs.1.5
  creates the appropriate initial ramdisk for LVM for our kernel.
• apt-get install devfsd
  I want to have the compatiblity entries made automatically.
• add the following entry to /etc/lilo.conf

  image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-heebs.1.5
          label=LinuxNEW
          initrd=/boot/initrd-lvm-2.4.19-heebs.1.5.gz
          append="hdb=ide-scsi"
          read-only
      

  and install it in the MBR (of /dev/hda3)
  /sbin/lilo -v
  and reboot.

continue with building the RAID pairs.