Ubuntu kernel configuration

[Michael J. Lynch]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Michael J. Lynch wrote:
> 
> 
>>Anyway...what we've found is that the "/boot/config-$(uname -r)"
>>files can NOT be used to recreate the "/boot/vmlinux-$(uname -r)" and
>>"/boot/initrd.img-$(uname -r)" files.
> 
> ...
> 
>>In /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r) run "make oldconfig"
>>Do remainder of build process
> 
> 
> That's a pretty big chunk of work to call "remainder".  Despite your
> colleagues 20 years of Linux experience, I suspect he isn't familiar with
> make-kpkg, which is how the Debian/Ubuntu kernels are built.

Well...I just didn't feel like type all of the crap we do for
"remainder".  You are correct, our experience is almost entirely with
RPM based distros (Redhat, SuSe, Mandrake, and others).  This looks like
the bit of information I was looking to find.  Can you point me at a
howto or wiki with example usage?

> 
> 
>>We always end up with vmlinuz and initrd images that a significantly
>>different that the originals.  The *big* problem is that initrd ends
>>up being huge and wont fit in memory (256M).  The original initrd that
>>was supposedly generated using the config is tiny in comparison.  If
>>we look at the config, practically *everything* is being compiled as
>>modules.  This explains why initrd is so large.  
> 
> 
> It really doesn't.  Now, I would expect the vmlinuz image to be the same
> size in any case, but the initrd doesn't need to hold _all_ the kernel
> modules, only the ones needed to boot.  mkinitrd has its own configuration
> file.


-- 
Michael J. Lynch

What if the hokey pokey IS what it's all about -- author unknown