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<title>Installing Linux on Root Devices Unsupported by Your Distribution LG #73</title>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<H1><font color="maroon">Installing Linux on Root Devices Unsupported by Your Distribution</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:zwane@linux.realnet.co.sz">Zwane Mwaikambo</a></H4>
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<P> I'm sure the vast majority of sysadmins out there have occasionally acquired
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new server hardware that their latest Linux distribution
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does not support. This is usually not a problem because
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as long as you can install the base system you can then graft the other bits in
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once it's running. The only exception is when your root device
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isn't supported; that's when the excitement begins.
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<P> The key here is that the hardware is not distro supported. Most of the time you'll
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may find that the most recent kernels <EM>do</EM> support your hardware and hence, upgrading to
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the newer kernel would solve your problem. But it's a chicken-and-egg situation
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since you don't have a running system yet. With this article I hope to
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alleviate some of the headaches of these problematic installations so that you
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can get on with your usual duties sooner. The distribution i shall use as an
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example is Red Hat 7.1 (hereupon referred to as RH7.1), and the server root device
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is a RAID device on an Adaptec 2100 host adapter, but of course I will try to
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generalise so that you will be able to adapt this advice for just about any
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unsupported device (e.g. IDE RAID controllers or other SCSI HBAs).
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<P> The kernel shipped with RH7.1 is 2.4.2-2, a 2.4.2-ac based kernel with extra
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patches by Red Hat. My target kernel will be 2.4.10-ac1. I recommend "-ac" since
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Alan Cox incorporates lots of experimental drivers in his kernels for testing
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and hence usually has support for various devices first before the mainstream
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Linus kernel , which he merges to later. In order to build the kernels you will
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require an additional Linux box to do the compilations on (you might want to
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read the kernel-HOWTO if you're a bit rusty) and to prepare the bootdisks. When
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creating the bootdisk kernel image you can make good guesses based on the
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kernel ring buffer output from <CODE>dmesg</CODE>). Size is the objective here since we have
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to be able to fit the new kernel into the same space the original took, there
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really isn't much leeway so we have to pick carefully. Here is a rough outline
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of our new configuration with explanations. (Parts removed.)
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<PRE>
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CONFIG_X86=y
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CONFIG_ISA=y
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CONFIG_UID16=y
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# Needed for newer drivers
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CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y
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CONFIG_MODULES=y
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CONFIG_MODVERSIONS=y
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CONFIG_KMOD=y
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# Select your target CPU but skip SMP due to the size
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# hit when enabled
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CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII=y
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# Even if you have over 1G of RAM, stick with no
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# highmem for the installation
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CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
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CONFIG_NET=y
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CONFIG_PCI=y
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CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
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CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
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CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
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# This particular option just bloats the kernel
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# no need for this during install
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# CONFIG_PCI_NAMES is not set
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CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
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CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
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CONFIG_KCORE_ELF=y
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CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
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CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=y
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# ACPI and APM are not required even for normal
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# operation on desktop systems so skip it.
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# CONFIG_PM is not set
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# CONFIG_ACPI is not set
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# CONFIG_APM is not set
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# No need for parallel ports right now either
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# CONFIG_PARPORT is not set
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
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# Some distributions use loop devices during
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# installation
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y
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# Initrds are almost always used during installation
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
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CONFIG_PACKET=y
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# CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP is not set
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# CONFIG_NETLINK is not set
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# CONFIG_NETFILTER is not set
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# CONFIG_FILTER is not set
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CONFIG_UNIX=y
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CONFIG_INET=y
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# Any IDE devices? I usually have
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# IDE cdroms
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CONFIG_IDE=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
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# Speeds things up by reading multiple sectors at
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# a time
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CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
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CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y
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# You may require this if you're installing to
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# a disk on an addon card
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# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set
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# DMA is good to cut down that install time
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# and general error checking
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CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
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CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
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# If you've got one of those IDE-RAID cards
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# you'll want to check this out.
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# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATARAID is not set
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# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATARAID_PDC is not set
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# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATARAID_HPT is not set
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CONFIG_SCSI=y
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CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y
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CONFIG_SD_EXTRA_DEVS=40
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CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN=y
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# Of the low-level drivers, only pick the ones
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# which you require doing installation
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# I didn't select my aic7xxx based card
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# since it only has a tape drive on it.
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CONFIG_SCSI_DPT_I2O=y
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# Increases kernel size, skip.
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# CONFIG_SCSI_DEBUG is not set
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# required for this specifc i2o based RAID
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# card
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CONFIG_I2O=y
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CONFIG_I2O_PCI=y
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CONFIG_I2O_BLOCK=y
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CONFIG_I2O_SCSI=y
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# We don't really need network card drivers
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CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y
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# You have to type somewhere ;)
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CONFIG_VT=y
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CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
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CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
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CONFIG_UNIX98_PTY_COUNT=256
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# We can use the "text" based installation
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# CONFIG_MOUSE is not set
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# CONFIG_PSMOUSE is not set
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# CONFIG_82C710_MOUSE is not set
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# CONFIG_PC110_PAD is not set
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# You can be a BOFH later ;)
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# CONFIG_QUOTA is not set
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# If you're on a distribution with ext3 installation
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# support you might want to enable this (ditto for Reiser).
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# But try keep the number of filesystems supported low
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# CONFIG_EXT3_FS is not set
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# Some distributions require msdos fs
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CONFIG_FAT_FS=y
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CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=y
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# For the installation media
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CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=y
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# CONFIG_JOLIET is not set
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CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
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CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS=y
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CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
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# Your regular PC partitions
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CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
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# This might not be necessary but may break things
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CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT="iso8859-1"
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# Console drivers
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#
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CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
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# No pretty penguins right now :)
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# CONFIG_FB is not set
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# Unless you have USB keyboards/mice skip this section
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# CONFIG_USB is not set
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</PRE>
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After the kernel compilation is done, it's time to move the new kernel to the
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previous installation kernel's location, we do this by mounting the bootdisk
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used by the installation. You will require loopback block device support to do
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this.
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<PRE>
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# cd /tmp
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# cp /cdrom/boot/boot.img .
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# mkdir bootdisk
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# mount -t msdos boot.img bootdisk -o loop
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# cp /usr/src/linux-2.4.10-ac11/arch/i386/boot/bzImage bootdisk/vmlinuz
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</PRE>
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An rdev isn't required because syslinux passes the appropriate root device (ie
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initrd)
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<PRE>
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# umount bootdisk
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# dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0
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</PRE>
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Lets compare sizes for this particular kernel build.
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<PRE>
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Original installation kernel : 652k
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Custom installation kernel : 632k
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Custom "normal" kernel : 951k
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</PRE>
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We obviously wouldn't be able to fit in a full-featured kernel onto our
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bootdisk.
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<P> Once that's done, we have a "new" installation disk with support for our root
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device. We now use the bootdisk to start the installation. I recommend using
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text-based installs since we removed framebuffer and mouse support to minimise
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the kernel size. Upon completion of the installation you will have an installed
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system but still won't be able to boot from the device. The reason
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is that your distribution will install the kernel packages from its
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installation medium, and not the one used during installation. We have to now go
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back to the compile box and do the following to create a bootdisk.
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<PRE>
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# rdev bzImage /dev/sda1
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# dd if=bzImage of=/dev/fd0
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</PRE>
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(Use your actual root device instead of /dev/sda1.)
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<P> When that's done and you've booted to a shell, you can then unpack a new tarball
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on your target computer/server and configure as required. You may want to take
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the distribution config file and build on that by doing.
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<PRE>
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# cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.10-ac11
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# cp /home/zwane/config-2.4.2-2 .config
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# make oldconfig
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</PRE>
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Answer the prompted questions, then go through menuconfig to check the final
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configuration before compilation:
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<PRE>
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# make menuconfig
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# make dep bzImage modules modules_install
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</PRE>
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Copy the resulting image to your kernel location (e.g /boot/vmlinuz) and edit
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your lilo configuration (or skip lilo if you're using grub ;) You will have to
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do a final rdev to your new kernel, since the kernel build process "detects"
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your current root device when compiling and sets it in kernels you build in
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that session. Or you can edit the toplevel Makefile (e.g.
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/usr/src/linux-2.4.10-ac11/Makefile) and change ROOT_DEVICE to your device.
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<PRE>
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# rdev /boot/vmlinuz /dev/sda1
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</PRE>
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You should be able to reboot now and enjoy the fruits of your labour!
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<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
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<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
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<P>
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Zwane Mwaikambo</H4>
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<EM>Zwane is a net/sysadmin in Swaziland for one of the
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ISPs there (Realnet) until he starts University
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sometime in 2002. He's router-hopping during the day
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and hacking on Open Source Software at night (oh and
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anyone for an LUG in Swaziland?).</EM>
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<!-- *** END bio *** -->
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<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
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<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2001, Zwane Mwaikambo.<BR>
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
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