Before you make a new kernel the first thing to do is make a boot disk for the kernel you're running. This way, if anything gets screwed up you'll be able to boot the machine and fix it. Grab a floppy disk you don't mind erasing and do this (as the root user):
bash:~# mkboot path_to_kernel |
Replace path_to_kernel with the appropriate information, such as "/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-bf2.4" (if you installed Woody with the 2.4 kernel).
We will be working with Debian 3.0r1 (Woody revision 1); you will need the following packages:
gcc
kernel-package
kernel-source-2.4.18 (or whatever kernel sources you will be using)
libc6-dev
tk8.0 or tk8.1 or tk8.3
libncurses5-dev
fakeroot
bin86 (for building 2.2.x kernels on PCs)
You can install these packages by doing (as the root user):
bash:~# apt-get install gcc kernel-package kernel-source-2.4.18 libc6-dev tk8.3 libncurses5-dev fakeroot |
Installing these packages will cause several other packages to be installed to satisfy dependencies.
If you're compiling a 2.2 series kernel for the PC architecture (machines with AMD processors are PCs, but not Macs or Alphas) you'll need the bin86 package. |
You can use any version of the kernel sources you wish; I chose 2.4.18 because it's the most current in Woody. Debian maintainers have done an excellent job packaging kernel sources into .deb files, and I recommend you use those rather than other source packages. The only reason I can see to use other kernel source packages is to get hardware support not available in Debian.