[Sussex] First kernel compile on the cards...

Gavin Stevens starshine at gavmusic.uklinux.net
Fri Apr 23 23:44:21 UTC 2004


Hi all,
My upgrade to Debian Woody has left me with a very nice system & I'm well 
pleased with it. However, I still don't have sr_mod to do SCSI emulation 
for CD writing (sg & ide-scsi are there). So it looks like I am going have 
to download & compile a kernel & add the modules that way (I didn't add 
SCSI support when I first installed Potato 'cos I was a newbie who didn't 
realise that SCSI was needed to make an IDE CD-R work).

I know that I could go for a 2.6 kernel & not have to bother with SCSI 
emulation, but I'm wondering if this is a bit of a leap for various 
reasons: I note that the new kernels are quite different in some ways 
(initrd etc.). I tried a 2.4 kernel when I upgraded but couldn't get that 
to work, so it might be too much in the first instance.

I'm currently running kernel 2.2.20. Does it sound sensible for me to get 
the latest 2.2 kernel (2.2.26) & compile that? My thinking is that this 
should require the minimum of alteration to my system to get working as it 
is still a 2.2 kernel. (I seriously need to burn about 3 CDs as my HDD is 
getting ever more full).

I went to kernel.org & there seem to be all sorts of different bits to 
download there. For configuring (i e: adding the modules I need) & 
compiling do I need the "full source" (around 15MB)?

I have looked at, & will read further, the Kernel-HOWTO; but that can't 
answer these questions & it's always instructive to hear from those who 
have actually compiled a kernel.

I hope these questions don't sound too daft & I would really appreciate 
any thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Gavin.




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