Linux Desktop Hacks

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Chapter 10, Kernel

#88 Compile a Kernel

HACK

Each configuration program (apart from oldconfig) organizes options into a

series of categories. If you start at the first category and go through each sec-

tion, you can turn an option on, turn it off, or mark it to compile as a load-

able module. I recommend you turn on essential features that you will use

all the time and configure less essential features as loadable modules. For

example, you should compile support for your filesystems into the kernel,

but you might want to configure support for your webcam as a module. If

you are going to be dealing with USB devices, you should read “Perfect USB

Devices with Project Utopia”

[Hack #93].

Each configuration option has some help associated with it.

This is particularly useful in the graphical configuration

tools, where you can read the help while configuring your

kernel.

Compile the Code

Once you have configured the kernel, save your changes and quit. Now you

need to enter a series of commands to compile the code. The first command

creates of list of dependencies. This list is a preconfiguration step that sets

up various kernel configuration files based on your kernel configuration set-

tings. To create the dependency list, run this command:

foo@bar:~$ make dep

The next command cleans out any unwanted junk, such as temporary com-

pilation files that were collected from previous compiles or when you cre- ...