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From: Ivan Marin on 8 Apr 2010 15:10
(I'm posting again because, for some reason, my emails are not getting to
the mail list. Sorry about that.)

Hi all,

I've seen a lot of traffic lately about how to compile a fresh kernel, from
debian ou vanilla, in this list. After the changes in make-kpkg and
kernel-package, I'm now completely lost. Before the changes, I just had to
issue make-kpkg with --initrd (and others) flags, and 1) the kernel was
compiled, 2) a initrd was created, 3) a debian package was created, both for
image and headers, and after installation, 4) grub (1 or 2!) was updated
with the proper lines for the kernel and the initrd. But no more. Either the
initrd is not created, or when it's created it is not included on grub, or
the kernel dies with the VFS error.

I also noted that the README, man pages and Changelog of the kernel-package
are not synchronized, and I've could't find on google a good howto or at
least a man page that describes a way to reproduce the easy 1-2-3-4 from
above (I don't need to mess with package creation or portability - I just
want to compile a plain kernel on my laptop to try to get rid of the
firmware-iwlwifi bug that plagues the Intel 5300AGN). Could a good soul
point to me a howto or the steps necessary to redo the old make-kpkg way, at
least for a kernel.org kernel?

Thank you

Ivan
From: Ivan Marin on 8 Apr 2010 16:20
> On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 10:40:46 -0400 (EDT), Stephen Powell wrote:
>> It sounds to me like you want to get pristine kernel sources directly
>> from kernel.org and compile them and run them on a Debian system.

>> I've never done that, but others tell me that they do it. Of course,
>> this is not supported by Debian.
>
> I'm not sure that it's correct to say that using kernel-package to

> build and install vanilla kernel sources is "not supported by Debian".
> My understanding is that the package is supposed to work on any kernel
> tree, not just Debian's packaged ones. Perhaps Manoj will comment?

I didn't say it wouldn't work. I said it is unsupported. There's
a difference. Debian does make modifications to the kernel source.
The official Debian kernel source packages have been modified by the

Debian kernel team after downloading them from kernel.org. There is
a reason for all of these modifications. Often it's to prune "non-free"
drivers from the kernel source tree. But there may be other modifications

made for other reasons. The Debian kernel team only supports their
own kernel sources. If you obtain kernel source code directly from
upstream, and you have problems running it, you will have to seek
support and file bug reports directly with upstream kernel development.

You can't file a bug report against the Debian kernel source package
because it's not the Debian kernel source. And you can't ask for
help from the Debian kernel team on their list because it's not

their source. They will have nothing to do with it. That's what
I mean by unsupported.


I understand "not supported" as I can't file bugs from the pristine kernel
on the Debian kernel package, and if there's a problem with that, I have to
go to the kernel.org bug list, exactly as Stephen pointed. I'm also aware
about the changes that the Debian Kernel Team does to the pristine kernel.
But all this is about the kernel itself, and not the process of _building_ a
new kernel. So a good question is: kernel-package supports the compilation
of other kernels than the Debian one?

This is all explained in http://www.wowway.com/~zlinuxman/Kernel.htm
<http://www.wowway.com/%7Ezlinuxman/Kernel.htm>
In particular, review Step 10.



I will check that, and see if there I can get my way around it. But I still
miss the old make-kpkg way... ;-)

this is not supported by Debian. But why don't you just install the
appropriate firmware package on Debian? Are you saying that the bug is
fixed in newer kernel images from kernel.org that Debian has not

packaged yet?


I've installed the debian firmware-iwlwifi package, that is the appropriate
package for my hardware, but I'm having several problems with the
combination of firmware-iwlwifi 0.23 and kernel 2.6.32 that didn't happened
on 0.21 and kernel 2.6.31. As the linux-kbuild-2.6.33 package is not yet
avaliable, and I need the linux-headers to compile some modules that I need
(nvidia), I was planning my own kernel and test if the problem with my wifi
goes away. And also because I like to test new stuff ;-)

Thanks for all your help.

Ivan
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