Hello Mageia Users,

linux-userspace-headers contains the headers for the source code of
Linux kernel. All source code necessary to compile a new kernel is
included in two packages linux-userspace-headers, and kernel-source.
You will need to install both linux-userspace-headers (needed for
general Linux compilation), and kernel-source in order to compile
a new kernel.

The kernel is the central process of your Linux machine, the mediator
between the hardware and your programs. It is responsible for memory
allocations, process managing, device access...

Although modern kernels are very flexible thanks to dynamic modules, you
may need to compile your own kernel for various reasons: your found a
new module which need a more recent kernel, you need a feature of a new
kernel, etc...

Here is a short sum-up of what you can find in the Kernel-HOWTO. Consult
it in case of a problem or if the shortcut here provided does not meet
your needs. You should also consult the README of kernel-sources.



1. Configure your new kernel

You should never build a kernel as root, so as a normal user:
Copy the source in /usr/src/linux/ to ~/kernel/
Change to ~/kernel/ and clean-up previous compilations, by issuing 
"make mrproper",
In console mode, run "make menuconfig",
Under X11, run "make xconfig".

Then configure all sections of your kernel making each feature you need
available constantly or as a module. Note that you should compile most
features as a module, as it consume less memory, taking into account
that some of them cannot be modules as you may need them at boot time,
before dynamic modules be loaded...


2. Compile it

Just issue "make ARCH=<arch>" where <arch> is the one you want to build,
like "i386" or "x86_64" to create a compressed kernel image and the modules
you configured.



3. install your new kernel

Now you need root privilegies, so:
Issue "su" and enter root password.
Issue "make ARCH=<arch> modules_install"

This will copy your modules and needed files to /lib/modules/

Issue "make ARCH=<arch> install"

This will copy your new kernel and system.map to boot dir (/boot/) with
correct names including version, and change respective links.

It finally runs installkernel from bootloader-utils which will update the
bootloader config (eg: grub) in order to take into account your new kernel.



4. Reboot your machine...

And pray.
Anyway if something goes wrong, you just need to reboot and choose your
old kernel with lilo.

Enjoy!


========================================================================
(c) 1999-2006 Mandriva, Camille Bégnis <camille@mandriva.com>
(c) 2006 Thomas Backlund <tmb@mandriva.org> 
(c) 2011, 2018 Thomas Backlund <tmb@mageia.org> 
(c) 2020 Thierry Vignaud <tvignaud@mageia.org>