[Kernel-handbook-general] kernel handbook

[Jurij Smakov]

Hi Jan,

Sorry for the delayed reply.

On Fri, Dec 29, 2006 at 05:36:42PM +0100, Jan Evert van Grootheest wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I was attempting to (re-)create the debian kernel that I have on my 
> router to add a driver for the adm8211 wireless card (code from the 
> d80211 project).
> Luckily I found the kernel handbook.

I have recently (December 31st) updated it with new information, 
removed the empty chapters and added some new content. I would 
appreciate any comments.

> What I would propose to add in 4.2 (rebuilding an official Debian kernel 
> package) is how to find supported arch, subarch and flavour 
> combinations. (I finally came upon 'grep ^setup | grep amd64' and took 
> it from there)

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll think about what can be done here.
 
> What I would like to ask is how do I ensure that the package I build 
> does not clash with the official debian packages? Because the package 
> that is building right now will have the same version as the one that 
> was officially created from it.

Well, it will not "clash". If the version is the same, the package 
will just get replaced by your own. If you will want to go back to 
the official package at some point, you can just do 

apt-get --reinstall install linux-image-2.6.18-3-686

and it will get pulled in from the repository.
 
> Also I would like to amend the kernel version, which I did for the 
> kernel itself using 'echo something > localversion-something' in the 
> proper debian/build/build-xyz directory. What problems to expect there?
> 
> Or would it simply be smarter to take the code and then use 
> kernel-package to create my own package?

I think, in this case the preferred strategy is to use kernel-package 
directly. By the way, is it really neccessary to rebuild the kernel 
just to get a few modules in? Perhaps you can build them as out of 
tree modules, some information about it may be found in the (new) 
chapter 4.5. 

Best regards,
-- 
Jurij Smakov                                           jurij at wooyd.org
Key: http://www.wooyd.org/pgpkey/                      KeyID: C99E03CC