5. Installing a kernel

5.1 Note on ftp.kernel.org

In section 2 above I mentioned you can download a new kernel from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/ However, this site is often too busy to get through and the maintainers of this site encourage you to download the kernel from a location near you. You can access a mirror site by going to ftp://ftp.<country code>.kernel.org/ (like ftp.ca.kernel.org).

5.2 Configuring the kernel

• Unpack the Kernel archive in the /usr/src/ directory
• Choose a method to configure the kernel (see the README file for more details on configuration methods) and make sure you don't configure anything as modules at this point. This is because we won't have the necessary software available to load kernel modules for a while.
• After you're done with your kernel configuration, run make dep
• Compile the kernel by running make bzImage
• Copy the arch/<cpu>/boot/bzImage file to the /boot directory (or some place else if your Linux system uses a different convention where kernel images and the like are stored)
• Optionally you can rename the /boot/bzImage file to something like /boot/lfskernel
• Copy the entire kernel source tree from to the LFS partition by running: cp -av /usr/src/linux $LFS/usr/src
• Create the $LFS/usr/include/linux symlink by running ln -s $LFS/usr/include/linux /usr/src/linux/include/linux
• Create the $LFS/usr/include/asm symlink by running ln -s $LFS/usr/include/asm /usr/src/linux/include/asm

5.3 Updating LILO

• Edit the /etc/lilo.conf file and go to the LFS section
• Change the image name to lfskernel (or whatever you've named the originally called bzImage file)
• Run lilo to update the boot loader.

5.4 Testing the system

Reboot your system and start your LFS system. Verify that the newly installed kernel doesn't perform out-of-the-ordinary actions (like crashing).