Attachment 249988 Details for Bug 439461

Mainline kernel compilation & bisection instructions

kernel-compilation.txt (text/plain), 4.11 KB, created by Rafael Wysocki on 2008-11-05 13:03:06 UTC

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Creator: Rafael Wysocki

Created: 2008-11-05 13:03:06 UTC

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>How to install the current mainline kernel and carry out git bisection on openSUSE (11.0 or later)
>
>1. Building and installing the kernel
>
>First, install git (you can do that with YaST) and clone the Linus' git
>repository, as described for example at
>http://linux.yyz.us/git-howto.html#download_first_time
>This will create the linux-2.6 directory in your current dir.  Next, copy your
>kernel configuration file to this directory:
>
>$ cd linux-2.6
>$ zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
>
>(it's better if you copy the config from a possibly new distro kernel).
>
>Now, you can build the kernel by running 'make' (optionally 'make -jn', where
>'n' is the number of CPU cores in your system plus 1).  If there are no
>compilation errors, become root and run 'make modules_install' that will put
>your new kernel's modules into a new directory under /lib/modules .
>
>The last line of text printed by 'make modules_istall' should be something like
>
>  DEPMOD  2.6.28-rc2-git
>
>but with the version of the newly compiled kernel instead of 2.6.28-rc2-git.
>You will need this version string in what follows.
>
>Next, you need to copy the main kernel binary and the System.map file into
>your boot directory.  You can do it like this:
>
># cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-rc2-git && cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.28-rc2-git
>
>but replace the "2.6.28-rc2-git" with the version string printed by
>'make modules_install' in the last line.  Then, create the initrd image for
>the new kernel:
>
># mkinitrd -k vmlinuz-2.6.28-rc1-git -i initrd-2.6.28-rc1-git
>
>(again, replace "2.6.28-rc2-git" with your new kernel's version string).
>
>Finally, you need to create an entry for the new kernel in the boot loader's
>configuration file, in this case /boot/grub/menu.lst .  Open the file in your
>favourite text editor (as root) and and copy the first existing entry into
>a new position.  Then, replace the kernel version string in the copied entry
>with the version string of the new kernel and remove the openSUSE-specific
>kernel command line options.  For example, if your /boot/grub/menu.lst contains
>
>###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
>title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.17-0.1
>    root (hd0,0)
>    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.17-0.1-default root=/dev/md1 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sda2 splash=silent showopts
>    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.17-0.1-default
>
>you can copy that into a new position and edit it to look like:
>
>title openSUSE 10.3 (2.6.28-rc2-git)
>    root (hd0,0)
>    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-rc2-git root=/dev/md1 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sda2
>    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.28-rc2-git
>
>You can also update the value of 'default' in the GRUB configuration file
>so that your new kernel is the default one.
>
>That's it.
>
>2. git bisection
>
>You need to know the last working version of the kernel and one that fails.
>Assume for example that the last kernel which worked correcty on your system
>is 2.6.24 (that must not be a "stable" kernel 2.6.24.x, it has to be a "major"
>release without the fourth number or an -rc kernel like 2.6.25-rc1) and that
>the current mainline is broken.  In that case, go to the directory
>containing your copy of the Linus' git repository and run
>
>$ cp .config /tmp/current-config
>$ git bisect start
>$ git bisect bad
>$ git bisect good v2.6.24
>
>(note the 'v' before the good kernel's version string; also, if you know for
>example that the 2.6.25 kernel fails too, you can replace the third command
>with 'git bisect bad v2.6.25).  As a result of this, git will choose one
>kernel version between the 'good' and the 'bad' one for you to test.  Compile
>and install it as described in Section 1 and test it.  If it fails, reboot
>the system, go to the directory containing the kernel git repository and
>run
>
>$ git bisect bad
>
>Otherwise, go to the directory containing the kernel git repository and run
>
>$ git bisect good
>
>This will make git choose another kernel version to test, so build it, install
>it and test it.
>
>Repeat the last step until you get a single commit identified as a source of
>the problem.
>
>[You may encounter problems while doing that, like for example you can get a
>kernel version that won't compile.  In such cases please ask more experienced
>people for advice.]
>

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