Recompiling the linux Kernel in Centos

The Linux Kernel is a very interesting piece of Software. Recompiling a linux Kernel is every Linux Geeks right of passage. This is a tutorial on how to Recompile the Linux Kernel.The reasons to compile kernels are far and few in between. You may want to consider doing this if you have exotic architecture or hardware that the mainline kernel does not support, which is a rarity today. Another reason may be performance benefits. If you have a very old machine, creating a custom kernel with a minimal disk and memory footprint could be your thing. Similarly, if you need a kernel for an odd target device that has constrained resources, like a router or such, the only way to get past the limitations would be by compiling your own kernel, Well enough babbling from me lets begin with the process.

Step 1 Install the kernel-devel kernel-headers packages

    [root@blizzard ~]# yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers ncurses  ncurses-devel


Step 2  Install the Development and Debugging Tools these will be needed in order to recompile the linux kernel.

     [root@blizzard ~]# yum groupinstall "Development-Tools" "Debugging Tools"


Step 3  Grab a copy of the lastest kernel. The latest version of the kernel at the time of this writing is 3.6

     [root@blizzard ~]#  wget  http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.0.87.tar.gz


Step 4 Copy the linux-3.0.87.tar.gz kernel package over to the /usr/src directory.This directory holds the linux kernel sources.

[root@blizzard csh11]# cp linux-3.6.tar.gz /usr/src/

Step 5  Unpack the Linux Kernel Package

[root@blizzard src]# tar -xzvf linux-3.0.87.tar.gz


Step 6  Change into the linux-3.6  Directory

[root@blizzard src]# cd linux-3.0.87 


Step 7 Run the make menuconfig (text menu) or make config to configure the kernel
Note: its always best to run the make menuconfig command its alot easier to select or deselect modules.

[root@blizzard src]#  make config


Step 8 Run the make command

[root@blizzard src]#  make 



Step 9 Install the kernel

[root@blizzard src]#  make modules_install install


Step 10 Verify that the new kernel has been install

[root@blizzard src]#  uname -r 


That's it I hope this article will be useful to anyone trying to learn about recompiling the linux kernel in centos.