Confused Over Selecting Kernel Package
 

Hi;

I am looking to upgrade my Kernel from 2.6.18 to 2.6.23 in my Debian Etch installation. I need to do this because it just seems like it's gonna be easier than patching version 18 with the MAC802.11 Subsystem.

Anyway to the point. I want to use the Debian Provided Kernel in Sid over just downloading one from Kernel.org, and though I haven't a problem with this, I am utterly confused by the packages available. I have, if I recall corectly, a Kernel-Source, Kernel-Image, and Kernel-Headers.

I belive I can "install" the Kernel-Source, and all that really does is download the new source to /usr/src (Again I am going from memory, I was dealing with this problem a month ago and just dropped it out of frustration)

I would then un-tar the thing and go about my merry way with configuring it. And use my original configuration files for any future software installation requireing the use of headers or the like.

But what I really don't get. is if this is the case. what is the point of a Kernel-Headers package for a kernel your going to download and configure yourself. and I have absolutely no clue what the Kernel-Image package is for.

I would really like some clarification of what these packages are for before I proceed. All I need is to have it done, and then two months later have massive issues because I did it wrong.

Thanks for any assistance;
TeddyB

The kernel-image package is the binary version of the kernel. It has already been compiled and can be installed without you having to do a compile.

When you compile drivers and other modular additions to the kernel you need to make the kernel source available to the compile so that the new addition can compile against some of the names in the kernel source. The kernel-headers are a subset of the entire kernel source. The kernel-headers contain only those portions of the source that other routines might want to compile against. You don't need the kernel-headers for your own kernel compile but the kernel-headers come in handy if you are going to compile drivers against your new kernel.

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Steve Stites

okay,

So the Kernel-headers in this case only exist as headers for the pre-compiled Kernel-Image?

Also, Obviously it is better to compile the kernel yourself line by line to have the most effective and tailored Kernel for you system. But how "bad" would it be to use the pre-packaged binaries? Does it give you a serious disadvantage?

Thanks for your speedy reply, and time;
TeddyB

The problem is that the kernel is such an essential part of your system that upgrading it to Sid will drag in a bunch of upgrades to (equally essential) libraries and utilities. Once you do that, you really no longer have an Etch/Stable system. (And if you then comment out the Sid repos - which many people do - then you won't even get any updates to the kernel in the case of security patches or whatever.) As an alternative, you could add a line like this to your /etc/apt/sources.list Then download the kernel source and compile it yourself. There are lots of good howto guides available for compiling a kernel in Debian. I like this one a lot http://technowizah.com/2005/12/debia...l-compile.html, but there are plenty of other good ones. The Debian sources come with Debian patches. You could also get the vanilla sources from http://www.kernel.org

I have compiled my own kernel on occasion. The advantages to me were:

I got rid of initrd and thus boot sped up.

The kernel was smaller and took up less memory. On one computer I owned saving memory was important.

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Steve Stites