Dear all,

i am running FC6, and want to compile kernel, that is available in

/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i586

#make menuconfig

#make bzImage

after this i am getting error,

scripts/kconfig/conf -s arch/i386/Kconfig
CHK include/linux/version.h
CHK include/linux/utsrelease.h
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `init/main.o', needed by `init/built-in.o'. Stop.
make: *** [init] Error 2

i also downloaded kernel from www.kernel.org 2.6.8

and moved it to /usr/src/linux-2.6.8.tar.gz

# tar xzvf linux-2.6.8.tar.gz
# cd linux-2.6.8
# make menuconfig

After that i am getting error

HOSTCC scripts/basic/fixdep
HOSTCC scripts/basic/split-include
HOSTCC scripts/basic/docproc
SHIPPED scripts/kconfig/zconf.tab.h
HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/conf.o
HOSTCC scripts/kconfig/mconf.o
scripts/kconfig/mconf.c:91: error: static declaration of ‘current_menu’ follows non-static declaration
scripts/kconfig/lkc.h:63: error: previous declaration of ‘current_menu’ was here
make[1]: *** [scripts/kconfig/mconf.o] Error 1
make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2



Can any one help ?

... why? http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/FC6Common

The problem is that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL 4), and therefore, Fedora, ships with a fake kernel source that's more than kernel header files, and less than a full kernel.
You can make menuconfig
You can make modules
You cannot make
You cannot make bzImage

If you want to build a real kernel, you have to use yum to install the actual source code.

See documents like
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_85_5109.shtm
... did you remember to make clean (after the last build attempt) before doing this?

However, I think your error may be related to building an older kernel with the very latest tools. Why not try compiling the latest one?

Alas I found a thread that came closest to explaining why i keep having problems compiling a new kernel.

My Problem's Background
- I am using RHEL5 (kernel 2.6.18-8.el5)
- The currently installed kernel enables SMP, however, i would like to build a new non-smp kernel to boot into
- I downloaded kernel-2.6.18-8.1.1.el5.src.rpm and followed instructions from http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_85_5109.shtm (correctly...I think??)
- Next I copy .src.rpm file to my /usr/src/kernels/ directory
- I do the following:
# rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.18-8.1.1.el5.src.rpm
# cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
# rpmbuild -bp --target=i686 kernel-2.6.spec
# cp -a /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.18 /usr/src/kernels/
# cd /usr/src/kernels/kernel-2.6.18
# make menuconfig <---Here i changed CONFIG_SMP from y to n
# make bzImage
# make modules
# make modules_install
# make install
# reboot

I am able to select my kernel i want to boot into from the grub loader. However, during the process of setting up 'stuff', the system hangs at the point where it is:
Setting up Logical Volume Management:

Not sure why...are there config parameters i need to change as well???

You need to read around the config concerning LVM ... if you do not use LVM, then it is likely safe to disable this anyway.

Although not sure whether I need this, I'm gonna assume that I do because I can install an additional SMP kernel without having to change anything relating to LVM...

One additional note is that I installed a standard kernel (2.6.18.8) from the kernel.org site in the same exact way, disabling just the CONFIG_SMP and I was able to boot into this new kernel. However, i can't go with this approach and need to get a Red Hat supported kernel working.