Error updating kernel

RHEL4 OS. I'm updating 2.6.9-5 to 2.6.19.2. When doing this, do I need to update network tools or anything else?
I followed these steps:

cd /usr/local/src
tar xvjf /path-to-source/linux-<version>.tar.bz2
cd linux-<version>
make menuconfig
make modules
make modules_install
make
make install

At the make install step I get 2 warnings: "No module mptbase found for kernel 2.6.19.2, continuing anyway." The other message was the same except it was for mptscsih. I rebooted and my old 2.6.9-5 kernel is still being booted, so I'm assuming my steps didn't work. I retried the steps in the following order:

make menuconfig
make bzimage
make modules
make modules_install
make install

After this the same error was thrown and the old kernel booted. What am I doing wrong?

It takes a lot more then what you have done to build a working 2.6.19.2 kernel on RHEL-4.

First you forgot to configure your kernel correctly, second you really need to update some things like dbus, hal, udev and such (not en easy task). You should read in kernel source directory tree the ~/Documentation/Changes file before you try again, because udev 081 or better is needed and with the Red Hat family udev, hal and dbus are all inter-related.

FYI: the correct (in order) steps to build a kernel for the Red Hat family are;

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make
make modules_install
make install

Now before the 'make menuconfig' step you might want to run; make oldconfig

The 'make oldconfig' should get you a lot closer then you were, but you still have to check and verify with 'make menuconfig' that all the settings for your hardware are set. You also need to review the networking section and make sure they are set. You see the kernel configurations by Red Hat are not 100% compatible with the vanilla kernel sources.

Why do you think you need to build a new kernel?? If you have a properly licensed copy of RHEL 4 the update the system via RHN and up2date. If not then used the latest version of CentOS or Scientific Linux. Both are freely available 100% binary compatible clones of RHEL 4 update 4 (latest versions of all; CentOS, RHEL-4 and SL-4).

BTW: the latest RHEL-4 family kernel is something like kernel-2.6.9-42.0.3, which has many backports and tweaks from the vanilla kernel sources.

.

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize there was so much to it. I'm trying to get IPSec to work therefore I had to set some Crypto and Networking options in the kernel. I was under the impression that I had to update the kernel in order to update changes. Is this true? If not, how can I simply do a menuconfig to my existing kernel and boot the changes?

You really should review the Red Hat Security Guide (Section 6)before attempting to update or re-configure the kernel;

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/e...ecurity-guide/

Please update RHEL-4 first, as I said if you have a current legally purchased version then you are entitled to free updates via the RHN and up2date;

https://www.redhat.com/rhn/

If you need to make changes to your running kernel then download the RHEL kernel source and prep the source;

Dowload:

wget ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/4/en/os/i386/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.src.rpm

Install:
rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.src.rpm

Prep:
cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
rpmbuild -bp --target $(arch) kernel.spec
cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9

You need to edit the Makefile found in the directory above a bit to fix the EXTRAVERSION line to match your current kernel version, use the typed command 'uname -r' minus the single quotemarks to know what change to make. Then you can do;

make mrproper
make oldconfig
make menuconfig
make
make modules_install
make install

And yes, while using 'make menuconfig' is where and when you make the changes to the kernel configuration.

Again, thanks for this info. You are really helping me out here at work. I'm on the EXTRAVERSION step. Now the line currently has ' EXTRAVERSION = -prep ' . How do I implement 2.6.9-5.EL into that line like you said?

Originally Posted by s0n|k Again, thanks for this info. You are really helping me out here at work. I'm on the EXTRAVERSION step. Now the line currently has ' EXTRAVERSION = -prep ' . How do I implement 2.6.9-5.EL into that line like you said?

Duh!!! Change the -prep to -5.EL

Thanks for the help. I believe that did it! One more thing, while in the kernel config, what does the --- indicate? I have a list of algorithms that I have to use and some of them don't have a < > to put y in, they simply have a --- mark. such as SHA1, DES+Triple DES, etc...

It means that this is not set or no or will not be built or applied.

You might want to download and read; http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...kn_pdf.tar.bz2

Which after expanding the file is the book Linux Kernel in a Nutshell by Greg Kroah-Hartman and VERY good reading.