mkinitrd doesnt exist in slackware? Newbie kernel compile question!

nmoog · 01-08-2004, 04:36 PM

I am just going about recompiling my 2.4.22 kernel and I just done a "make bzImage"
I have changed my EXTRAVERSION to -09Jan so that when I do a "make modules" the modules will be compiled to /lib/modules/2.4.22-09Jan (right?) Then once I am done I am supposed to to a "mkinitrd" to generate the initrd-2.4.22-09Jan.img file that I should put in LILO.

Well, thats what I was supposed to do in RedHat! But there is not a mkinitrd command in my slackware install. How do I tell LILO which modules version to use?

I did follow the guide in this forum, which did work, but I like the idea of having to copy all the files to the /boot directory etc yourself.

Thanks!

poison · 01-08-2004, 04:58 PM

although there _is a_ kernel compile guide at the very top of this nice forum...

compile your kernel and modules ->
cd /usr/src/linux/
make dep clean bzImage modules modules_install

install your kernel image ->
cp System.map /boot/
cat arch/i386/boot/bzImage > /boot/vmlinuz

update lilo ->
lilo

no, to my knowlege make modules won't copy you're modules to /lib/modules/<version> ...
thats what make modules_install does...
your system knows what kernel to use from the lilo.conf ->

Code:

image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda1
  label = slack
  read-only

your kernel knows it's version and of course which modules to load if I'm not wrong....
and by the way....I would use 2.4.24 since 2.4.22 and 2.4.23 have some serious security flaws ->
http://slackware.com/security/viewer...ecurity.757729

urka58 · 01-08-2004, 05:56 PM

Initrd image is not necessary unless you have some hardware for which you compiled the drivers as modules that must be used at boot.
ie you have a scsi hard disk on which you have your operating system installed and you have compiled the scsi drivers as modules, and of course they are not available at boot.
Slackware doesn't provide any automatic "generator" of initrd images.
You must set them up manually and trust me .... is a mess.
I had a list of the necessary files to set up an initrd image on Slack but I can't find it at the moment.
I will post it as soon as I catch it. (may be tomorrow if I can)
Ciao

nmoog · 01-08-2004, 06:22 PM

Cool - I didnt really know what initrd.img file was! I dont think I need to worry about that then!

Thanks!