Is it possible to install a custom kernel without booting to the drive?
Linux - KernelThis forum is for all discussion relating to the Linux kernel.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Is it possible to install a custom kernel without booting to the drive?
Is it possible to install a custom kernel without booting to the drive you're installing it to? I've got a 2GB SSD which I'm using for the root partition for fast boots on which I've installed Xubuntu 8.10. I've made a custom kernel but when I tried installing it I found that there wasn't enough free space (there's about 700MB free). Is it possible to install the kernel to it from a Live CD? Is it just a matter of putting files in specific directories and editing config files?
I installed it from the deb files. The headers .deb file is 6.4MiB in size, the image 189.3 MiB. It got most of the way through installing the image before it ran out of space.
The short answer is "yes" - grub will accept fully specified path for the kernel (and initrd if required). Lilo might too but I haven't used that in years.
Don't know about a disk based boot referencing a CD for the kernel though ... A bit pointless I would have thought if you are doing all this for "fast boots".
Don't know about a disk based boot referencing a CD for the kernel though ... A bit pointless I would have thought if you are doing all this for "fast boots".
No, I was just wondering if I could drop the files onto the drive using a live CD.
So can I just put the files in /boot and point GRUB's menu.lst at them? Is there a way of extracting the files I need from the deb files or would I need to install the kernel to a larger drive first and then copy them? Thanks for your help syg00.
So can I just put the files in /boot and point GRUB's menu.lst at them?
Yes
Quote:
Is there a way of extracting the files I need from the deb files or would I need to install the kernel to a larger drive first and then copy them?
I never like the copying option - something always gets forgotten. Lilo is a particular PITA because you have to also remember to re-run the lilo command.
If you can install to a larger drive, just reference it directly from there. As for extracting from the deb, I don't know - hopefully someone else can answer that.
There's a lot that can be said about all of this,but I don't want to complicate things.Also,you didn't answer my question completely.
Anyway,what I've found is that you can extract files from a .deb package like this;
Code:
ar vx mypackage.deb
Then extract the contents of data.tar.gz using tar:
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.