Hello there,

I m writing device driver for Linux(rather learning how to write them)
I m referring book from http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD2/ URL(Linux Device Drivers)

As per requirement to run examples from this book, I need to hv kernel 2.6.x

I installed RHEL-5(kernel ver 2.6.18)

Now the problem is,

1. how i can proceed with kernel tree configuration ??
What's the need to configure kernel tree as it may be configured at installation time (OR might not be)??


2. Please explain, what they exactly mean by configuring & building kernel tree?(What happens internally ..??)

First off if I may gently suggest, if you don't understand what is involved in building a kernel you need to do a lot more research before you try writing device drivers.

The quick answers to your questions are:

1. Try make menuconfig. That's the easiest method in my opinion. Then do make clean, followed by make, and then install the kernel and associated modules.

2. Under the hood you are setting up what parts of the kernel will be built and then doing the actual compiling/assembling/linking. A more detailed explanation involves a lot more basic info.