This my first experience compling a kernel the debian way. I followed line by line the instructions found on this page http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/KernelCompileHowto. Everything went ok except i can't boot the new kernel because I can't find what initrd to put in grub. The FAQ says that there should be an initrd automatically generated(?) but after installing the kernel with dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.8.1_custom.1.0_i386.deb I can find the new kernel settings in grub but the initrd line is missing! What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

You can make the initrd file with the command mkinitrd name_of_the_initrd_file version_of_your_kernel

You can make up the name for the initrd file as long as you write it to /boot/grub/grub.conf file exactly as you named it. And about the kernel version number. You can get it in /usr/lib/modules (I think), there is a directory called 2.6.8.1 probably, so you have to use that number exactly as the directory in there is named. So an example of the command would be:

mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.8.1-my_initrd_file 2.6.8.1

Be sure to update the grub.conf file accordingly.

Good luck!

hey just a curious question .. why do you want to compile your kernel any way?

Thx marghorp for the mkinitrd sugestion it helped me find what I was looking for. In ubuntu it's a bit different though, I found the exact solution here: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthr...hlight=mkinitrd.
I want to compile the kernel in order to remove support for things that i don't have/use. There's certainly a debate on how much this can speed up your system(if it really does?) but you surely get a lighter kernel this way. Also I like to keep my kernel up to date so that I can benefit of the latest bug fixes. And finally like a friend of mine says "this way you have your own unique linuxbox",hehe.

oops, that's the link: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...light=mkinitrd

Why ompile your kernel? Just one thing, that comes to mind. Hotplugging USB devices took my box a minute or so, and it now takles only 5 secs after I only left the support for the USB dvices I use. And the overall loading of my box was reduced from 1minute 30 seconds to 23 seconds

The trick is to compile into the kernel only the things you need at boot time (like ext2 support and such). Everything else is best compiled as modules as it leaves the kernel intact and light (and FAST).

Sorry if this is not the thread to post this into.