“The kernel is a piece of computer code, that when properly
configured and compiled runs and manages all of your programs, user
input, disks, memory, and other devices. Typically, after it
is compiled, it is stored as a binary in either /vmlinuz or
/boot/vmlinuz depending on your setup.”
“The first piece of information you need to know, is how to
identify different versions of the Linux Kernel. You’ll hear
someone say something like, “I’m running the 2.2.16 kernel.” Let’s
dissect this number piece by piece. The first number specifies the
the overall version number, which in this case, is two. The second
number indicates whether the kernel is a “development” kernel or a
“stable” kernel. All dev kernels are “odd” and stable kernels are
“even”. In our example, two is even, therefore this kernel is
stable. The final number indicates the minor version number.”
“The first step in compiling a kernel is to download the source
code. A system of FTP mirrors is setup around the world for this
exact purpose. To use the closest mirror substitute your country
code (ie .jp, .us, .ca, etc.) for the xx in ftp.xx.kernel.org. For
example purposes, we’ll use
(ftp://ftp.us.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.2/).”