CrossNodes: Tips for Compiling and Installing a Linux 2.6 Kernel

“We recently highlighted some of the wonderful new features of
the Linux 2.6 kernel. Now we’ll look at the process of compiling
and installing a new kernel safely, without overwriting your
existing kernel.

“You can install as many kernels as you like on a Linux system,
and select the one you want to run at boot time. This makes it easy
to test different kernels, and different kernel configurations,
with particular sets of hardware or applications. The wise network
admin always tests new kernels before running them on production
machines.

“Being able to compile, upgrade, modify and test new kernels is
a useful skill to have. It’s not that difficult–Linux is designed
to be modular, so you can plug in or remove bits as you need. A
typical general-purpose Linux distribution lards the kernel with
all kinds of things you’ll never need, so you’ll often see a
performance gain after configuring and re-compiling your stock
kernel…”

Complete
Story