How To Compile the new 2.6.16 kernel from kernel.org

[Centaur5]

same error for me aswell but when i try it with ndiswrapper using windows drivers the kernel crashes

That's good to know, I'm not going to try ndiswrapper then. I was wondering what sound card you have on your laptop? The reason I wanted 2.6.17 was to get the headphone jack working (which it did) but I might just have to boot 2 different kernels depending on whether I need wireless or headphones. I haven't had any luck finding anything else on our problem with that kernel and our wireless but I will keep looking.

[haani]

That's good to know, I'm not going to try ndiswrapper then. I was wondering what sound card you have on your laptop? The reason I wanted 2.6.17 was to get the headphone jack working (which it did) but I might just have to boot 2 different kernels depending on whether I need wireless or headphones. I haven't had any luck finding anything else on our problem with that kernel and our wireless but I will keep looking.

i have realtek ALC883 HD soundcard which works fine in the new kernel.

[mlind]

nice guide! I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but you should add your
useraccount to group called "src", which allows r/w access to /usr/src folder.
This way no sudoing is required, which is better.

User must relogin, so that new settings work. This can be done just by using su on current terminal session.

su $USER

And maybe include "make oldconfig" before making xconfig.

[isotonic]

I followed this howto for the 2.6.17 kernel, stripped off the unwanted options, compiled and rebooted...

...Not only did it boot up much quicker, the whole OS is faster, particularly internet browsing!

I got rid of a ton of network and peripheral options and the new, smaller kernel is doing the business (only faster).

Probably the most useful howto i've read on this forum so far. Thanks OP!!!

Should be part of any firefox speed up howto!!!

[lodp]

i have realtek ALC883 HD soundcard which works fine in the new kernel.

Do you mean the 2.6.16 or the 2.6.17 one? I've got an Intel-HDA ALC883 and it didn't work with the 2.6.17 kernel (and the 2.6.15-25 one). Never tried 2.6.16 though.

I started a thread on my nasty ALC883 sound problem here: No sound w/ HDA-Intel Realtek ALC883 - tried *everything*

Also, wireless (ip2200) didn't work with the new kernel. didn't care to do any tinkering to get it to work, though. might have been able to.

[haani]

Do you mean the 2.6.16 or the 2.6.17 one? I've got an Intel-HDA ALC883 and it didn't work with the 2.6.17 kernel (and the 2.6.15-25 one). Never tried 2.6.16 though.

I started a thread on my nasty ALC883 sound problem here: No sound w/ HDA-Intel Realtek ALC883 - tried *everything*

Also, wireless (ip2200) didn't work with the new kernel. didn't care to do any tinkering to get it to work, though. might have been able to.

i mean the new kernel 2.6.17 it does work with it!!

[lodp]

i mean the new kernel 2.6.17 it does work with it!!

that's strange. i compiled the thing and it didn't change anything with regards to my sound problem -- would you care to look at the thread i pointed out above, and tell me what you think?

2.6.17 has alsa 1.0.11rc4 built into it, which supposedly supports the ALC883 chipset, so it's really strange it doesn't work.

[vseehua]

hmm... i had compiled my third kernel and all three times the wireless card stops working... any ideas? mine is a ipw2200...

tried compiling from the source gotten from sourceforge.net but that also failed... the wireless modules was working just fine in the ubuntu kernel...

[kcallis]

I just finished compiling the newest 2.6.16 kernel from kernel.org and I am getting much better performance. In what follows, I will show you how to compile and configure the latest kernel. You do not need to use the 2.6.16 kernel but it is the first kernel of the release kernel and performance patches are only made for these releases. (ex: 2.6.16, 2.6.17 NOT 2.6.16.20) Feel free to compile a kernel besides the first release cycle kernel. You do not need the patch and you can configure the kernel for maxium speed in xconfig. A tutorial to optimize the kernel you are building can be found here.

Before you begin, you will need to get a kernel
Download the 2.6.16 kernel and it's performance patch: The 2.6.16 kernel
Latest Kernel Patch Don't apply the patch if you are compiling a kernel other then 2.6.16 otherwise the kernel will not compile.

Check out kernel.org for the latest stable/release canidate kernel.

1. Install needed utilities to configure the kernel



2. Now we are going to move the kernel and unpack it.



3. Now we are going to move to /usr/src



4. Now unpack it:



5. Rename the folder: ONLY needed for 2.6.16 kernel ! You don't need to do this.



6. Now we are going to remove the link to the linux directory:



7. Make a new link to the new kernel:



8. Move to the Linux directory:



9. Make yourself root:



10. Apply the performance patch: Don't use if you are not patching the 2.6.16 kernel !



11. Now we are going to import your current kernel configuration:



12. Now import it: Make sure to replace the kernel version in this following command from the one from uname -r.



13.Configure the kernel:



Here are some performance tips from this thread.



Note: Not all the options will be the same in newer kernels.

14. Let's build the kernel: Make sure that you are in /usr/src/linux with full root access. Make sure that you are. This will build a debian file that you can install.

Now, in terminal do the following:


Note: You can replace "ck12" with anything you want. Like "k7" or "686."
15. Install the .deb fine in /usr/src. In terminal do



Now reboot and you will have a much faster system !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

How I learned to do this:
2.6.14 Vanilla Kernel I based my tutorial on this thread. Thank you for writing this tutorial RubenGonc !

And I also learned some stuff from this thread
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Troubleshooting:

Q: My Wifi Doesn't work !

A:To get wifi working, compile the new ndiswrapper from source. Follow the tutorial.

Q: When I reboot I get Grub Error 22 ! WTF ???

A: You may have missed a step or messed something up. When it says Grub Loading..... press esc and you will be able to boot with another kernel. Then you should go into synaptic and uninstall the broken kernel and then reompile it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How can I get fglrx and DRI working on my new kernel ?

A: Type this in terminal:



Reboot and if that does not work, make sure fglrx is in the Driver section.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I need kernel headers for my custom kernel.

A: I updated the howto and edited the last step to build a kernel image, kernel module image, and kernel headers. Thank you to tseliot for his kernel thread because I found the command there. You can view the thread here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: I want to optimize my kernel ! What do I select ???

A: I just wrote this tutorial on how to configure your kernel for enhanced performance. I hope it helps.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Why did you write this tutorial ?
A: I wrote this tutorial to help give back to the Ubuntu community. I've had such a good expericence with ubuntu that I want to help others. This community is great

That was a great tutorial! I do have a question about the booting process. I am using grub to boot my various generic kernels along with booting Windows XP. Using the method above, will that impair my ability to boot in XP when necessary? If so, what can I do to make a image that will interface will interface with grub so that I can get to all of my images, including Windows XP.

[bocmaxima]

I tried this, but when I put in the first command to install the stuff I got

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  build-essential: Depends: libc6-dev but it is not going to be installed or
                            libc-dev
                   Depends: gcc (>= 4:4.0) but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: g++ (>= 4:4.0) but it is not going to be installed
  libqt3-mt-dev: Depends: xlibs-static-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxext-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxrandr-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: x-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libsm-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxmu-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libice-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libx11-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxt-dev (>= 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxrender-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxcursor-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxinerama-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libxi-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libmng-dev (>= 1.0.3) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libpng12-0-dev
                 Depends: libjpeg62-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: zlib1g-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libfreetype6-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libc6-dev but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libqt3-mt (= 3:3.3.4-8ubuntu5) but 3:3.3.6-1ubuntu6 is to be installed
                 Depends: libgl1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed or                          libgl-dev
                 Depends: libglu1-mesa-dev but it is not going to be installed or
                          libglu-dev
                 Depends: libxft-dev but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

Somethiing wrong on my end perhaps?