HOWTO: Kernel Compilation for Newbies

[cb34]

hi, really great guide, but i need some help please.

i want to recompile my kernel and remove all the cpu thermal control, and acpi and anything to do with that.

i run a prescott chip, and it is naturally very hot, i have the uguru Abit board, and i have full control of the temps and fans from there, it is totally normal for my chip to run at 70-75 under heavy load, and if it blows up, hehe, i dont really care, ive had this chip for soo long, so the issue is, i have these thermal warnings in my kern and sys logs and i dont even think my cpu supports thermal/frequency throttling and i dont want the kernel to control any aspect of this. it's causing me many shutdowns, when the kernel thinks its a dangerous temp, and i know it is not.

also, when it tries to throttle the cpu, i read the reason it crashes my system is because either my cpu doesn't support it, or the way in which it tries to send the workload to the other cpu for a second.. but its HT, not real core2 duo.. and the system jams.. or when trying to cut the power by half to the chip, it can't, and jams the system.. my motherboard has a seperate uGuru chip on it that controls all that stuff.. anywayz..

i downloaded the source from the repo, untared it, and i tried to use the program -make xconfig-, and i do find thermal stuff(did a search for thermal, found what i think it is i need to change), my question is, i untick those few thermal things, then save the config. then what.

how do i recompile my current kernel with that new config.

also.. when i open the linux source with make-xconfig, are all the settings i see my current settings, or am i looking at a fresh config and i need to set EVERYTHING properly in the kernel??
hope you know what i mean.

Thanks for any help.. i really need to get rid of these thermal modules in the kernel.

and i found all these thermal modules lookin at lsmod, modprobe -r them, but the thermal warnings are still there, and tried acpi=off(but then nvidia driver wouldn't load up, even after reinstalling the nvidia module), and during the nvidia reinstall, with the thermal modules unloaded, i still got the thermal warnings, so it is inside the kernel that i need to tweak..

sorry for the long winded post, just wanted to try and get all the details on what im tryin to do out., and what i've tried so far.

and i definitely do want to disable the thermal stuff in the kernel, i know what im doing in that respect.

Thank you.

edit-> just to show the warning im talkin about.. that eventually lock my machine...

CPU1: Temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 1820)
CPU0: Temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 1820)

and i'm pretty sure it's the thermal control module/s in the kernel that's crashing my machine, and not the high temp itself.. i mean.. there's no high temp condition that needs to be addressed if that's what you're thinking, that's just how my p4prescott runs, and how it alwayz ran.

[aklilom]

Thanks a lot! a nice guide.

[itsjareds]

Thanks! Worked great for me to enable CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD. I did reach this error, however, when installing the linux-image package, and I used the fix from this bug report to work around it:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-common
sudo apt-get install nvidia-common

All went smoothly after that.

Quick question: What files are OK to clean up after I've finished compiling? I still have 4.5GB of /usr/src/linux-source-* and 3 .deb packages, and I'd like to remove them. I also assume that it's ok to remove the link /usr/src/linux?

[Mickeysofine1972]

Hi

Does this work for Intel based video too?

Mike

[vishwaba]

UBUNTU 8.10 default kernel comes with symbol versioning enabled. I want to disable kernel symbol version and build standard kernel. Anybody know how to disable kernel symbol versioning ?

[kevinguillorytraining]

Nice guide. Thanks for posting

[kevinguillorytraining]

Good Job. Thanks for a nice tutorial

[SuperMetroid]

I followed this guide, but when I went to install the kernel, I got a dkpg-related error:

Command:

$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

Response:

Selecting previously deselected package linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx.
(Reading database ... 201129 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx (from linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb) ...

Setting up linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx (2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom) ...
dpkg: warning: obsolete option '--print-installation-architecture', please use '--print-architecture' instead.

Command #2:

$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

Response:

(Reading database ... 212420 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx 2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom (using linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx ...
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx (2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom) ...
dpkg: warning: obsolete option '--print-installation-architecture', please use '--print-architecture' instead.

I think it's a bug, but I don't understand how to fix it.

Here is a page mentioning fixes (though I don't understand how to use this to my advantage):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/403316

Can anyone help?

[timhalo]

@SuperMetroid, I got the "'--print-architecture' instead." message as well. Don't remember what else the printout said but I remember that line. I just went ahead and booted to the new kernel anyways. No problems so far. But then I only need it for 1 specific task.

@All, I read this entire thread and my problem is solved....so Thanks. I think I got back 400 megs of ram.

So now my question is....can I safely remove all this inside /usr/src/?:
linux -> /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.31/
linux-headers-2.6.31-14/
linux-headers-2.6.31-14-generic/
linux-headers-2.6.31.4-custom20091121/
linux-headers-2.6.31.4-custom20091121_2.6.31.4-custom20091121-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb
linux-image-2.6.31.4-custom20091121_2.6.31.4-custom20091121-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb
linux-source-2.6.31/
linux-source-2.6.31.tar.bz2

But, if I should want to compile another kernel, I can keep the link and linux-source-2.6.31/ or should I get rid of all, and just untar the source again?

Thanks.

[Wulfeous]

I followed this guide, but when I went to install the kernel, I got a dkpg-related error:

Command:

$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

Response:

Selecting previously deselected package linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx.
(Reading database ... 201129 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx (from linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb) ...

Setting up linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx (2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom) ...
dpkg: warning: obsolete option '--print-installation-architecture', please use '--print-architecture' instead.

Command #2:

$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

Response:

(Reading database ... 212420 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx 2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom (using linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx_2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx ...
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.31.4-xxxx (2.6.31.4-xxxx-10.00.Custom) ...
dpkg: warning: obsolete option '--print-installation-architecture', please use '--print-architecture' instead.

I think it's a bug, but I don't understand how to fix it.

Here is a page mentioning fixes (though I don't understand how to use this to my advantage):
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/403316

Can anyone help?

Wish I could find an answer to this
I have no idea where to change --print-installation-architecture to --print-architecture