kernel presentation at ILUG on Sat.

[Charles Steinkuehler]

Jason Clinton wrote:

> It depends on what make target you specified when you built your kernel. 
> I always use "make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install". 
> This creates a bzip2'd kernel. IIRC, the grub/lilo boot loader does the 
> uncompressing so if you use bzip2, you need a boot loader that supports it.

The "b" in bzImage stands for "big", or "bloated", not for bzip 
compression.  See my previous e-mail, with a sample of the kernel build 
output including the gzip -9 (best gzip compression level) used to 
shrink the kernel source.

Also, the boot-loader does not do any decompression on the kernel, which 
is actually capable of boot-strapping itself on the x86 platforms.

!! STUPID KERNEL TRICKS !!

Have fun and amaze your friends with the following example:

fdformat /dev/fd0u1440
dd if=bzImage of=/dev/fd0u1440

Boot the resulting disk in a PC and watch the kernel load!  No boot 
loader required!

Remember, don't try this with a disk that has anything you want to keep 
on it, as you'll be blowing away any pre-existing filesystem.

:-)

Advanced users:  Set the root device properly in your kernel Makefile, 
craft your kernel configuration wisely, and you should be able to boot 
into your HDD installed linux!

Remember, linux was developed on the x86 platform...the above "trick" 
harkens back to the roots of linux, when there wasn't any bootloder 
except for the kernel.  This is also the reason there are some x86 
specific kernel Makefile variables to set the root device and default 
VGA mode, since it was necessary to do this before things like LILO and 
the kernel parameter line existed...

-- 
Charles Steinkuehler
charles at steinkuehler.net