Mailing List Archive

Building my kernel
Hello again,

Once more, I have questions about the installation instructions for my
Alpha XL 366.

In Code Listing 11 on this page
(http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-alpha.xml?part=1&chap=7),
it says that after the kernel finishes compiling, to execute this command :

cp arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz /boot/


First of all, the compiled kernel is not in the arch/alpha/boot
subdirectory, it's in the current directory (/usr/src/linux). Second, it
isn't vmlinux.gz but vmlinux .

Should I gzip it?

I seem to remember that back in the day, we did "make vmlinuz" which
gave an already gzipped kernel, but now, there is no target named
"vmlinuz" in the Makefile...

Sorry to ask all these little questions, but I just want to be sure, and
since there are differences between the instructions and what really
happens, I don't know if the instructions will give me a working system
in the end... So I prefer to ask here.

Thanks,

J-S

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__________________________________________
Jean-Sébastien Guay jean_seb@videoton.ca
http://whitestar02.webhop.org/



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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
lör 2005-01-08 klockan 09:47 -0500 skrev Jean-Sébastien Guay:
> First of all, the compiled kernel is not in the arch/alpha/boot
> subdirectory, it's in the current directory (/usr/src/linux). Second, it
> isn't vmlinux.gz but vmlinux .
>
> Should I gzip it?

AFAIK there shouldn't be any problem. You can do either way. The main
reason for gzip-ing a kernel is to make it small enough to fit on a
floppy or such medium. Today I don't see any reason to gzip it.

If you want to be on the sure side do both, gzip and don't. Copy both
to /boot and make two entries in grub.conf.

/Fluff


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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
[snip]
> If you want to be on the sure side do both, gzip and don't. Copy both
> to /boot and make two entries in grub.conf.
>
> /Fluff

Ah, if only we had grub on the XLT! Unfortunately, we're stuck with Milo...

Milo is capable of booting gzipped kernels, but not bzip2 (bzImage) AFAIK.
Even if you're booting from HD it's useful to use a vmlinux.gz, since
loading the uncompressed kernel takes longer than loading the compressed
one and decompressing it (at least, on my machine).

If you want to experiment, you can make different entries in the Alphabios
boot manager. I always have the default entry boot my current, working
kernel, the second boots Milo only and the third is used to either boot a
different Milo from floppy, or to boot a kernel I'm experimenting with.

Marnix.


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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
Fluff wrote:

>l�r 2005-01-08 klockan 09:47 -0500 skrev Jean-S�bastien Guay:
>
>
>>First of all, the compiled kernel is not in the arch/alpha/boot
>>subdirectory, it's in the current directory (/usr/src/linux). Second, it
>>isn't vmlinux.gz but vmlinux .
>>
>>Should I gzip it?
>>
>>
>
>AFAIK there shouldn't be any problem. You can do either way. The main
>reason for gzip-ing a kernel is to make it small enough to fit on a
>floppy or such medium. Today I don't see any reason to gzip it.
>
>If you want to be on the sure side do both, gzip and don't. Copy both
>to /boot and make two entries in grub.conf.
>
>
>
*blinks*...Grub doesn't work on alpha...does it?

>/Fluff
>
>
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>gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


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Junior Computer Science
Michigan State University
warnera6@egr.msu.edu


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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
>
> In Code Listing 11 on this page
> (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-alpha.xml?part=1&chap=7),
> it says that after the kernel finishes compiling, to execute this command :
>
> cp arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz /boot/
This is already fixed in the handbook iirc.
>
>
> First of all, the compiled kernel is not in the arch/alpha/boot
> subdirectory, it's in the current directory (/usr/src/linux). Second, it
> isn't vmlinux.gz but vmlinux .
>
> Should I gzip it?
gzip'ing the kernel is fine.
>
> I seem to remember that back in the day, we did "make vmlinuz" which
> gave an already gzipped kernel, but now, there is no target named
> "vmlinuz" in the Makefile...
>
I usually run 'gzip -c vmlinux > /boot/name-of-kernel.gz' and update
/etc/aboot.conf to reflect my new kernel.

Regards,
Bryan Østergaard
Gentoo/Alpha developer

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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
> >
> *blinks*...Grub doesn't work on alpha...does it?
>
No, you have the choice between Milo (not really supported anymore) and
aboot which is the preferred alpha bootloader.

PS. We do handle Milo bugs when reported using http://bugs.gentoo.org,
just don't expect any active maintainance.

Regards,
Bryan Østergaard
Gentoo/Alpha developer

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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
> Milo is capable of booting gzipped kernels, but not bzip2 (bzImage) AFAIK.

I'm probably being overly picky (and perhaps even plain wrong) but I was
under the impression that bzImage actually still use gzip and not bzip2.
bzImage seems to mean something along the lines of big-zipped-image.

Whether or not milo can boot these images I don't know.

Grant Hill

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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
[...]
> I'm probably being overly picky (and perhaps even plain wrong) but I was
> under the impression that bzImage actually still use gzip and not bzip2.
> bzImage seems to mean something along the lines of big-zipped-image.

Grant, you're right and I was wrong! From the Kernel-HOWTO:
"Both zImage and bzImage are compressed with gzip. The kernel includes a
mini-gunzip to uncompress the kernel and boot into it. The difference is
that the old zImage uncompresses the kernel into low memory (the first
640k), and bzImage uncompresses the kernel into high memory (over 1M).

The vmlinux is the uncompressed built kernel, vmlinuz is the compressed
one, that has been made bootable. (Note both names vmlinux and vmlinuz
look same except for last letter z). Generally, you don't need to worry
about vmlinux, it is just an intermediate step. "

I think this means that Milo should be able to load a bzImage.

Marnix.


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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
> No, you have the choice between Milo (not really supported anymore) and
> aboot which is the preferred alpha bootloader.

Except on XLs and XLTs, where the only option, unfortunately, is Milo. No
SRM, no aboot...

Marnix.



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gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: Building my kernel [ In reply to ]
On Sat, Jan 08, 2005 at 09:15:10PM +0100, Marnix Arnold wrote:
> > No, you have the choice between Milo (not really supported anymore) and
> > aboot which is the preferred alpha bootloader.
>
> Except on XLs and XLTs, where the only option, unfortunately, is Milo. No
> SRM, no aboot...
>
I didn't mean to imply that both Milo and aboot was available for all
systems - I know that's not the case unfortunately. I was just
commenting on the available bootloaders in general in response to the
grub comment.

Regards,
Bryan Østergaard
Gentoo/Alpha developer

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