Building a Custom Kernel

Hardware

The current 2.0.x Linux Kernels will still run on 386 based Intel PCs, as well

as all the subsequent CPUs of the 80x86 family from Intel. There are current,

functioning ports of the kernel to Sparc and Alpha machines as well as the

m68k port to the Atari and Amiga machines. With a proprietary micro kernel

there is even an m68k version for the MacIntosh machines. A wide range

of SCSI, IDE, and special CD ROM drivers are available with the  stock 

kernel. As the kernel is the heart of a Linux system, it is also the fundamental

infrastructure of any distribution. Debian is no different in this matter, and

many times the flaws in the distribution can be traced back to flaws in the

kernel being used.

Debian became a full ELF compliant system with the release of 1.1 and it

has not changed the basic library infrastructure since then. There are a wide

range of available kernels that will work. When the stock kernel does not work

with the hardware configuration of the target machine, it becomes necessary

to rebuild the kernel with a new configuration that better suits the hardware

situation. When this can't be done with the current kernel, it is sometimes

even useful to move to a newer, or older, version of the kernel. A standard

Debian system (all packages with priority of Standard and higher) will have all

of the development tools needed to perform the construction and installation

of a custom compiled kernel.

The less memory the machine has, the more difficult it will be to compile a

kernel. With as little as 8MB of memory, it is necessary to have at least a 20MB

swap partition/file, but more memory will always improve this situation. Any

error complaining about the exhaustion of virtual memory can be fixed by

increasing the size of the swap space.

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