Hey all,

I am running Gentoo with a customized kernel configuration.
I know Gentoo is optimised to recompile newpackage source based on a predefinied profile.

However, concerning the kernel, is there a way to recompile new kernel when they are released based on my actual kernel config ?

Or do I have to manually tune and recompile each new kernel (lot of adminstrative task if many PCs).

Thanks

my recommendation to copy your .config from your previous installation into the new kernel's directory, and just make sure nothing major has changed. It saves a lot of work.

OK.

There is no special tool to manage this ?
I mean, everytime a new kernel is realeased, you have to manually config each server then ?

(compared to package update, that you can automate)

Hi, yes there is one.

You need to run this command after copying your new .config inside your new kernel directory :

Heared about Pappy Mcfae on the gentoo forums?
He has made some kernel seeds. This is ready made .configs with optimised settings. He has put them on his website.

Only thing you have to do is to set the options for your hardware (with make menuconfig). Get some quite good kernels this way.

I tend to choose my hardware options each time, but I guess ones you have made one kernel, you can use "make oldconfig" to make the next one. Unless the options have changed for your hardware...

Mons

Most times, copying .config and doing "make oldconfig" is all you need. Then just "make && make install modules_install" as always or do whatever you are used to do.

This will work most of the times. But you should always check your menuconfig and see that the minimum required to boot is still there, things like the support for your chipset and the fs's you require to boot. There's no easy way that this could be automated in an universal way.

thats really all you need.

Thanks all.
Seems it is possible to automate it through scripting.

One more question, what's happening with "make oldconfig" when there are new option in the kernel ?
Options for which i never made any choice before ?

Is there a default behaviour ?

Thanks

PlatinumX,

silently drops configuration flags that have been removed and asks you about new ones. That way it produces a legal config file for he new kernel.

Normally its safe to answer N to new options but not always. For example, when the option was introduced, saying N, turned off most of the SATA drivers. There were a lot of questions in #gentoo about that.

More subutily, things can change, like the wireless stack. You should be saying N to the old one and Y to the new one.

These sorts of things make it difficult to automate kernel updates.

OK, I see.

One more question: when I install my gentoo, i choose a profile that configures the kernel without me tuning each option.
For example, when I choose hardened profile, it configures all needed option in the kernel.
I don't, myself, review each option.

So, when new kernels are released, can't I use the same process?
That is to say, don't Gentoo update the profile to fit with new kernels ? So I can, as during an install, use the config file provided by the distro and compile the kernel with ?

Thanks

You provided this profile - by configuring the kernel the way you wanted it. You normally have to do that at least once.
Then for every new kernel-version you can use the described procedure:
take the old .config - do "make oldconfig" - and beware of things like the ones NeddySeagoon mentioned.
That way you end up with a valid configuration representing your "profile".

(hope I got the direction of question right...)

ps: reading the next post I also want to make this more clear

I assumed that the word "profile" was used here by the OP to describe the configuration of the kernel - which can be misleading because that term is used for a different concept in Gentoo which has nothing to do with kernel-config.
See the "ps" of the next post.

The profile doesn't configure your kernel at all. Maybe you used genkernel or something. Genkernel is the way to go if you want to automate the process. It doesn't autodetect anything either, other that the basic stuff that the make scripts themselves autodetect, which has nothing to do with Genkernel. All it does is to build a generic kernel that, -hopefully- will work on 99% of the computers. Just like the kernels that binary distros ship. It will include almost everything so it's generic enough.

Maybe the profile sets hardened-sources as the default, instead of gentoo-sources. I am not sure about this, and I don't think it did in the past. At least I remember having to merge hardened-sources by hand on my server. But that's about it. It won't configure your kernel for you.

PS. Reading what someone just posted... I wanted to clear a thing up: when I speak the profile I am talking about portage profiles (not kernel configs or anything else). Those profiles that you set using "eselect profile set <whatever>", that's it.

Thanks for info.

Right, I used the word "profile" in the bad context.

I remember when i installed Gentoo hardened, that during the kernel configuration, in the ncruse mode, i choosed the "hardened server" level, and it configured the kernel (removal of Linux Kernel Modules....).

However, I am maybe misunderstanding the scope of this kernel tuning.

I think that you are talking about the grsecurity stuff that you can configure in menuconfig (or xconfig or whatever you choose) before compiling your kernel. This stuff is just like the rest of the kernel configuration options: when you enable some option that can influence in the rest of the config in the sense that disabling a given option will also disable others that depend on this one not being set to be available.

But that doesn't mean that setting that option will autoconfigure your kernel or something like that. You still need to check yourself and make sure that the things you need are there. Either that, or use genkernel and compile everything.

Well... There IS a tool that can ease the kernel compiling work... (And I feel that a lot of people will be angry with me now)... It is called genkernel. I think it can generate new kernels based on old ones.

I prefer doing it manually, though.