What You Will Need

Before you compile the kernel, you'll need to install the gcc compiler and its dependencies. (This software is not included with this book because your distribution should already contain it.) Here is a list of packages that are required to compile the kernel (this list is taken from the Red Hat distribution):

• binutils

• cpp

• gcc (check the README file included with the kernel source code to find out which version of the gcc compiler is required^[1]).

• glibc-debug

• glibc-devel

• glibc-kernelheaders

• modutils (for kernel versions in the 2.4 series) or module-init-utils (for kernel versions in the 2.6 series)

If you use a text-based terminal, you will also need to have the ncurses package installed so that the make menuconfig command will work. Two RPM packages are required for this on Red Hat systems:

• ncurses

• ncurses-devel

Once you've installed these packages, you're ready to begin. (If you have dependency problems when installing these package, see Appendix D for some tips.)

^[1]Each kernel release should only be compiled with the version of gcc specified in the README file.