en/handbook/hb-install-alpha-kernel.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE sections SYSTEM "/dtd/book.dtd">

<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->

<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/handbook/hb-install-alpha-kernel.xml,v 1.46 2008/04/01 08:53:46 nightmorph Exp $ -->

<sections>

<version>10</version>
<date>2011-08-03</date>

<section>
<title>Timezone</title>
<body>

<p>
You first need to select your timezone so that your system knows where it is
located. Look for your timezone in <path>/usr/share/zoneinfo</path>, then copy
it to <path>/etc/localtime</path>. Please avoid the
<path>/usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT*</path> timezones as their names do not
indicate the expected zones. For instance, <path>GMT-8</path> is in fact
GMT+8.
</p>

<pre caption="Setting the timezone information">
# <i>ls /usr/share/zoneinfo</i>
<comment>(Suppose you want to use GMT)</comment>
# <i>cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT /etc/localtime</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Installing the Sources</title>
<subsection>
<title>Choosing a Kernel</title>
<body>

<p>
The core around which all distributions are built is the Linux kernel. It is the
layer between the user programs and your system hardware. Gentoo provides its
users several possible kernel sources. A full listing with description is
available at the <uri link="/doc/en/gentoo-kernel.xml">Gentoo Kernel
Guide</uri>. 
</p>

<p>
For alpha-based systems we have <c>gentoo-sources</c> (the default 2.6 kernel
source).
</p>

<pre caption="Installing a kernel source">
# <i>emerge gentoo-sources</i>
</pre>

<p>
When you take a look in <path>/usr/src</path> you should see a symlink called
<path>linux</path> pointing to your kernel source. In this case, the installed
kernel source points to <c>gentoo-sources-<keyval id="kernel-version"/></c>.
Your version may be different, so keep this in mind.
</p>

<pre caption="Viewing the kernel source symlink">
# <i>ls -l /usr/src/linux</i>
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           12 Oct 13 11:04 /usr/src/linux -&gt; linux-<keyval id="kernel-version"/>
</pre>

<p>
Now it is time to configure and compile your kernel source. You can use
<c>genkernel</c> for this, which will build a generic kernel as used by the
Installation CD. We explain the "manual" configuration first though, as it is
the best way to optimize your environment.
</p>

<p>
If you want to manually configure your kernel, continue now with <uri
link="#manual">Default: Manual Configuration</uri>. If you want to use
<c>genkernel</c> you should read <uri link="#genkernel">Alternative: Using
genkernel</uri> instead.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>
<section id="manual">
<title>Default: Manual Configuration</title>
<subsection>
<title>Introduction</title>
<body>

<p>
Manually configuring a kernel is often seen as the most difficult procedure a
Linux user ever has to perform. Nothing is less true -- after configuring a
couple of kernels you don't even remember that it was difficult ;)
</p>

<p>
However, one thing <e>is</e> true: you must know your system when you start
configuring a kernel manually. Most information can be gathered by emerging 
pciutils (<c>emerge pciutils</c>) which contains <c>lspci</c>. You will now 
be able to  use <c>lspci</c> within the chrooted environment. You may safely 
ignore any <e>pcilib</e> warnings (like pcilib: cannot open 
/sys/bus/pci/devices) that <c>lspci</c> throws out. Alternatively, you can run 
<c>lspci</c> from a <e>non-chrooted</e> environment. The results are the same. 
You can also run <c>lsmod</c> to see what kernel modules the Installation CD 
uses (it might provide you with a nice hint on what to enable).
</p>

<p>
Now go to your kernel source directory and execute <c>make menuconfig</c>. This
will fire up an ncurses-based configuration menu.
</p>

<pre caption="Invoking menuconfig">
# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
# <i>make menuconfig</i>
</pre>

<p>
You will be greeted with several configuration sections. We'll first list some
options you must activate (otherwise Gentoo will not function, or not function
properly without additional tweaks).
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection>
<title>Activating Required Options</title>
<body>

<p>
First go to <c>File Systems</c> and select support for the filesystems you use.
<e>Don't</e> compile them as modules, otherwise your Gentoo system will not be
able to mount your partitions. Also select <c>Virtual memory</c> and <c>/proc
file system</c>.
</p>

<pre caption="Selecting necessary file systems">
File systems ---&gt;
  Pseudo Filesystems ---&gt;
    [*] /proc file system support
    [*] Virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)

<comment>(Select one or more of the following options as needed by your system)</comment>
  &lt;*&gt; Reiserfs support
  &lt;*&gt; Ext3 journalling file system support
  &lt;*&gt; JFS filesystem support
  &lt;*&gt; Second extended fs support
  &lt;*&gt; XFS filesystem support
</pre>

<p>
If you are using PPPoE to connect to the Internet or you are using a dial-up
modem, you will need the following options in the kernel:
</p>

<pre caption="Selecting PPPoE necessary drivers">
Device Drivers ---&gt;
  Networking support ---&gt;
    &lt;*&gt; PPP (point-to-point protocol) support
    &lt;*&gt;   PPP support for async serial ports
    &lt;*&gt;   PPP support for sync tty ports
</pre>

<p>
The two compression options won't harm but are not definitely needed, neither
does the <c>PPP over Ethernet</c> option, that might only be used by <c>ppp</c>
when configured to do kernel mode PPPoE.
</p>

<p>
If you require it, don't forget to include support in the kernel for your
ethernet card.
</p>

<p>
The following options are recommended as well:
</p>

<pre caption="Recommended Alpha options">
General setup ---&gt;
  &lt;*&gt; SRM environment through procfs
  &lt;*&gt; Configure uac policy via sysctl

Plug and Play configuration ---&gt;
  &lt;*&gt; Plug and Play support
  &lt;M&gt;   ISA Plug and Play support

SCSI support ---&gt;
  SCSI low-level drivers ---&gt;
    &lt;*&gt; SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support (NEW)
    &lt;*&gt; Qlogic ISP SCSI support

Network device support ---&gt;
  Ethernet (10 or 100 Mbit) ---&gt;
    &lt;M&gt; DECchip Tulip (dc21x4x) PCI support
    &lt;M&gt; Generic DECchip &amp; DIGITAL EtherWORKS PCI/EISA
    &lt;M&gt; EtherExpressPro/100 support (eepro100)
    &lt;M&gt; EtherExpressPro/100 support (e100)
  Ethernet (1000 Mbit) ---&gt;
    &lt;M&gt; Alteon AceNIC
      [*] Omit support for old Tigon I
    &lt;M&gt; Broadcom Tigon3
  [*] FDDI driver support
  &lt;M&gt; Digital DEFEA and DEFPA
  &lt;*&gt; PPP support
    &lt;*&gt; PPP Deflate compression

Character devices ---&gt;
  [*] Support for console on serial port
  [*] Direct Rendering Manager

File systems ---&gt;
  &lt;*&gt; Kernel automounter version 4 support
  Network File Systems ---&gt;
    &lt;*&gt; NFS
      [*] NFSv3 client
      &lt;*&gt; NFS server
      [*] NFSv3 server
  Partition Types ---&gt;
    [*] Advanced partition selection
    [*] Alpha OSF partition support
  Native Language Support
    &lt;*&gt; NLS ISO 8859-1

Sound ---&gt;
  &lt;M&gt; Sound card support
    &lt;M&gt; OSS sound modules
      [*] Verbose initialisation
      [*] Persistent DMA buffers
      &lt;M&gt; 100% Sound Blaster compatibles
</pre>

<p>
When you've finished configuring the kernel, continue with <uri
link="#compiling">Compiling and Installing</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
<subsection id="compiling">
<title>Compiling and Installing</title>
<body>

<p>
Now that your kernel is configured, it is time to compile and install it. Exit 
the configuration and start the compilation process:
</p>

<pre caption="Compiling the kernel">
# <i>make &amp;&amp; make modules_install</i>
# <i>make boot</i>
</pre>

<p>
When the kernel has finished compiling, copy the kernel image to
<path>/boot</path>. Recent kernels might create <path>vmlinux</path> instead of
<path>vmlinux.gz</path>. Keep this in mind when you copy your kernel image.
</p>

<pre caption="Installing the kernel">
# <i>cp arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz /boot/</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now continue with <uri link="#kernel_modules">Kernel Modules</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</subsection>
</section>
<section id="genkernel">
<title>Alternative: Using genkernel</title>
<body>

<p>
If you are reading this section, you have chosen to use our <c>genkernel</c>
script to configure your kernel for you.
</p>

<p>
Now that your kernel source tree is installed, it's now time to compile your
kernel by using our <c>genkernel</c> script to automatically build a kernel for
you. <c>genkernel</c> works by configuring a kernel nearly identically to the
way our Installation CD kernel is configured. This means that when you use
<c>genkernel</c> to build your kernel, your system will generally detect all
your hardware at boot-time, just like our Installation CD does. Because
genkernel doesn't require any manual kernel configuration, it is an ideal
solution for those users who may not be comfortable compiling their own
kernels.
</p>

<p>
Now, let's see how to use genkernel. First, emerge the genkernel ebuild:
</p>

<pre caption="Emerging genkernel">
# <i>emerge genkernel</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now, compile your kernel sources by running <c>genkernel all</c>.
Be aware though, as <c>genkernel</c> compiles a kernel that supports almost all 
hardware, this compilation will take quite a while to finish!
</p>

<p>
Note that, if your boot partition doesn't use ext2 or ext3 as filesystem you
need to manually configure your kernel using <c>genkernel --menuconfig all</c>
and add support for your filesystem <e>in</e> the kernel (i.e. <e>not</e> as a
module).
</p>

<pre caption="Running genkernel">
# <i>genkernel all</i>
</pre>

<p>
Once <c>genkernel</c> completes, a kernel, full set of modules and <e>initial
ram disk</e> (initrd) will be created. We will use the kernel and initrd when
configuring a boot loader later in this document. Write down the names of the
kernel and initrd as you will need it when writing the bootloader configuration
file. The initrd will be started immediately after booting to perform hardware
autodetection (just like on the Installation CD) before your "real" system
starts up.
</p>

<pre caption="Checking the created kernel image name and initrd">
# <i>ls /boot/kernel* /boot/initramfs-*</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section id="kernel_modules">
<title>Kernel Modules</title>

<subsection>
<include href="hb-install-kernelmodules.xml"/>
</subsection>

</section>
</sections>
1	swift	1.1	<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
2			<!DOCTYPE sections SYSTEM "/dtd/book.dtd">
3
4			<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
5	neysx	1.30	<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
6	swift	1.1
7	jkt	1.47	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/handbook/hb-install-alpha-kernel.xml,v 1.46 2008/04/01 08:53:46 nightmorph Exp $ -->
8	swift	1.1
9			<sections>
10	swift	1.11
11	jkt	1.47	<version>10</version>
12			<date>2011-08-03</date>
13	swift	1.11
14	swift	1.1	<section>
15			<title>Timezone</title>
16			<body>
17
18			<p>
19			You first need to select your timezone so that your system knows where it is
20	neysx	1.39	located. Look for your timezone in <path>/usr/share/zoneinfo</path>, then copy
21			it to <path>/etc/localtime</path>. Please avoid the
22	neysx	1.30	<path>/usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT*</path> timezones as their names do not
23	neysx	1.39	indicate the expected zones. For instance, <path>GMT-8</path> is in fact
24			GMT+8.
25	swift	1.1	</p>
26
27			<pre caption="Setting the timezone information">
28			# <i>ls /usr/share/zoneinfo</i>
29			<comment>(Suppose you want to use GMT)</comment>
30	neysx	1.39	# <i>cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT /etc/localtime</i>
31	swift	1.1	</pre>
32
33			</body>
34			</section>
35			<section>
36			<title>Installing the Sources</title>
37			<subsection>
38			<title>Choosing a Kernel</title>
39			<body>
40
41			<p>
42			The core around which all distributions are built is the Linux kernel. It is the
43			layer between the user programs and your system hardware. Gentoo provides its
44			users several possible kernel sources. A full listing with description is
45			available at the <uri link="/doc/en/gentoo-kernel.xml">Gentoo Kernel
46			Guide</uri>.
47			</p>
48
49			<p>
50	nightmorph	1.38	For alpha-based systems we have <c>gentoo-sources</c> (the default 2.6 kernel
51			source).
52	swift	1.1	</p>
53
54			<pre caption="Installing a kernel source">
55	nightmorph	1.38	# <i>emerge gentoo-sources</i>
56	swift	1.1	</pre>
57
58			<p>
59			When you take a look in <path>/usr/src</path> you should see a symlink called
60	neysx	1.33	<path>linux</path> pointing to your kernel source. In this case, the installed
61	nightmorph	1.38	kernel source points to <c>gentoo-sources-<keyval id="kernel-version"/></c>.
62			Your version may be different, so keep this in mind.
63	swift	1.1	</p>
64
65			<pre caption="Viewing the kernel source symlink">
66			# <i>ls -l /usr/src/linux</i>
67	nightmorph	1.38	lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Oct 13 11:04 /usr/src/linux -> linux-<keyval id="kernel-version"/>
68	swift	1.1	</pre>
69
70			<p>
71	nightmorph	1.38	Now it is time to configure and compile your kernel source. You can use
72			<c>genkernel</c> for this, which will build a generic kernel as used by the
73			Installation CD. We explain the "manual" configuration first though, as it is
74	swift	1.1	the best way to optimize your environment.
75			</p>
76
77			<p>
78			If you want to manually configure your kernel, continue now with <uri
79	nightmorph	1.38	link="#manual">Default: Manual Configuration</uri>. If you want to use
80			<c>genkernel</c> you should read <uri link="#genkernel">Alternative: Using
81	swift	1.1	genkernel</uri> instead.
82			</p>
83
84			</body>
85			</subsection>
86			</section>
87			<section id="manual">
88			<title>Default: Manual Configuration</title>
89			<subsection>
90			<title>Introduction</title>
91			<body>
92
93			<p>
94	neysx	1.7	Manually configuring a kernel is often seen as the most difficult procedure a
95	neysx	1.8	Linux user ever has to perform. Nothing is less true -- after configuring a
96	swift	1.1	couple of kernels you don't even remember that it was difficult ;)
97			</p>
98
99			<p>
100			However, one thing <e>is</e> true: you must know your system when you start
101	swift	1.24	configuring a kernel manually. Most information can be gathered by emerging
102	swift	1.25	pciutils (<c>emerge pciutils</c>) which contains <c>lspci</c>. You will now
103	swift	1.24	be able to use <c>lspci</c> within the chrooted environment. You may safely
104			ignore any <e>pcilib</e> warnings (like pcilib: cannot open
105			/sys/bus/pci/devices) that <c>lspci</c> throws out. Alternatively, you can run
106	swift	1.25	<c>lspci</c> from a <e>non-chrooted</e> environment. The results are the same.
107	swift	1.24	You can also run <c>lsmod</c> to see what kernel modules the Installation CD
108			uses (it might provide you with a nice hint on what to enable).
109	swift	1.1	</p>
110
111			<p>
112			Now go to your kernel source directory and execute <c>make menuconfig</c>. This
113			will fire up an ncurses-based configuration menu.
114			</p>
115
116			<pre caption="Invoking menuconfig">
117			# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
118			# <i>make menuconfig</i>
119			</pre>
120
121			<p>
122			You will be greeted with several configuration sections. We'll first list some
123			options you must activate (otherwise Gentoo will not function, or not function
124			properly without additional tweaks).
125			</p>
126
127			</body>
128			</subsection>
129			<subsection>
130			<title>Activating Required Options</title>
131			<body>
132
133			<p>
134	nightmorph	1.46	First go to <c>File Systems</c> and select support for the filesystems you use.
135	swift	1.1	<e>Don't</e> compile them as modules, otherwise your Gentoo system will not be
136	vapier	1.22	able to mount your partitions. Also select <c>Virtual memory</c> and <c>/proc
137	nightmorph	1.38	file system</c>.
138	swift	1.1	</p>
139
140			<pre caption="Selecting necessary file systems">
141	neysx	1.4	File systems --->
142			Pseudo Filesystems --->
143			[*] /proc file system support
144			[*] Virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)
145	swift	1.1
146			<comment>(Select one or more of the following options as needed by your system)</comment>
147			<*> Reiserfs support
148			<*> Ext3 journalling file system support
149			<*> JFS filesystem support
150			<*> Second extended fs support
151			<*> XFS filesystem support
152			</pre>
153
154			<p>
155			If you are using PPPoE to connect to the Internet or you are using a dial-up
156			modem, you will need the following options in the kernel:
157			</p>
158
159			<pre caption="Selecting PPPoE necessary drivers">
160	neysx	1.4	Device Drivers --->
161			Networking support --->
162			<*> PPP (point-to-point protocol) support
163			<*> PPP support for async serial ports
164			<*> PPP support for sync tty ports
165	swift	1.1	</pre>
166
167			<p>
168			The two compression options won't harm but are not definitely needed, neither
169	nightmorph	1.38	does the <c>PPP over Ethernet</c> option, that might only be used by <c>ppp</c>
170			when configured to do kernel mode PPPoE.
171	swift	1.1	</p>
172
173			<p>
174			If you require it, don't forget to include support in the kernel for your
175			ethernet card.
176			</p>
177
178			<p>
179	vapier	1.9	The following options are recommended as well:
180	swift	1.1	</p>
181
182	vapier	1.9	<pre caption="Recommended Alpha options">
183	swift	1.1	General setup --->
184			<*> SRM environment through procfs
185			<*> Configure uac policy via sysctl
186
187			Plug and Play configuration --->
188			<*> Plug and Play support
189			<M> ISA Plug and Play support
190
191			SCSI support --->
192			SCSI low-level drivers --->
193			<*> SYM53C8XX Version 2 SCSI support (NEW)
194			<*> Qlogic ISP SCSI support
195
196			Network device support --->
197			Ethernet (10 or 100 Mbit) --->
198			<M> DECchip Tulip (dc21x4x) PCI support
199			<M> Generic DECchip & DIGITAL EtherWORKS PCI/EISA
200			<M> EtherExpressPro/100 support (eepro100)
201			<M> EtherExpressPro/100 support (e100)
202			Ethernet (1000 Mbit) --->
203			<M> Alteon AceNIC
204			[*] Omit support for old Tigon I
205			<M> Broadcom Tigon3
206			[*] FDDI driver support
207			<M> Digital DEFEA and DEFPA
208			<*> PPP support
209			<*> PPP Deflate compression
210
211			Character devices --->
212			[*] Support for console on serial port
213			[*] Direct Rendering Manager
214
215			File systems --->
216			<*> Kernel automounter version 4 support
217			Network File Systems --->
218			<*> NFS
219			[*] NFSv3 client
220			<*> NFS server
221			[*] NFSv3 server
222			Partition Types --->
223			[*] Advanced partition selection
224			[*] Alpha OSF partition support
225			Native Language Support
226			<*> NLS ISO 8859-1
227
228			Sound --->
229			<M> Sound card support
230			<M> OSS sound modules
231			[*] Verbose initialisation
232			[*] Persistent DMA buffers
233			<M> 100% Sound Blaster compatibles
234			</pre>
235
236			<p>
237			When you've finished configuring the kernel, continue with <uri
238			link="#compiling">Compiling and Installing</uri>.
239			</p>
240
241			</body>
242			</subsection>
243			<subsection id="compiling">
244			<title>Compiling and Installing</title>
245			<body>
246
247			<p>
248			Now that your kernel is configured, it is time to compile and install it. Exit
249	swift	1.20	the configuration and start the compilation process:
250	swift	1.1	</p>
251
252			<pre caption="Compiling the kernel">
253			# <i>make && make modules_install</i>
254	vapier	1.6	# <i>make boot</i>
255	swift	1.1	</pre>
256
257			<p>
258	neysx	1.7	When the kernel has finished compiling, copy the kernel image to
259	neysx	1.33	<path>/boot</path>. Recent kernels might create <path>vmlinux</path> instead of
260			<path>vmlinux.gz</path>. Keep this in mind when you copy your kernel image.
261	swift	1.1	</p>
262
263			<pre caption="Installing the kernel">
264	vapier	1.6	# <i>cp arch/alpha/boot/vmlinux.gz /boot/</i>
265	swift	1.1	</pre>
266
267			<p>
268	nightmorph	1.46	Now continue with <uri link="#kernel_modules">Kernel Modules</uri>.
269	swift	1.1	</p>
270
271			</body>
272			</subsection>
273			</section>
274			<section id="genkernel">
275			<title>Alternative: Using genkernel</title>
276			<body>
277
278			<p>
279			If you are reading this section, you have chosen to use our <c>genkernel</c>
280			script to configure your kernel for you.
281			</p>
282
283			<p>
284	nightmorph	1.38	Now that your kernel source tree is installed, it's now time to compile your
285			kernel by using our <c>genkernel</c> script to automatically build a kernel for
286			you. <c>genkernel</c> works by configuring a kernel nearly identically to the
287			way our Installation CD kernel is configured. This means that when you use
288			<c>genkernel</c> to build your kernel, your system will generally detect all
289			your hardware at boot-time, just like our Installation CD does. Because
290			genkernel doesn't require any manual kernel configuration, it is an ideal
291			solution for those users who may not be comfortable compiling their own
292			kernels.
293	swift	1.1	</p>
294
295			<p>
296			Now, let's see how to use genkernel. First, emerge the genkernel ebuild:
297			</p>
298
299			<pre caption="Emerging genkernel">
300			# <i>emerge genkernel</i>
301			</pre>
302
303			<p>
304			Now, compile your kernel sources by running <c>genkernel all</c>.
305			Be aware though, as <c>genkernel</c> compiles a kernel that supports almost all
306			hardware, this compilation will take quite a while to finish!
307			</p>
308
309			<p>
310			Note that, if your boot partition doesn't use ext2 or ext3 as filesystem you
311			need to manually configure your kernel using <c>genkernel --menuconfig all</c>
312			and add support for your filesystem <e>in</e> the kernel (i.e. <e>not</e> as a
313			module).
314			</p>
315
316			<pre caption="Running genkernel">
317			# <i>genkernel all</i>
318			</pre>
319
320			<p>
321	nightmorph	1.38	Once <c>genkernel</c> completes, a kernel, full set of modules and <e>initial
322	jkt	1.47	ram disk</e> (initrd) will be created. We will use the kernel and initrd when
323	nightmorph	1.38	configuring a boot loader later in this document. Write down the names of the
324			kernel and initrd as you will need it when writing the bootloader configuration
325			file. The initrd will be started immediately after booting to perform hardware
326			autodetection (just like on the Installation CD) before your "real" system
327			starts up.
328	swift	1.1	</p>
329
330			<pre caption="Checking the created kernel image name and initrd">
331	swift	1.29	# <i>ls /boot/kernel* /boot/initramfs-*</i>
332	swift	1.1	</pre>
333
334			</body>
335			</section>
336			<section id="kernel_modules">
337	nightmorph	1.46	<title>Kernel Modules</title>
338
339	swift	1.1	<subsection>
340	nightmorph	1.46	<include href="hb-install-kernelmodules.xml"/>
341			</subsection>
342	swift	1.1
343			</section>
344			</sections>