Antti J. Huhtala
2008-Jul-13 01:27 UTC
[CentOS-docs] Suggestions on "I Need the Kernel Source" Wiki pages
Hi all, I am a newcomer to CentOS but slightly less so to Linux in general (FC4-F9). In short, I am trying to make an old SB Vibra 16C (ISA) sound card work in Centos 5. To achieve this, support for ISA bus and ISA PnP is apparently needed in kernel. Therefore, a custom kernel needs to be built. -- Yes, I have read all the warnings of lack of support, etc. As a first step, I had to build the complete kernel tree according to "I Need the Kernel Source" CentOS Wiki. I tried to meticulously follow the directions given there but it took five or six attempts before I had a complete tree in ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/. Would you please consider the following questions in order to decide if any changes/additions are necessary in the article: a) In section 2.1 it is said: "[user at host]# yum install rpm-build". To 'yum install' something you need to be superuser (as confirmed by '#' prompt before the command). Shouldn't the example read: "[root at host]# yum install rpm-build"? b) The next command on the page is "rpm -i http://mirror.centos.org...". Two of my futile attempts to install the ...src.rpm were due to the fact that 1) I did not understand and then 2) forgot to exit from root before trying to install the source rpm. Shouldn't there be at least a "$" prompt (and perhaps the directory, too) before the 'rpm -i' command? c) One attempt of 'rpmbuild' failed because "redhat-rpm-config is needed by kernel-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.i686". This may not apply to everyone but it certainly applied to me who had only installed 5.1 in March and updated it to 5.2 in July by just updating when told to do so. Perhaps it would be advisable to add "# yum install redhat-rpm-config" to the article? d) Two attempts of 'rpmbuild' perhaps failed because I inadvertently used single quotes or apostrophes around 'uname -m' instead of "`"s (accent grave?). The result in prep-err.log, however, was: "Building target platforms: uname -m" and "Building for target uname -m". I had to explicitly insert "i686" in the 'rpmbuild' command like this: [user at host SPECS]$ rpmbuild -bp --target=i686 kernel-2.6.spec 2> ...". If this is what the user is supposed to do anyway, perhaps it could be worded a little differently to make it perfectly clear? On the other hand, if 'accent grave' characters around 'uname -m' really work in replacing the proper architecture in the command, perhaps the text should emphasize the fact? I foolishly did not "cut-and-paste" the 'rpmbuild' command but wrote it myself. I realize there is another thread about these Wiki pages currently being discussed on centos-docs list but I thought it better to start a new thread. TIA, Antti
Akemi Yagi
2008-Jul-13 03:39 UTC
[CentOS-docs] Suggestions on "I Need the Kernel Source" Wiki pages
On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 6:27 PM, Antti J. Huhtala <ahuhtal4 at welho.com> wrote:> Hi all,Hi Antti,> I am a newcomer to CentOS but slightly less so to Linux in general > (FC4-F9). In short, I am trying to make an old SB Vibra 16C (ISA) sound > card work in Centos 5. To achieve this, support for ISA bus and ISA PnP > is apparently needed in kernel. Therefore, a custom kernel needs to be > built. -- Yes, I have read all the warnings of lack of support, etc. > > As a first step, I had to build the complete kernel tree according to "I > Need the Kernel Source" CentOS Wiki. I tried to meticulously follow the > directions given there but it took five or six attempts before I had a > complete tree in ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/. Would you please consider the > following questions in order to decide if any changes/additions are > necessary in the article: > > a) In section 2.1 it is said: "[user at host]# yum install rpm-build". To > 'yum install' something you need to be superuser (as confirmed by '#' > prompt before the command). Shouldn't the example read: > "[root at host]# yum install rpm-build"?Yes, this should be root@ instead of user at .> b) The next command on the page is "rpm -i http://mirror.centos.org...". > Two of my futile attempts to install the ...src.rpm were due to the fact > that 1) I did not understand and then 2) forgot to exit from root before > trying to install the source rpm. Shouldn't there be at least a "$" > prompt (and perhaps the directory, too) before the 'rpm -i' command?The [user at host] would make it clearer, yes.> c) One attempt of 'rpmbuild' failed because "redhat-rpm-config is needed > by kernel-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5.i686". This may not apply to everyone but it > certainly applied to me who had only installed 5.1 in March and updated > it to 5.2 in July by just updating when told to do so. Perhaps it would > be advisable to add "# yum install redhat-rpm-config" to the article?Maybe this can be added to or near the yum install rpm-build command because both should be run as root.> d) Two attempts of 'rpmbuild' perhaps failed because I inadvertently > used single quotes or apostrophes around 'uname -m' instead of "`"s > (accent grave?). The result in prep-err.log, however, was: "Building > target platforms: uname -m" and "Building for target uname -m". > I had to explicitly insert "i686" in the 'rpmbuild' command like this: > [user at host SPECS]$ rpmbuild -bp --target=i686 kernel-2.6.spec 2> ...". > If this is what the user is supposed to do anyway, perhaps it could be > worded a little differently to make it perfectly clear? On the other > hand, if 'accent grave' characters around 'uname -m' really work in > replacing the proper architecture in the command, perhaps the text > should emphasize the fact? I foolishly did not "cut-and-paste" the > 'rpmbuild' command but wrote it myself.They are "back ticks" :-) This is one of those things that might be regarded as Unix/Linux basics (?). It feeds the output of the command inside the ticks to the shell. In your case, `uname -m` produces i686 which then will be used as the parameter for the --target= option.> I realize there is another thread about these Wiki pages currently being > discussed on centos-docs list but I thought it better to start a new > thread.Yes, this is a new subject, so you did it just fine. Thank you for writing this note to share what you have noticed. The Wiki article shall be modified accordingly. Akemi> TIA, Antti