Debian's kernel vs www.kernel.org

[sprucio]

I was wondering, what is the advantage of using Debian's kernel as opposed to the latest ones you can download from the Web?

[dawgie]

I was wondering, what is the advantage of using Debian's kernel as opposed to the latest ones you can download from the Web?

The Debian kernel can be upgraded with apt. If you are not changing any configuration, you can simply:
Find what you want with:
# apt-cache search kernel-image-2.6
Then install with:
# apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.XXXX
The Debian kernel sources can also be installed with apt.
# apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.8XXX
The Debian kernels are supposed to be "tweaked" for Debian systems.

One of the advantages of installing a kernel from source, is to get some new device or new system working that was previously not supported.
For example, if you read that Alan Cox has submitted a patch that adds a feature that you want, you can find patches submitted by various kernel hackers here:
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people


-Bob

[Jeroen]

Debian (and other distribution's) kernels typically are patched a lot for stabalization. While upstream moves on, distributions get direct bug reports and stuff like that, and fix bugs rather than focus on new features.

Because of this, and because of the very widespread testing distribution (Debian) kernels get, it's often a safer choice. Especially Sarge's kernel has been extremely widely tested, and chances are very slim that it won't work on your system. And a lot of modules are just ready for it, it's easy to use it because of the packaging.

[sprucio]

I see.

The one thing I am missing that's not with the Debian is the option for SMP.

Has there been problems with this in the main stream kernel?

[Jeroen]

smp kernels are in a different package, because it can't be a module

Install the correct smp-enabled images if you want smp. In sarge, for i386, the following packages will get you the requested smp kernel:

kernel-image-2.4-686-smp
kernel-image-2.4-k7-smp
kernel-image-2.6-686-smp
kernel-image-2.6-amd64-k8-smp
kernel-image-2.6-em64t-p4-smp
kernel-image-2.6-k7-smp

choose the one fitting your hardware.

[drdebian]

I used to roll my own kernel from the official sources as well, but with the advent of Sarge, I found it to be less hassle to use the Debian kernel images. They work great and are well integrated into the boot managers. It's hard to end up with an unbootable system when using Debian's kernel images, that's for sure.

[sprucio]

I'm trying to compile my own custom kernel. With this, I haven't found the source kernel-source-2.6.8-2 that has the option for SMP.

[Jeroen]

both smp and non-smp use the same source package, but simply with different options.

You can just use kernel-source-2.whatever, I'm not familiar with where I can tick smp or not, but it's in the menu somewhere.

[sprucio]

I figured that both images use the same source but the option for it is not there.

I'll have to download a kernel from www.kernel.org and when I do, I'll post the exact location.

[odin]

I would like to have kernel 2.4.19 but I cant find the image in the repositories I have.Does anyone know a repo whre I can find it?

Thank's in advance

[Harold]

The nearest Debian package is kernel-image-2.4.18 in the oldstable branch. If you require exactly 2.4.19, then start your search at ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/

[odin]

I've searcheing for it and I only could download the kernel but I have to compile it in the normal way.No problem for me but now I found out that the gcc version I have doesnt compile this kernel very good so I need an older version but I cant find it and make it work.Well I found it but there's no way to make gcc work.

[odin]

ok I found the solution.It was as easy as telling the makefile to use gcc-2.95 instead just changing a couple of "variables". Hope it helps someone with the same problem.

[nyghtowl]

erm (debian newbie here)
Why does there seem to be no source for kernel 2.6-386?

/me need educating ^_^

[Harold]

Try apt-cache search kernel-source-2.6

[Jeroen]

In unstable, the source is nowadays linux-2.6, but in sarge it's kernel-source-2.6.8. Etch doesn't yet have linux-2.6, but still has various kernel-source-* source packages.

[moonlight]

Question about upstream kernels in testing repository. I was wondering why my system sticked to kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686, in stead of going to version kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686, by using the dummy package kernel-image-2.6-686. The explanation can be found below :

Code: Select all

Package: kernel-image-2.6-686
Priority: optional
Section: base
Installed-Size: 32
Maintainer: Debian kernel team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Source: kernel-latest-2.6-i386
Version: 101
Depends: kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686
Size: 2092
Description: Linux kernel image for version 2.6 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4.
 This package will always depend on the latest 2.6 kernel image available
 for Pentium Pro/Celeron/Pentium II/Pentium III/Pentium 4.

Now my question, what is the reason behind, not to step up to the next available kernel-image in the testing repository ?

The only way to go towards the upstream kernel version is to manually apt-get the new kernel-image. But the dummy packages are in fact made to perform this automatically.

Cheers, Moonlight

[Jeroen]

Because the kernel team didn't get around to update the dummy packages, and/or there wasn't a long enough moment of relative bugfree > 2.6.8 kernels in Debian since. Pace of development of the kernels is high, and the debian kernel team so far hasn't taken time to stabalize on a specific version.