# Creating a Custom Linux Kernel in Debian GNU/Linux

## Disclaimer

This is not an official Debian site. The author is not a member of the Debian kernel team. This is not an official Linux kernel site. This document details the author's experiences and recommendations in building a custom Linux kernel under Debian GNU/Linux. All opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or the official positions of the staff or management of Debian, the Linux kernel organization, or anyone else. This information is presented in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty or guarantee of any kind. This information is presented free of charge, free of support, free of service, and free of liability. Take this information with as many grains of salt as you think it's worth; and use it, if you choose to do so, entirely at your own risk. The author hereby explicitly places this material in the public domain. All trademarks, registered trademarks, service marks, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

## Introduction

Most of the time, the stock kernel images obtained from Debian are adequate. But occasionally one may need to create a custom kernel image in order to take advantage of some special feature or solve a particular problem. You may also want to create a custom kernel in order to create a "lean and mean" kernel: one which is as small as possible and contains only the code necessary to do the function assigned to this machine. (This is often done in embedded systems.) I assume that you already know why you need or want to build a custom kernel. The purpose of this document is to show you how. The example I will use is from the s390/s390x architecture, and it involves applying a patch to a kernel source module, but the techniques are applicable to all architectures.

I had a roommate in college who had spent four years in the Navy. He told me that in the Navy there are three ways to do everything: the right way, the wrong way, and the Navy way! Well, kernel building in Debian is like that too. Although there are similarities to other distributions, Debian definitely has their own way of building kernels. Information that you may find on distribution-independent Linux sites or sites from non-Debian-based distributions that talk about building a custom kernel are not likely to be very useful in Debian. Debian wants everything, including the kernel itself, to go through its package management system. As a result, kernel building in Debian is quite different from other non-Debian-based distributions.

I have found that the documentation for kernel building in Debian is spread out over several different sources. Some of these documents are out of date. Furthermore, there are a number of small but important steps that are often left out. This write-up is an attempt to document the procedure in detail.

I would like to start by discussing naming conventions. For Linux kernels 2.6.8 and earlier, the name of the kernel image package in the Debian archive begins with "kernel-image". An example is "kernel-image-2.6.8-2-s390". Similarly, the kernel source code packages begin with "kernel-source". An example is "kernel-source-2.6.8". This naming convention implies that all kernels are Linux kernels. But the Hurd kernel is also now available, and the FreeBSD kernel is on the horizon as well. Therefore, later Linux kernels now have their image package names begin with "linux-image" and their source package names begin with "linux-source". This change occurred between Sarge and Etch. Much of the documentation for Linux kernel building was written in the days of Sarge and previous releases and still uses the old naming convention. If you don't know about the naming convention change, you will never be able to find the kernel source package that you need in the Debian archive. So remember, despite what the documentation may say, look for the kernel source package under the name "linux-source", not "kernel-source".

I am assuming that you have never downloaded or configured a kernel source package on your system before and that you want to create a custom kernel image of the same kernel release as the stock kernel that you are currently running. I'll be using kernel 2.6.26 from the Lenny release and the s390/s390x architecture in my examples, but as I said earlier the techniques are applicable to all releases and architectures. Login as root to do this type of administration. Some of the other kernel-building documents that I've seen make a big deal about what parts of the procedure can be done as a non-root user. I never bother with that. To me, kernel building and installing are administrative tasks, and I just stay root the whole time. It's simpler that way. This document will assume that you are logged on as root at all times during the procedure unless otherwise noted.

## Step 1: Update your sources.list file

The retrieval of packages in Debian is controlled by a file called /etc/apt/sources.list. If you installed Debian from a CD-ROM, chances are that only the first CD is listed in the sources.list file. If you have a complete set of CDs, but only the first one is listed, you need to update this file. However, adding CDs to sources.list cannot be accomplished via a text editor. Other files in other places must be updated too in order for a CD entry in sources.list to work. To add new CDs to the sources.list file, use the following command:

         apt-cdrom add

You will need to issue this command once for every CD in your set that is not already listed in sources.list. If you have several "disk 1" CDs in your set, don't scan the alternate ones. For example, Lenny ships with 3 "disk 1" CDs: one for a GNOME-based desktop environment, one for a KDE-based desktop environment, and one for an XFCE-based desktop environment. If you installed from the GNOME version of disk 1, it is the one listed in your sources.list file. Don't scan the other two "disk 1" CDs with apt-cdrom. Each time you run apt-cdrom, it will prompt you to insert a CD and press Enter. After you do this, it will mount the CD, scan the CD looking for package information, then umount the CD. When the command completes, remove the CD from the CD drive. apt-cdrom is also used if you have installed from DVDs. (Of course, there will be far fewer DVDs in a complete set than there are for a complete set of CDs, since a DVD holds much more data per disk.)

If you have access to the internet, you should include an internet server in sources.list. This is true even if you installed Debian from CDs. This will allow you to install the most recent version of a package, if there is a newer version than the one on the CD. (Packages in the stable release are not normally updated during the life of the release except to fix bugs involving security vulnerabilities or to replace data that is highly volatile in nature. An example is the virus signature data for an anti-virus software package.) You should also make sure that the volatile and security sites are present as well. (But don't use the volatile site for the testing or unstable releases.) If you didn't have access to the internet during installation, the installer may have commented out these entries. If you have access to the internet now, but you didn't during installation, uncomment these entries. You might also want to add entries for the "non-free" and "contrib" sections, in addition to the "main" section. The CDs contain only the main section.

With the exception of the volatile and security sites, which must use HTTP, you have a choice, for most of the Debian mirrors, whether to use HTTP or FTP as the file transfer protocol. Be careful though -- some of the mirrors use a different path name for HTTP and FTP. For a full list of Debian mirrors, see http://www.debian.org/mirror/list. Choose the mirror nearest to you or which gives you the shortest latency or the highest data transfer rate. Make sure you choose a mirror which supports the file transfer method you want to use and specify the correct path for that type of data transfer. Also, make sure that you choose a mirror that mirrors your machine architecture. (Not all mirrors mirror all architectures!) For more information, see the man page for sources.list and the above-mentioned web page which lists all the mirrors. For all sources except CDs and DVDs, the sources.list file can and should be edited by a text editor. Make sure that the internet sources are listed after the CD/DVD sources, and make sure that the volatile and security sources are listed last. Here is a sample sources.list file:

         .
         . (possible CD entries added by apt-cdrom)
         .
         deb ftp://debian.uchicago.edu/debian lenny main non-free contrib
         deb-src ftp://debian.uchicago.edu/debian lenny main non-free contrib
         deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main non-free contrib
         deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main non-free contrib
         deb http://security.debian.org lenny/updates main non-free contrib
         deb-src http://security.debian.org lenny/updates main non-free contrib

The "deb" entries specify a server for binary packages and the "deb-src" entries specify a server for source packages. The University of Chicago's Debian mirror site has been selected for both package types, using the FTP protocol. Only packages from the Lenny distribution will be selected, but the "non-free" and "contrib" sections have been added to the standard "main" section. The standard Debian volatile and security servers have been added at the end, using the HTTP protocol.

## Step 2: Update the list of available packages

Once the sources.list file has been updated, you need to update the package management system's list of available packages. The book says the way to do this is to issue the command:

         aptitude update

and that will work. "apt-get update" works too. But I prefer "dselect update" because it provides more information than "apt-get update" or "aptitude update" does. Specifically, it downloads package descriptions for all available packages, instead of only installed packages. dselect is not part of the standard system anymore; so unless you explicitly installed it earlier it's probably not installed. In that case, the first thing you will need to do is install dselect. I don't recommend that you use dselect to install packages, but I do recommend it for updating the list of available packages. You may need to update the list of available packages before you can install dselect! Use "aptitude update" or "apt-get update" to do that. But once dselect is installed, run "dselect update" to update the list of available packages again.

## Step 3: Apply pending updates

After updating the list of available packages, as outlined above, you should apply all the pending updates that have accumulated since you last applied updates (or since installation, if you have never applied updates). To do this, enter the following command:

         aptitude -R full-upgrade

While we're on the subject, now would be a good time to subscribe to the debian-security-announce mailing list on the Debian web site. To subscribe, send an e-mail to debian-security-announce-request@lists.debian.org with a subject line of "subscribe" (without the quotes). You will receive a follow-up e-mail from Debian which will give instructions on how to confirm the subscription. Follow the instructions in the follow-up e-mail. Then, whenever you receive a security alert, update the list of packages again with "dselect update". Then use

         aptitude -R full-upgrade

to install the updates. Similarly, subscribe to the debian-volatile-announce mailing list on the Debian web site by sending an e-mail to debian-volatile-announce-request@lists.debian.org with a subject line of "subscribe" (without the quotes) and following the directions in the reply. (Once again, the debian-volatile service is not provided for the testing or unstable releases.) When you are finished installing package updates, use

         aptitude clean

to delete the package files (.deb files) from the staging area (/var/cache/apt/archives). Once the packages have been installed, you don't need the package files themselves anymore. This will save disk space. Once the updates have been installed, it is a good idea to shutdown and reboot.

Note: only package files downloaded from the internet are copied to the staging area. Package files read from CD-ROM or DVD are not copied to the staging area but are processed directly from the mountable media.

## Step 4: Install the kernel source package

Once you have updated the list of available packages, you should be able to see the package information with various tools. In line mode, use dpkg-query to see the information about the package. (Information about packages that are not installed is only available in this way if you used "dselect update" instead of "apt-get update" or "aptitude update" to update the list of packages.) For example:

         dpkg-query -p linux-source-2.6.26|less

If you don't know what kernel release you're running, you can find out by issuing the command:

         uname -r

dselect can also be used to browse the package cache and find the information about the package. To actually install the source package, use aptitude. For example,

         aptitude -R install linux-source-2.6.26

This will install the kernel source code. You can obtain kernel source packages from other places, but I recommend using official Debian kernel source packages because they contain all the Debian-specific modifications. Once this command has completed, enter

         aptitude clean

to delete the package file (not the package) from the staging area.

## Step 5: Unpack the kernel sources

So what did "aptitude -R install linux-source-2.6.26" just do? If everything worked correctly, you should now have a file in the /usr/src directory that starts out as "linux-source" and ends in ".tar.bz2". It is at this point that many people make a mistake. They create a directory in /usr/src called linux-source-2.6.26, move the kernel source tar file to that directory, then unpack the tar file from there. Don't do that. If you do, you will end up with two levels of directory called linux-source-2.6.26. Instead, change directories to /usr/src and unpack the kernel sources right where they are. For example:

         cd /usr/src
         tar -xjf linux-source-2.6.26.tar.bz2

The "x" switch of tar indicates that the "extract" function will be used. The "j" switch tells tar to filter the archive through bzip2 to decompress the archive first, before tar itself processes the file. And finally, the "f" switch specifies that input is to be read from a file specified on the command line, instead of standard input.

The above "tar" command will create a directory under the current directory (/usr/src) called linux-source-2.6.26. All the kernel source code and associated files will be unpacked to this directory and its subdirectories. Strictly speaking, one is not supposed to erase a file belonging to an installed package. But once the archive has been unpacked, there's really no use in keeping it around. I recommend getting rid of it. I suppose the "right" way to do it would be to purge the package. But then you won't automatically get security updates for it. So my approach is to simply delete it once it has been unpacked.

         rm linux-source-2.6.26.tar.bz2

This saves a lot of disk space.

## Step 6: Install kernel-package

If you have not already done so, install the "kernel-package" package. You can check to see if it is already installed by using the search function in dselect. In line mode, the command

         dpkg-query -l kernel-package|grep ii

will do nicely. If it is not already installed, install it. Apparently, kernel-package was at one time used by, or was intended to be used by, the official Debian kernel team to create stock kernel images; but at some point there was a parting of the ways; and the official Debian kernel team now uses other tools to create stock kernel images. I haven't seen any real documentation on the tools that the Debian kernel team uses to create the stock kernel images, and kernel-package works well, so I continue to use it and recommend it.

         aptitude -R install kernel-package

Read the documentation for kernel-package

         zless /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz

Determine what additional packages you may need, assuming that you are going to use "make menuconfig". Since there are a number of different kernel configuration methods (config, menuconfig, xconfig, etc.), and since kernel-package doesn't know which one you plan to use, it does not mark anything as a prerequisite unless it is a prerequisite for all configuration methods. At the time of this writing, the following packages will be required for the menuconfig method:

         gcc
         libc6-dev
         bin86 (i386 architecture only)
         libncurses5-dev
         binutils
         make
         module-init-tools
         mawk | gawk (one or the other, not both)
         gzip
         coreutils
         grep
         zlib1g-dev (if CONFIG_LGUEST is set)

Many of these packages will already be installed. To check to see if these packages are installed, use dpkg-query. For example:

         dpkg-query -l gcc|grep ii

Alternatively, you can use dselect to check to see which packages need to be installed. Install those packages which you need with "aptitude install". For example:

         aptitude -R install libncurses5-dev
         aptitude clean

## Step 7: Patch the kernel (if needed)

At this point, apply any patches to the kernel source code that are needed. In this example, we apply a patch to dasd_diag.c to fix a problem with read-only minidisks. We assume here that the patch to be applied is /root/dasd_diag.diff and that the current directory is /usr/src.

         patch linux-source-2.6.26/drivers/s390/block/dasd_diag.c \
          /root/dasd_diag.diff

This patch file is available on my web site here. Right-click on the previous link and select "Save Link as" to download it to your system. If you are using the lynx text-mode browser, download the file by typing the letter "d" (without the quotes) when the link is selected.

## Step 8: Configure the kernel

First, change directories to the home directory for the source code.

         cd linux-source-2.6.26

The full working directory is now /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.26. Now, initialize the .config file based on the configuration file used by the stock Debian kernel.

         cp /boot/config-2.6.26-2-s390 .config

This means that if you make no changes, your custom kernel will be configured exactly like the stock Debian kernel. (If you are running the 64-bit version of the s390 kernel, the file to copy is "/boot/config-2.6.26-2-s390x".)

Note: this assumes that you have installed the kernel source code for the same level of kernel that you are currently running. I don't recommend that you migrate to a new kernel release this way. Don't use a config file from one kernel release as the basis for customization of a different kernel release. If you can't get a copy of a stock kernel config file for the same release as your source code, then don't initialize the .config file at all.

To avoid confusion between a stock kernel and a custom kernel, I recommend that you edit the kernel-package config file (/etc/kernel-pkg.conf) and change the "maintainer" and "email" tags to your own name and e-mail address. Now it's time to configure the kernel:

         make menuconfig

After some preliminaries, an ncurses-based full-screen application will be launched that allows you to configure the kernel. I assume that you know what to do here.

Note: In the process of configuring your kernel, make sure that you leave CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD set to Y, which is the default. This is listed under "Block devices" as "Initial RAM filesystem and RAM disk (initramfs/initrd) support". You're probably going to need that. I'll have more to say about that later.

Note: Newer kernel config files contain a couple of settings that you should not use. These include "CONFIG_LOCALVERSION" (Local version - append to kernel release) and CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO (Automatically append version information to the version string). These are found under "General Setup". Debian has its own way of specifying this information. I'll have more to say about that later.

Note: even if you do not plan to change the kernel configuration file copied from the /boot directory at all, you must still run "make menuconfig". make-kpkg relies on certain files that are created when you run "make menuconfig". If you don't wish to change anything, immediately select "Exit" when the initial screen is displayed.

## Step 9: Create the kernel image package

This step will compile the kernel source code and create a Debian package file for the custom kernel. But before I get to the specific commands, I need to discuss naming conventions again. This is critically important. I need to talk about the difference between the kernel version name and the kernel revision name. Both the kernel version name and the kernel revision name become part of the package file name (.deb file) that gets created. However, when the package gets installed, the kernel revision name does not become part of the package name. It also does not become part of the kernel image file name or the initial RAM disk image file name that gets installed in the /boot directory. Similarly, the directory in which the kernel modules get installed (/lib/modules/...) does not contain the kernel revision name either. Since you want to retain your existing kernel image, initial RAM disk image, and modules unaltered as a backout, you must make the kernel version name different from the stock kernel version name in some way.

This is accomplished by means of the "--append-to-version" flag of make-kpkg. I usually include the word "custom" in the name to distinguish it from the stock kernel of the same version. In this example, the stock kernel has an "--append-to-version" value of "-2-s390". (In other words, "uname -r" reports "2.6.26-2-s390". The version proper is "2.6.26" and the "--append-to-version" value is "-2-s390".) My first cut at a custom kernel would probably have an "--append-to-version" value of "-custom2-s390". For subsequent custom versions of the same stock kernel image I would probably use "-custom2a-s390", "-custom2b-s390", etc. (If creating a 64-bit custom kernel, use s390x instead of s390. For example, "-custom2-s390x".)

On the other hand, I would keep the kernel revision exactly the same as the stock kernel. That way, I know exactly which stock kernel revision it corresponds to. For example, at the time of this writing, the current "--revision" value is "2.6.26-19lenny2". I obtain this value from the "version" reported by "dpkg-query -p linux-source-2.6.26" or "dpkg-query -p linux-image-2.6.26-2-s390". If the kernel source and the stock kernel image are in sync, their "versions" will match. It's confusing that the package "version" matches the kernel "revision", but that's what it boils down to.

Also, I need to talk about initial ram disk images. A standard stock Debian kernel is configured with almost everything built as a module, if it can be a module, rather than built in to the kernel. This allows for installation on as wide a variety of hardware configurations as possible while holding the size of the kernel down as much as possible. But modules reside on disk. And any kernel function that is required for the kernel to be able to mount the partitions or do I/O to the disks must be loaded into storage before any kernel modules can be read from disk. This means that either this support must be compiled into the kernel or else it must be loaded from the initial ram disk. This is the primary purpose for an initial ram disk: it allows the kernel to load modules that it needs before it can read them from disk. Once the permanent root file system is mounted, the initial ram disk image is freed from memory.

As an example from the i386 architecture, suppose your permanent root file system, which contains /lib/modules/..., is mapped to a partition on a SCSI disk. But the kernel support for the SCSI adapter is not compiled into the kernel: it is a loadable module. As an example from the s390 architecture, how can you load the dasd driver modules from disk when those modules must be loaded in order to do I/O to the disk? In such cases, you need an initial ram disk. Stock Debian kernels are set up via the boot loader (grub, lilo, zipl, etc.) to use initial ram disk images. I am assuming in these instructions that you are going to do the same. If not, then you must do three things: (1) You must make sure that all kernel function needed to get the permanent root file system mounted is built-in to the kernel. (2) You must not supply the "--initrd" flag to make-kpkg when you invoke it. (3) You must change your boot loader configuration so that it does not expect an initial RAM disk image. Taking the path of least resistance, I am assuming that you are going to use an initial RAM disk image the way the stock kernels do.

Finally, I am assuming that you are not using any third-party kernel modules (i.e. modules which do not ship with the kernel source). If you are, read the documentation for kernel-package and the man page for make-kpkg for information on what to do. In most cases, simply adding the modules_image target at the end of the command will do the trick. (But of course, the module source code package must have previously been installed and unpacked in the expected location.)

OK, with all that said, here are the commands:

         make-kpkg clean

You need to run this before each kernel build. Then issue:

         make-kpkg --append-to-version -custom2-s390 --revision 2.6.26-19lenny2 \
          --initrd kernel_image

In this example, I am assuming an s390 kernel image package is being built. Obviously, change the s390 specification to your architecture. The "--initrd" flag indicates that a kernel with an initial RAM disk image is to be built. The actual initial RAM disk image, however, is not built at this time. That is deferred until the package is installed.

Compiling the entire kernel takes a while. We're talking hours, probably, depending on the speed of your processor.

When make-kpkg is finished, there will be a Debian kernel image package in the parent directory (.. or /usr/src) of the current directory (. or /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.26). If you included the modules_image target, there may also be one or more Debian package files (.deb files) for the modules images as well.

## Step 10: Install the kernel image package

You won't use aptitude, apt-get, or dselect to install the kernel image package. That's because it doesn't have to be fetched from anywhere. Instead, use the low-level package tool dpkg.

         cd ..
         dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.26-custom2-s390_2.6.26-19lenny2_s390.deb

Obviously, use the actual name of the package file, which can be determined by using the ls command. If you have both a kernel image package and one or more modules image packages, install the kernel image package first, then the modules image packages. The latter will probably have a dependency on the former.

The installation script will automatically re-run your boot loader if necessary. But before you shut down and reboot, it is a good idea to check everything out in your boot loader configuration to make sure that the new kernel was installed to your liking.

## Step 11: Shutdown and reboot

Shutdown and reboot to run your new custom kernel!

## Step 12: Clean up

Once the new kernel image package has been installed, you can delete the package file (.deb file). Login as root again, then

         cd /usr/src
         rm linux-image-2.6.26-custom2-s390_2.6.26-19lenny2_s390.deb

If you have also installed one or more modules image packages, you can delete their package files too.

Once you are satisfied with the new kernel, you may wish to de-install the old kernel image. I like to keep at least one back version unless I know that the old kernel will no longer work due to changes made since migrating to the new kernel. For example, if my system now depends on a kernel module that did not exist in the old kernel, there's not much point in keeping the old kernel around.

         aptitude -R purge linux-image-2.6.26-2-s390

This will de-install the old kernel image and save some more disk space.

Note: you must shut down and reboot using the new kernel before de-installing the old kernel. aptitude will not let you de-install a running kernel!

May you have much enjoyment running your new custom kernel!

## Step 13: Maintenance

OK, now what if you get the new kernel installed and running, but you want to make changes to the kernel configuration. Maybe you forgot something the first time. Use a sequence of commands something like this.

         cd /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.26
         make menuconfig
         make-kpkg clean
         make-kpkg --append-to-version -custom2a-s390 --revision 2.6.26-19lenny2 \
          --initrd kernel_image
         cd ..
         dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.26-custom2a-s390_2.6.26-19lenny2_s390.deb
         rm linux-image-2.6.26-custom2a-s390_2.6.26-19lenny2_s390.deb
         shutdown -r now;exit

Something like the above will do nicely. Notice that the "append-to-version" flag needs to be changed slightly each time. If you have third-party modules to make, add the "modules_image" target to make-kpkg as well, and add "dpkg -i" commands to install the modules after you install the kernel. Typically, your boot loader is configured to boot two kernels: the primary kernel, which is the one most recently installed, and one alternate one, which is the next most recently installed one. If you didn't deinstall the stock kernel last time, you should probably do so now. You've got three kernel images on your machine now: the original stock kernel, your first custom kernel, and your second custom kernel. And only the two custom ones are bootable at this point, unless you've been customizing your boot loader configuration as well.

         aptitude -R purge linux-image-2.6.26-2-s390

Once your first custom kernel rolls off the boot loader menu, deinstall it in a similar manner.

OK, you've been happily running your custom kernel for several months now, and you get a security update notice from Debian. You update the list of available packages via "dselect update", then you run "aptitude -R full-upgrade". And when you do, you notice that an updated kernel source package has been downloaded and installed. What do you do now?

Well, it's time to clean house. Of course you've already run "aptitude clean", right? (You should always run "aptitude clean" after running "aptitude -R full-upgrade".)

         cd /usr/src
         rm -r linux-source-2.6.26/*
         rm -r linux-source-2.6.26/.*

(You will get error messages from the second command about not being able to remove "." and "..". That's OK. You don't want it to remove "." or ".."!)

         tar -xjf linux-source-2.6.26.tar.bz2
         rm linux-source-2.6.26.tar.bz2

Now proceed to step 7, with some minor variations. The name of the config file that gets copied from the /boot directory to .config in the current directory must change to match the current kernel config file. You must re-run "make menuconfig", even if you don't change a thing in the kernel configuration, because some files get created by "make menuconfig" that make-kpkg needs, and you just erased them. You must then re-run "make-kpkg clean".

The "--append-to-version" flag must change slightly to not conflict with any of the kernel versions you currently have installed. That will change the name of the package file created; so the "dpkg -i" command will change too. And of course, "aptitude -R purge" must change to de-install the correct old version of the kernel. By now you get the idea.

Note: sometimes the stock kernel configuration file will change with a security update. The powers that be may have decided to change a kernel configuration option for security reasons. In that case, if you want to keep your custom kernel configuration file in sync with the latest stock kernel, you will need to install the latest stock kernel image in order to get that config file. That's a little like buying Maxwell House to get a cup of coffee, but I don't know how else to get that config file. Once you have that config file copied over as /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.26/.config, you can de-install the stock kernel again. Depending on which boot loader you use, de-installing the most recently installed kernel image, even though it's not the currently running kernel, may leave your boot loader in a broken state. For example, on the s390 platform you will need to perform the following steps to fix your boot loader after the above scenario.

         cd /boot
         mv initrd.img.old initrd.img
         mv vmlinuz.old vmlinuz
         zipl

If you had two bootable kernel images installed prior to installing (and then de-installing) the stock kernel image, you will also need to re-create the proper symbolic links for initrd.img.old and vmlinuz.old prior to running zipl. For example, let's say that prior to installing that stock kernel image you had vmlinuz pointing to vmlinuz-2.6.26-custom2i-s390, initrd.img pointing to initrd.img-2.6.26-custom2i-s390, vmlinuz.old pointing to vmlinuz-2.6.26-custom2h-s390, and initrd.img.old pointing to initrd.img-2.6.26-custom2h-s390. After installing linux-image-2.6.26-2-s390, vmlinuz points to vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-s390, initrd.img points to initrd.img-2.6.26-2-s390, vmlinuz.old points to vmlinuz-2.6.26-custom2i-s390, and initrd.img.old points to initrd.img-2.6.26-custom2i-s390, and zipl is re-run. Nothing points to vmlinuz-2.6.26-custom2h-s390 or initrd.img-2.6.26-custom2h-s390 anymore, but the files are still there.

When you run "aptitude -R purge linux-image-2.6.26-2-s390", this causes vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-s390 and initrd.img-2.6.26-2-s390 to be deleted, and the symbolic links that point to them, vmlinuz and initrd.img, respectively, are also deleted; since they are now broken links. zipl is not rerun. To restore your boot loader back to the state it was in prior to installing linux-image-2.6.26-2-s390, enter the following sequence of commands:

         cd /boot
         mv vmlinuz.old vmlinuz
         mv initrd.img.old initrd.img
         ln -s vmlinuz-2.6.26-custom2h-s390 vmlinuz.old
         ln -s initrd.img-2.6.26-custom2h-s390 initrd.img.old
         zipl

lilo also uses symbolic links and needs similar processing. grub, since it does not use symbolic links, requires less fuss.

Happy Kerneling! If any one has any comments, suggestions, complaints, corrections, or any other form of feedback, please drop me a line at zlinuxman@wowway.com.