How To Compile A Kernel - The Debian (Sarge) Way

Each distribution has some specific tools to build a custom kernel from the sources. This article is about compiling a kernel on Debian Sarge systems. It describes how to build a custom kernel using the latest unmodified kernel sources from www.kernel.org (vanilla kernel) so that you are independent from the kernels supplied by your distribution. It also shows how to patch the kernel sources if you need features that are not in there.

6 Build The Kernel

To build the kernel, execute these two commands:

make-kpkg clean
fakeroot make deb-pkg

Now be patient, the kernel compilation can take some hours, depending on your kernel configuration and your processor speed.

7 Install The New Kernel

After the successful kernel build, you can find your kernel .deb package in the /usr/src directory.

cd /usr/src
ls -l

On my test system it was called linux-2.6.18.3-default1_2.6.18.3-default1_i386.deb. I install it like this: