Title: Andrews Notes
Subject: Compiling a kernel and X configuration.

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# Andrew Scott (http://tathata.org/~andrew/)
# is is a FRIENDLY GURU who helped me LEARN about 
# modules, initrd, lilo, and compiling my own kernels
# all in one night.  Good person to have on your team.
######################################################

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# Summery: 
#	This linux computer has a root and boot scsi drive
#	who's controler card driver does not load when the kernel
#	image is loaded from the MBR, resuling in a message:
#  kernel panic, cant mount root file system.
#
# Two Solutions:
#       1. Compile a kernel with this module include.
#	2. Make an initrd image that loads the module.
#       3. Uncompress and mount an initrd image, and verify modules.
######################################################
# Solution 1 would look something like this:
   cd /usr/src/linux
   make menuconfig
      specify the scsi driver to be loaded staticly
   make mrproper
   make cloneconfig
   make menuconfig
   make dep
   make kernel
   vi  /etc/lilo.conf
	specify the new kernel name
#######################################################
# Solution 2 would look like this
#  Every kernel has a .config file used
#  when compiling the current or new kenrel,
#  specifying what will be a module, or 
#  compiled into the kenrel.
#
#  We need to see how our scsi driver is 
#  listed, and make it a module for this 
#  senario  
  find / -name ".config"
   grep -i ncr53c8xx /usr/src/linux-2.4.4.SuSE/.config
	CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX=m
	CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_DEFAULT_TAGS=8
	CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_MAX_TAGS=32
	CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_SYNC=80
	CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_PROFILE=y
	# CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_IOMAPPED is not set
	CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_PQS_PDS=y
	# CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_SYMBIOS_COMPAT is not set
  #######################################
  # Now search for module dependencies
  #######################################
  cat /lib/modules/2.4.4-64GB-SMP/modules.dep

#######################################
# To make a initial ram disk (initrd) image
# one needs to run mkinitrd, excetp on SuSE.
# On SuSE, they call it mk_initrd.
# Normal syntax is something like:
# 	mkinitrd  2.4.4-4GB /dev/sda3
#######################################
  # prints the help message
   mk_initrd -h
  # This will make the image /boot/initrd.suse 
   mk_initrd 
   cd /boot/
########################################
# Anderw found the initrd image, which 
# is actually a gziped file system.
# then he mounted it to see if our module was present
# and it was.
######################################## 
  # this shows us that initrd.suse is realy a gziped file system 
   file initrd.suse
	initrd: gzip compressed data, deflated, 
	original filename, `initrd2120_small', 
	last modified: Mon Oct 15 05:32:25 2001, 
	max compression, 
	os: Unix

  # make a temp dir to uncompress the image 
   mkdir tmp
   cd tmp

  # copy the initrd image to the temp dir, rename with gz extention
  # and uncompress into the temp dir.
   cp /boot/initrd.suse ../tmp/initrd.suse.gz
   gunzip -d initrd.suse.gz

  # Now this shows us that it is a file system. 
  # Pretty wild!! 
   file initrd.suse 
 	initrd: Linux rev 1.0 ext2 filesystem data

  # Make another temp dir, and mount the 'file system' file
  #   This file system is acutally just a charater
  #   device (unlike a hard drive which is a block dev.
   mkdir tmp
   mount -o loop -t ext2 initrd.suse tmp/

  # Now we go in and make sure our scsi module
  # for the controler drivng the boot and root
  # drives is loaded in this compressed image
   cd tmp/lib/modules/2.4.4-4GB/kernel/drivers/scsi/
	-rw-r--r--  1 root root 65180 May 18 07:36 ncr53c8xx.o

  # our module is loaded.  Now we need to clean up.
  # unmount the temp file system we creaed
  # delete the directory where we mounted it.
   cd /boot/tmp
   umount tmp
   rm -rf tmp

  # make sure lilo knows to load the image  
   vi /etc/lilo.conf
   insert the line into one boot mode, to be safe
  	image  = /boot/vmlinuz
  	label  = linux
  	root   = /dev/sda3
  	initrd = /boot/initrd.suse
   lilo -v -v -v
   reboot

# see what loaded
  lsmod
# remove any modules that are not being used
# this exercises the auto-clean feature of modules
  rmmod -h
  
###########################################
# EXTRA INFO on something else:
# messing with xwindows setup
# there are far to many ways to configure X
###########################################
  sax2
  yast
  xf86cfg
  XF86Setup 
###########################################
# this detects your monitor/vidio card 
# hardware
###########################################
  /usr/X11R6/bin/SuperProbe
  XF86Setup 
  X -showconfig
  vi XF86Config
  xf86cfg
  XFree86 -configure
  XFree86 --configure
  XF86Setup 
  xf86config
############################################
# ok, now now try to start x
############################################  
  startx
###########################################################
# http://www.scyld.com/expert/modules.html
# MO EXTRA INFO on something else:
#   compiling the driver modules:
#   gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -O6 -c driver.c
#   Test the module:
#	insmod driver.o
#  Install the module if it all worked
#	install -m 644 driver.o /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net/
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