Compiling a kernel

This is an example how to compile a Linux kernel. It has been tested for SUSE Linux 10.2 and kernel 2.6.21, but should work same or similar for every combination.

• Download the kernel from ftp.kernel.org

wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.20.tar.bz2

• unpack the kernel

bunzip linux-2.6.20.tar.bz2

• unpack the kernel for the second time

tar xvf linux-2.6.20.tar

• configure the kernel

cd linux-2.6.20
make oldconfig

• answer some un-understandable questions
• compile the kernel

make -j4