short but hard

rakoon13 · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2005 Posts: 9 Location: ga

Ok. I have a short but hard - at least for me - question.

How do I install multiple kernel versions alongside one another without causing problems??

I've try all but the right choice.... or maybe it's not possibile... but it must be ... hmmmm
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rsa4046 · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 4:29 am Post subject:

If you mean multiple kernel images (e.g., 2.6.15.6 and 2.6.12.1), just install the sources, edit the symlink successively to point at a given kernel source tree, configure, make, and install modules (these will be contained in /lib/modules/<kernel version>), and copy the image (giving it a unique name) to the boot partition. Repeat this for as many different kernels at you like. Organize these choices in your boot loader (grub or lilo). Having 2.4 alongside 2.6 kernels might be problematic, not sure if this is your intention.

EzInKy · Veteran Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 1742 Location: Kentucky

After you build your kernel and copy the bzImage over to /boot (giving it a unique name of course) you add that image to your grub.conf, then when you reboot you just choose the desired kernel from the menu.
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aldimond · n00b Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 12

Right, and all the modules will be happily installed in their own little sections of /lib/modules.

Actually, I've run into a subtle issue along these lines lately; let's say I want to have different patchsets of the "same" kernel installed side-by-side. That is, I have my 2.6.12-gentoo-r10, but I copy the directory to 2.6.12-mkexec-gentoo-r10 and patch it for minik/mkexec support. The two kernels will need seperate modules, but when doing the "make modules_install" they both install into /lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r10. How can I get my special mkexec kernel to install its modules into its own directory (it's gotta be some configure argument or in a Makefile somewhere, right)?

Extra credit if someone can tell me how to have a seperate modules.autoload.d file for the two; actually, modules.autoload.d is particularly bad, because it seems that it's only granular down to kernel minor version, such that if I had a 2.6.12 and a 2.6.15 kernel I couldn't choose different sets of modules to autoload.