[gentoo-amd64] Re: how to build xen kernel with genkernel 3.4.10?

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

David Shen <davidshen84@googlemail.com> posted
53e35fd50906201903j565753edre2148ff57729466d@mail.gmail.com, excerpted
below, on  Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:03:51 +0800:

> According to gentoo bug #120236, genkernel will not directly support
> build xen kernel. Does this means I will have to apply the patch in the
> bug whenever I want to build my xen kernel with genkernel? My system is
> build on LVM, so I need genkernel to build the start up script to active
> LVM. Is there a better way to build xen kernel with genkernel?

That bit about LVM isn't correct.  Think about it.  LVM isn't a Gentoo 
invention, while genkernel is a Gentoo app.  What do you think Red Hat, 
Debian and others do to support / on LVM?  They aren't going to run 
genkernel.

While I specifically chose not to put / (or my backup /) on lvm here 
precisely to avoid having to generate an initrd or initramfs as I wanted 
to keep the setup simple, building an initramfs/initrd isn't Gentoo or 
genkernel specific.  There's instructions out there much as there are 
for / on md/kernel RAID and LVM.  If you're working at a sufficiently 
advanced enough level to need both xen and LVM, and to contemplate doing 
the xen kernel patches, then I'd suggest you're advanced enough to learn 
how to manage the kernel, including an initramfs and/or an initrd, 
without genkernel.

Meanwhile, patching the kernel is no big deal.  I created my own scripts 
here to automate my own kernel building, after doing it manually for some 
time.  They apply any patches they find in my patch dir as part of the 
process.  I'm now running direct upstream git repository based kernels, 
occasionally applying patches that haven't yet made it to mainline, but 
while the scripts do deal with patching, as I chose a system simple 
enough not to have to worry about an initrd/initramfs, I haven't dealt 
with that manually and thus haven't expanded the scripts to deal with it 
either.

I'd suggest simply biting the bullet.  Just as you evidently did in 
learning how to setup xen and lvm in the first place, and I did with GRUB 
(I was using LILO until recently), LVM and md/kernel-RAID among other 
things fairly recently and the kernel itself some years ago here, I'd set 
aside a bit of time to go thru the documentation, digesting it in enough 
depth not only well enough to follow some step-by-step, but until I 
groked the basic process well enough to do decent troubleshooting of any 
problems that may come up, as necessary.  That way, when the automated 
tools like genkernel fail because you're now out in territory beyond what 
they're designed to handle, you know the process well enough to deal.

Just "IMHO.  YMMV."  =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman