[gentoo-dev] kernel compile on install

[drobbins@gentoo.org]

On Sun, Jan 07, 2001 at 03:05:12PM -0700, drobbins@gentoo.org wrote:

> > Hmm, I recall asking if rc3 could have gcc and the kernel source 
> > available from the boot cd - I see the kernel source code is in the
> > packages directory, but I think there may have been a
> > mis-communication... I actually meant that gcc be executable from
> > boot.img so that a kernel can be compiled directly from the boot cd
> > (onto ramfs presumably, unless you mount anything else) without having
> > to install anything to a hard disk - I for one would find this very
> > useful, and I'm surprised I haven't seen any other distros do this.
> > Comments please
> 
> I think that's impossible right now, since the kernel sources need to be
> on a read/write filesystem.  However, I believe that this is changing with
> the official 2.4.0 release (or some time soon), which will allow the sources
> to reside on the CD.  Then, it'll be possible.  Otherwise, you'd need ~150Mb
> of spare RAM just to hold the upacked kernel sources in a RAM filesystem.

Now that I think of it, this should be possible with a chroot to /mnt/gentoo
after the base system has been installed.  The kernel could then be compiled
and installed quite easily.  We'll need to test it out -- I hope it works :)

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.