Handbook:MIPS/Blocks/Kernel/en

Preparing the configuration
Many of the systems supported have sample hiding in amongst the kernel source. Not all systems have configs distributed in this way. Those that do, can be configured using the commands mentioned in the table below.

All of the Gentoo installation images provide a kernel config option as part of the image itself, accessible as. This may be used in many cases. It is best though if the kernel source matches closely the kernel that is currently running. To extract it, simply run it through  as shown below.

As an aid to users in finding working settings, a hardware compatibility database was set up. This database lists the support for various MIPS devices, and allows users to contribute kernel configurations that are known to work. If the service is useful, please do contribute personal notes and .config files so that others may benefit from gained experience. It should be noted however that there is no guarantee that any of the configuration files downloaded from this site will work.

Customizing the configuration
Once a configuration is found, download it into the kernel source directory, and rename it to. From there, run  to bring everything up to date according to the instructions above, and customize the configuration before compiling.

Just press ENTER at each prompt to accept the defaults for now ...

Compiling and installing
Now that the kernel is configured, it is time to compile and install it. Exit the configuration and start the compilation process:

To compile natively:

Cross-compiling on target machine, adjust the mips64-unknown-linux-gnu- accordingly:

When compiling on another machine, such as an x86 box, use the following commands to compile the kernel & install modules into a specific directory to be transferred to the target machine.

The above will create, which is the final kernel.

When the kernel has finished compiling, copy the kernel image to.

For Cobalt servers, compress the kernel image: