A note describing the process of installing Centos 4.8 with 2.6.11 Kernel in order to be able to work along with Bovet & Cesati’s 2006 book, Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3rd. ed., in the modern era.

created 20180303.1319

for use with

Overview

The purpose of installing this system is to have a system capable of working through Bovet & Cesati’s 2006 book, Understanding the Linux Kernel, 3rd. ed. In the book, the author is uses the 2.6.11 kernel. The system described below is suitable for working with the 2.6.11 kernel and through the book.

I had a bit of trouble getting the 2.6.11 kernel to boot. Eventually, I punted and changed the VM settings. The kernel kept crashing trying to find the disk. Apparently it needed an AHCI module that there didn’t appear to be a config parameter for… I’m sure it’s just me not understanding things, but to make things simpler, I just removed the SATA adapter and attached the VDI to the IDE adapter when I configured the VM.

Don’t install Virtual Box additions or try to use vagrant with this set up. Trouble if you do :).

System Information

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012):

Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 - 4 cores
Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.3
Darwin giar 17.4.0 Darwin Kernel Version 17.4.0: Sun Dec 17 09:19:54 PST 2017; root:xnu-4570.41.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
VirtualBox 5.2.8-121009

Guest OS: Centos 4.8 32 bit

References

Kroah-Hartman, G. (2007). Linux Kernel in a Nutshell. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Bovet, D. P., & Cesati, M., (2006). Understanding the Linux Kernel (3rd ed.). Sebastopol, CA.: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Resources

I need to build a custom kernel (v2.6.9): https://web.archive.org/web/20070207061128/https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Custom_Kernel

I need to build a custom kernel (2.6.18): https://web.archive.org/web/20080613161831/http://wiki.centos.org:80/HowTos/Custom_Kernel

Download Centos 4.8 in order to have 2.6.11 kernel

It’s in the vault: https://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/linux/centos-vault/4.8/isos/i386/

Getting Started

Create a working directory

mkdir ~/bovet
cd ~/bovet

Get the iso

curl -O https://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/linux/centos-vault/4.8/isos/i386/CentOS-4.8-i386-bin1of4.iso
curl -O https://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/linux/centos-vault/4.8/isos/i386/sha1sums

Verify the iso

cat sha1sums
...
0c27102deadee01974176d5603aeac1fc6756b6b  CentOS-4.8-i386-bin1of4.iso
...

openssl sha1 CentOS-4.8-i386-bin1of4.iso
SHA1(CentOS-4.8-i386-bin1of4.iso)= 0c27102deadee01974176d5603aeac1fc6756b6b

Save a backup

mkdir -p ~/_workarea/_CD_DVD/_iso/centos/4.8
cp CentOS-4.8-i386-bin1of4.iso ~/_workarea/_CD_DVD/_iso/centos/4.8
cp sha1sums ~/_workarea/_CD_DVD/_iso/centos/4.8

Create a Centos Instance in Virtual Box

Create a New VirtualBox VM instance

Name: centos48
Version: Red Hat (32-bit)
Memory: 4096MB
HDD: 20GB
System-Motherboard-Extended Features-Enable I/O APIC
System-Processor-Processors 4
Storage Devices
  Remove Controller: SATA
  Add Existing Hard Disk to Controller:IDE
Add iso to Empty CD
Network Advanced - Port Forwarding - SSH 3334 22

Install in the VM

Press Enter to Boot the Install Media
Press Enter twice to Test the media
Press Enter to accept success :)
Reattach the iso (it has been ejected)
Press Tab to select Continue and Press Enter
Click Next in the Graphic Installer to begin the Graphical Installation Process
Click Next to accept English as the Installer Language
Click Next to accept US English as the keyboard mapping
Choose Server and click Next to Continue
Click Next to accept Automatic Partitioning
Click Yes to initialize hda
Click Next to Remove existing partitions
Click Yes to confirm removal
Click Next to confirm partition layout
Click Next to confirm Grub settings
Click Next to confirm Boot loader destination
nter centos48.sentech.home as the Hostname and then click Next
Choose America/Chicago and Click Next
Enter and confirm a root password and click Next
Unselect all packages (will require 749MB)
The installer will finish up and install the system
Click Reboot, eject the media and power off the VM

snapshot installed in vbox

Create a user with wheel privileges

start VM and login as root

# adduser -m -G wheel wsenn
# passwd wsenn
# visudo
uncomment wheel login
# halt

snapshot baseline

Make VM headless and prep for ssh from host

From the host

VBoxManage list vms
...
"centos48" {someuuid}
...

VBoxManage modifyvm "centos48" --defaultfrontend headless

start VM

from host ssh-copy-id localhost -p 3334

Update Centos

ssh localhost -p 3334

uname -a
Linux centos48.sentech.home 2.6.9-89.ELsmp #1 SMP Mon Jun 22 12:32:43 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

sudo -s 

cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo <<EOF
# CentOS-Base.repo
#
# This file uses a new mirrorlist system developed by Lance Davis for CentOS.
# The mirror system uses the connecting IP address of the client and the
# update status of each mirror to pick mirrors that are updated to and
# geographically close to the client.  You should use this for CentOS updates
# unless you are manually picking other mirrors.
#
# If the mirrorlist= does not work for you, as a fall back you can try the 
# remarked out baseurl= line instead.
#
#

[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=os
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/4.8/os/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
priority=1
protect=1

#released updates 
[update]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=updates
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/4.8/updates/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
priority=1
protect=1

#packages used/produced in the build but not released
[addons]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Addons
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=addons
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/addons/$basearch/
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/4.8/addons/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
priority=1
protect=1

#additional packages that may be useful
[extras]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=extras
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/extras/$basearch/
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/4.8/extras/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
priority=1
protect=1

#additional packages that extend functionality of existing packages
[centosplus]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Plus
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=centosplus
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/centosplus/$basearch/
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/4.8/centosplus/i386/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
priority=2
protect=1

#contrib - packages by Centos Users
[contrib]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Contrib
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=contrib
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/contrib/$basearch/
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/4.8/contrib/i386/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
priority=2
protect=1
EOF

exit

sudo yum update
install 2, update 96, 109M

sudo halt

snapshot updated

Install the devtools

Start the VM back up

uname -a
Linux centos48.sentech.home 2.6.9-103.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Dec 9 04:31:51 EST 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

sudo yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'
install 145, 131M

sudo yum install xmlto audit-libs-devel  elfutils-devel
install 20, 55M

sudo halt

snapshot devtools

Install canonical kernel sources for Centos 4.8

start VM
mkdir -p ~/rpmbuild/{BUILD,BUILDROOT,RPMS,SOURCES,SPECS,SRPMS}
echo '%_topdir %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild' > ~/.rpmmacros

find the current source: https://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/linux/centos-vault/4.8/updates/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.9-103.EL.src.rpm

wget https://ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/linux/centos-vault/4.8/updates/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.9-103.EL.src.rpm
rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.9-103.EL.src.rpm

This can take a few minutes depending on the download speed

cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
rpmbuild -bp --target=$(uname -m) kernel-2.6.spec
ls ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel*/linux*/ 

sudo halt

snap centos-kernel-sources

Install and Build the 2.6.11 Kernel

start the vm

gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys C4790F9D

mkdir ~/Downloads
cd ~/Downloads

wget http://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.11.tar.gz
wget http://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.11.tar.sign

mkdir ~/linux
cd ~/linux
cp ~/Downloads/linux-* .

gzip -d linux-2.6.11.tar.gz
gpg --verify linux-2.6.11.tar.sign linux-2.6.11.tar
...
gpg: Good signature from "Linux Kernel Archives Verification Key (One-off resigning of old releases) <ftpadmin@kernel.org>"
...

tar xvf linux-2.6.11.tar 
cd linux-2.6.11
make clean && make mrproper

cp ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/kernel-2.6.9-i686-smp.config .config
make oldconfig

accept all the many defaults

time make -j8

Results on MacBook:

real	3m0.507s
user	8m47.931s
sys	1m33.694s

sudo make modules_install
sudo make install

just ignore WARNING: No module ata_piix found for kernel 2.6.11, continuing anyway

/boot/grub/menu.lst is modified with the new kernel as first in list, but not default

sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst
change to
default=0

sudo reboot

uname -a
Linux centos48.sentech.home 2.6.11 #1 SMP Sat Mar 3 17:40:24 CST 2018 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

If you choose to boot to the 2.6.9 kernel in the future, Kudzu will notify you that hardware has been changed, choose whatever option you like, I don't think it makes a difference.

sudo halt

snapshot running-2.6.11

export appliance, ovf 1.0 with manifest to Documents, move to workarea

centos48.ova 1.72GB

Celebrate - you are ready to begin kernel hackery.

The instance running 2.6.11 is capable of building the 2.6.11 kernel

cd ~/linux/linux-2.6.11
make clean && make mrproper

cp ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/kernel-2.6.9-i686-smp.config .config
make oldconfig

accept all the many defaults

time make -j8

Results on MacBook (simultaneous backup going on, so not a benchmark):

real	4m22.728s
user	8m37.613s
sys	1m20.529s

post added 2022-12-01 16:37:00 -0600