Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Lead Authors
  • About the Contributing Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • I. Red Hat Linux Installation and User Services
  • Chapter 1. Introduction to Red Hat Linux
  • Chapter 2. Installation of Your Red Hat System
  • Chapter 3. LILO and Other Boot Managers
  • Chapter 4. Configuring the X Window System, Version 11
  • Chapter 5. Window Managers
  • Chapter 6. Connecting to the Internet
  • Chapter 7. IRC, ICQ, and Chat Clients
  • Chapter 8. Using Multimedia and Graphics Clients
  • II. Configuring Services
  • Chapter 9. System Startup and Shutdown
  • Chapter 10. SMTP and Protocols
  • Chapter 11. FTP
  • Chapter 12. Apache Server
  • Chapter 13. Internet News
  • Chapter 14. Domain Name Service and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
  • Chapter 15. NIS: Network Information Service
  • Chapter 16. NFS: Network Filesystem
  • Chapter 17. Samba
  • III. System Administration and Management
  • Chapter 18. Linux Filesystems, Disks, and Other Devices
  • Chapter 19. Printing with Linux
  • Chapter 20. TCP/IP Network Management
  • Chapter 21. Linux System Administration
  • Chapter 22. Backup and Restore
  • Chapter 23. System Security
  • IV. Red Hat Development and Productivity
  • Chapter 24. Linux C/C++ Programming Tools
  • Chapter 25. Shell Scripting
  • Chapter 26. Automating Tasks
  • Chapter 27. Configuring and Building Kernels
    • Introduction to the Linux Kernel
    • Understanding the Kernel
    • Understanding the Kernel Sources Structure
    • Obtaining the Kernel Sources
    • Configuring the Linux Kernel
    • Building and Installing the Kernel
    • Recovering from Faulty Kernels
    • Summary
  • Chapter 28. Emulators, Tools, and Window Clients
  • V. Appendixes
  • A. The Linux Documentation Project
  • B. Top Linux Commands and Utilities
  • C. The GNU General Public License
  • D. Red Hat Linux RPM Package Listings

Summary

Linux is the kernel, and the kernel is Linux. Linus Torvalds once wrote that he never expected Linux would to become the size of EMACS, but he is quick to point out that "at least Linux has the excuse that it needs to be." The development of this beast over the past decade has been meteoric and has probably left some broken hearts along the way, but the result of this experiment in community cooperation now stands as a major contender in the operating systems marketplace.

As with any technical software installation, configuring an optimal kernel does require planning, preparation, and some knowledge of the target machine to ensure an exact fit. It is not unreasonable to expect that someday the Linux kernel will be self-configuring (IRIX has done this for years). While kernel configuration is nowhere near as frightening as it once was, for the foreseeable future configuration still demands a certain amount of attention and a small measure of sysadmin savvy.

Building the Linux kernel is not a rite of passage or a task to be feared; kernel building just takes some common sense, care, and attention, and is yet another of the reasons you chose to run Linux in the first place.

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