Fedora question -- make zinstall doesn't work
(Double posted, so reply to your list) Question for Fedora guys... How do you install kernel on your Fedora? On Debian/Ubuntu, after compiling kernel, I usually do make zinstall INSTALL_PATH=boot_install and the 3 files (vmlinuz config, System.map) will be copied to "boot_install/" directory. On Fedora, - it tries to copy to "/boot", which is not what I want. - it calls out to grub, which is also not what I want.
As a general rule RHEL/Fedora tries to build a /boot partition that is a file system that grub can boot from. So if you want to boot the kernel then you would likely want to install it into /boot. I am assuming that you want to boot the kernel you build. If I were doing this I would be building the kernel from an rpm spec file making my change to the spec to support what I am looking for. Then I would use the standard DNF/YUM/RPM install the kernel for booting. On 2025-12-02 14:26, William Park via Talk wrote:
(Double posted, so reply to your list)
Question for Fedora guys... How do you install kernel on your Fedora?
On Debian/Ubuntu, after compiling kernel, I usually do make zinstall INSTALL_PATH=boot_install and the 3 files (vmlinuz config, System.map) will be copied to "boot_install/" directory.
On Fedora, - it tries to copy to "/boot", which is not what I want. - it calls out to grub, which is also not what I want.
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-- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || home: (905)513-7688 alvin@netvel.net ||
From: Alvin Starr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
As a general rule RHEL/Fedora tries to build a /boot partition that is a file system that grub can boot from.
Yes. The unsaid part is that / need not be a filesystem that grub can boot from. In the past, I usually made / ext3. Since grub can understand ext3, I leave /boot as a directory within /. Recently, I've been playing with BTRFS. I don't expect grub to understand BTRFS so I allow the installer to create a /boot partition.
I am assuming that you want to boot the kernel you build. Yes, but not on that machine. I'm cross-building for ARM boards. I
On 2025-12-02 23:47, Alvin Starr via Talk wrote: tried building kernels on target boards, but it took 32 hours using my speedy Samsung "Sonic the Hedgehog" mSD card (128GB, 180MB/130MB read/write). That's too much. On my machine, it's 1 hour.
Hi On Tue, Dec 2, 2025 at 11:27 AM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
(Double posted, so reply to your list)
Question for Fedora guys... How do you install kernel on your Fedora?
On Debian/Ubuntu, after compiling kernel, I usually do make zinstall INSTALL_PATH=boot_install and the 3 files (vmlinuz config, System.map) will be copied to "boot_install/" directory.
This is quite interesting - I compile kernels multiple times a day (for a living!) and I had neither seen zinstall, nor a common use of INSTALL_PATH. A little bit of googling tells me that on modern x86 make zinstall is the same as make install.
On Fedora, - it tries to copy to "/boot", which is not what I want. - it calls out to grub, which is also not what I want.
This is very interesting. Since I don't have my fedora system on hand immediately - I had to turn to gemini. The claim is, Debian (+derivatives) use /sbin/installkernel which respects INSTALL_PATH. Fedora on the other uses /sbin/installkernel which in turn calls kernel-install. This ignores INSTALL_PATH as per gemini. If true, IMHO this is a bug and should be reported upstream so that it can be fixed. Obligatory https://xkcd.com/1172/ Thanks Dhaval
I ended up copying those 3 files, manually: cp arch/arm/boot/zImage boot_install/vmlinuz-$KR cp .config boot_install/config-$KR cp System.map boot_install/System.map-$KR Regarding Fedora's version of /sbin/installkernel, if that's OK with Linus, who am I to argue. :-) On 2025-12-03 00:40, Dhaval Giani wrote:
Hi
On Tue, Dec 2, 2025 at 11:27 AM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
(Double posted, so reply to your list)
Question for Fedora guys... How do you install kernel on your Fedora?
On Debian/Ubuntu, after compiling kernel, I usually do make zinstall INSTALL_PATH=boot_install and the 3 files (vmlinuz config, System.map) will be copied to "boot_install/" directory.
This is quite interesting - I compile kernels multiple times a day (for a living!) and I had neither seen zinstall, nor a common use of INSTALL_PATH. A little bit of googling tells me that on modern x86 make zinstall is the same as make install.
On Fedora, - it tries to copy to "/boot", which is not what I want. - it calls out to grub, which is also not what I want.
This is very interesting. Since I don't have my fedora system on hand immediately - I had to turn to gemini. The claim is, Debian (+derivatives) use /sbin/installkernel which respects INSTALL_PATH. Fedora on the other uses /sbin/installkernel which in turn calls kernel-install. This ignores INSTALL_PATH as per gemini. If true, IMHO this is a bug and should be reported upstream so that it can be fixed.
Obligatory https://xkcd.com/1172/
Thanks Dhaval
participants (4)
-
Alvin Starr -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Dhaval Giani -
William Park