We won't be compiling a new kernel image yet. We'll do that after we have finished the installation of the basic system software in this chapter. But because certain software need the kernel header files, we're going to unpack the kernel archive now and set it up so that we can compile package that need the kernel.
Create the kernel configuration file by running the following command:
root:linux# yes "" | make config
Ignore the warning Broken pipe you might see at the end. Now run the following commands to set up all the dependencies correctly:
root:linux# make dep
Now that that's done, we need to create the $LFS/usr/include/linux and the $LFS/usr/include/asm symlinks. Create them by running the following commands:
root:~# cd $LFS/usr/include
root:include# ln -s ../src/linux/include/linux linux
root:include# ln -s ../src/linux/include/asm asm
The Linux kernel package contains the Linux kernel.
The Linux kernel is at the core of every Linux system. It's what makes Linux tick. When you turn on your computer and boot a Linux system, the very first piece of Linux software that gets loaded is the kernel. The kernel initializes the system's hardware components such as serial ports, parallel ports, sound cards, network cards, IDE controllers, SCSI controllers and a lot more. In a nutshell the kernel makes the hardware available so that the software can run.