Don't need kernel source, but do need instructions and config files

[Satish Balay]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> But it would be really handy if, somewhere on the install disks, there
> were tools and instructions and configs to rebuild the distributed
> kernels, exactly like the binaries and libraries on the FC3 distro,
> so the great unwashed masses can check to see that the binaries as
> distributed are clean and uncorrupted.  
> 
> A person would have to be insane to run a kernel that they couldn't
> verify corresponded exactly to clean sources.  Such insane people are
> called "Windows users", and we are here because we are NOT Windows users.
> 
> Recompiling a kernel, even with a stock config file, is like getting
> your own apartment rather than living in your parent's basement. 
> Not everyone needs to do it, but it is not that hard, and it is
> an important step in the growth of an open source software user.
> It is empowering, and it should be made easy.
> 
> So leave the kernel sources on the source disks, or on a mirror, but
> please provide a cookbook so that newbies can experience them.

Why is this special with kernel? Its true for all packages.

rpmbuild --rebuild package.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild --target=i686 kernel.src.rpm

Satish