Questions about "make rpm" with Fedora Core 3

[Jonathan Berry]

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 15:31:42 +0100, Olivier JAVAUX <ojavaux at ib-group.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I need to create a binary package for a kernel using "make rpm".
> I cannot use "rpmbuild -bb" because I need to patch the kernel sources to
>    support some WiFi device.
> 
> Here is briefly what I did:
>    rpm -ivh kernel-xxxxxxxxxxx_FC3.src.rpm
>    edit "/usr/src/redhat/SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec" to change rhbsys, disable smp
>    rpmbuild -v -bp --target=i686 /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec
>    patch the kernel
>    adapt .config file
>    modify Makefile to set UTS_MACHINE to i686 (else, only .i386.rpm is created)
>      and modify EXTRAVERSION if not OK
>    make rpm
>    as soon as mkspec has been run, stop it
>    and modify kernel.spec to add post install commands
>      (mainly /sbin/new-kernel-pkg)
>    rerun "make rpm"

Why not just further modify the spec file to include your patches that
you need.  If you have a particular .config you want to use, just
replace the necessary config file in the SOURCES directory.  You can
make a patch for the Makefile changes and also include it in the spec
file.  It seems like this might be a better way to go about it.

> A binary package .i686.rpm is created
> 
> Here are my questions:
> 
>    . the binary package is about 100 MB, compared to the 16 MB of the
>      binary package from Fedora.
>      Each .ko is around 4 times bigger than the one from Fedora.
>      Why ?
>      Are there compile options to set ?????

If you use rpmbuild, then I believe the files are stripped, as it
creates a normal sized kernel rpm and a larger debug rpm.

Jonathan