Kernel modules

• File Systems -> File System in User Space (FUSE) : useful for Encfs
• Networking options -> network filtering (replaces ipchains)
• Device drivers-> block devices -> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP: loopback
• Device drivers -> block devices -> CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD: initial RAM file system
• Drivers -> USB input : wacom

Loading modules

• to start up a module at boot : /etc/modules
• to make sure a module is not loaded : /etc/hotplug/blacklist
• to disable IPv6 : add blacklist ipv6 to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Another way of doing that is to turn off net-pf10 in /etc/modprobe.d/aliases: alias net-pf-10 off.
• to get information on a module: /sbin/modinfo <name>

Building custom kernels

In /usr/src/linux-x.x.x

• make-kpkg (included in the kernel-package).
• make menuconfig (requires ncurses-devel)
• make-kpkg clean
• make-kpkg -rev Custom.N kernel_image
• if you need an initrd: make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image -rev Custom.N !!!
• create kernel_image-x.x.x_Custom.N_i386.deb where x.x.x is the Linux kernel nb
• to append text to version: make-kpkg --append-to-version -blah
• dpkg --install /usr/src/kernel_image.....deb
• runs LILO (or grub)
• installs the customer kernel in /boot/vmlinuz-Custom.N
• sets appropriate links (reads all kernels in /boot)
• prompts for a boot floppy