Mar 191999
compiling a kernel on another machine
See also Build world on your fast box, install on your slow box, which also covers kernel building.One machine can compile a single kernel and distribute it to other machines if all machines contain the same version of the operating system. For instructions on how to create a new kernel, refer to the Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel section in the FreeBSD handbook. Pay special attention to the section on Building and Installing a Custom Kernel.
Why do this?
Why would you want to compile a kernel on one machine and copy it to another? Well, perhaps the machine in question has very little disk space and can’t take the sources. Or it’s a slow box, and it would take hours to compile a kernel. In my case, it’s the space. I had just installed the system on a Windows 95 machine, and there wasn’t much space. So I used another machine.How to do this
Basically, you do the same as you would for any custom kernel. I named the kernel after the name of the machine. See Building and Installing a Custom Kernel for details.After compiling the kernel, I used FTP to transfer it from one machine to the other. Then I did the following:
cd / chflags noschg kernel cp kernel kernel.old cp /var/ftp/incoming/kernel kernel chflags schg kernel shutdown -r now
The above will copy the old kernel out and copy the new kernel in. It also reboots the machine.