Free Book - Linux Kernel in a Nutshell

One of the advantages of using GPLed software is that anybody who wish to use or modify the code can do so without fear of any repercussions. Ditto for the documentation of the software. This has at times tempted many a book author to release their books under a liberal license and make their efforts available for free in an electronic format.

One such author is Greg Kroab-Hartman who has released his book titled "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license which allows you to download and redistribute the book.

This book is not new rather, it has been significantly revamped to include details of the 2.6.18 Linux kernel.

This book covers the entire range of kernel tasks, starting with downloading the source and making sure that the kernel is in sync with the versions of the tools you need. In addition to configuration and installation steps, the book offers reference material and discussions of related topics such as control of kernel options at runtime.

The author claims this book is targeted at the lay person who wish to delve deep into understanding the Linux kernel and apart from a basic familiarity of the Linux shell commands, no particular prerequisites are expected from the reader. So it is a how-to sort of book which explains the steps that lead to properly building, customizing , and installing the Linux kernel.

So why should you recompile a Linux kernel ?

There are many advantages to compiling a Linux kernel. For one, you need enable only those modules which are required by your machine. For example, if your machine does not have support for infra red or do not have a need for PCMCIA, then you can disable those features in the kernel configuration and build your custom kernel. This will make the kernel lean and speed up the boot process. Similarly, If you intend to run Linux on a 486 machine (Yes it is entirely possible), you can turn off all the other processor specific support in the kernel configuration file and build a kernel targeted specifically at your processor.

So if you are the curious one who wish to learn how to configure, compile and install your own Linux custom made kernel then this book will be very useful.

Table of contents of "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell"

• Title page
• Copyright and credits
• Preface
• Part I: Building the Kernel
  • Chapter 1: Introduction
  • Chapter 2: Requirements for Building and Using the Kernel
  • Chapter 3: Retrieving the Kernel Source
  • Chapter 4: Configuring and Building
  • Chapter 5: Installing and Booting from a Kernel
  • Chapter 6: Upgrading a Kernel
• Part II: Major Customizations
  • Chapter 7: Customizing a Kernel
  • Chapter 8: Kernel Configuration Recipes
• Part III: Kernel Reference
  • Chapter 9: Kernel Boot Command-Line Parameter Reference
  • Chapter 10: Kernel Build Command-Line Reference
  • Chapter 11: Kernel Configuration Option Reference
• Part IV: Additional Information
  • Appendix A: Helpful Utilities
  • Appendix B: Bibliography
  • Index
    

All the chapters have been made available as individual PDF files and can be downloaded from the author's website. This book is published by O'Reilly and if need be, you can also buy a printed version of the book. It is a very nice book which teaches the art of configuring, building and installing your very own custom Linux kernel.