2. From The Kernel Sources

You can basically get the sources from two places:

  1. Official Mandrakelinux Kernel. In the SRPMS directory of any of the Cooker mirrors, you will find the following packages:

    kernel-2.6.??.?mdk-?-?mdk.src.rpm

    The kernel sources for compiling the kernel used in the distribution. It is highly modified for additional functions.

    kernel2.6-linus-2.6.??-?mdk.src.rpm

    The stock kernel as published by the maintainer of the GNU/Linux kernel.

    Getting the official Mandrakelinux kernel is the recommended option: just download the source RPM, install it (as root) and jump to Section 4, “Configuring The Kernel”.

  2. The Official Linux Kernel Repository. The main kernel source host site is ftp.kernel.org, but there are a large number of mirrors, all named ftp.xx.kernel.org, where xx represents the ISO country code. Following the official announcement of the availability of the kernel, you should allow at least two hours for all the mirrors to be updated.

    On all of these FTP servers, the kernel sources are in the /pub/linux/kernel directory. Next, go to the directory with the series that interests you: it will undoubtedly be v2.6. Nothing prevents you from trying the experimental versions or using the old 2.4 versions. The file containing the kernel sources is called linux-<kernel_version>.tar.bz2, e.g. linux-2.6.10.tar.bz2.

    You can also apply patches to kernel sources in order to upgrade them incrementally: thus, if you already have kernel sources version 2.6.8 and want to upgrade to kernel 2.6.10, you do not need to download the whole 2.6.10 source, you can simply download the patches patch-2.6.9.bz2 and patch-2.6.10.bz2[38]. As a general rule, this is a good idea, since sources currently take up dozens of MB.



[38] This path had a deviation in version numbering that led to a 2.6.8.1 version. You don't want to use it or download it. Unless, of course, you're going to stay at 2.6.8.1...