[luau] applying patches to RH kernels, RH and 2.6 kernel

[MonMotha]

Lou Rickard wrote:
> Specifically, I'm trying to patch the 2.4.20-20.8
> kernel with rml's preemptible kernel patch, but it's
> failing.  I've tried going through and fixing the
> errored lines by hand, but no luck.  And now I'm
> trying to find or figure out a methodical way of
> creating of doing this.  Any ideas?  I haven't been
> able to find anything yet.
> If someone could recommend a way for doing this, I'd
> be much obliged.  It's very frustrating.

...

> lr
>

Generally, I've found that you either use the RH kernel or make your own.  RH 
puts a BUNCH of patches on their kernels (they make the list available 
somewhere, probably in the changelog or similar for the kernel srpm) that will 
likely break any other patches you try to apply (since the source tree is now so 
different that patch has no idea what to do).

If you want a bunch of features that redhat lacks, it's probably best to patch 
up your own kernel.  I do this whenever I decide it's time for a new kernel, and 
I make the patch rollup available as MOLK (MonMotha's Overloaded Linux Kernel). 
  Sometimes it can require quite a bit of work to get 10 or so patches to apply 
to the same tree if they come anywhere near touching the same aspects of the 
kernel (XFS and GrSecurity, for example, do NOT get along since they both try to 
implement various forms of ACLs).

If you like, my MOLK patches are available at http://monmotha.mplug.org/molk/

They may be in various states of disrepair, though usually the last one is the 
kernel that's running on my desktop at the current time.

If you must run the RH kernel for whatever reason (support contract for 
example), and you can't get your preferred patch to apply, you're likely SOL 
unless you can convince RedHat to consider the patch for their next wave of 
kernels.  You may also be able to get someone else to help you, but if you've 
tried as hard as I am thinking you have, it's probably very non-trivial to get 
this patch to apply (the preemptable kernel touches some stuff that RedHat 
really likes to mess with such as the scheduler).

--MonMotha