Subject: Re: [vserver] Shall I try 2.6.36.3 with vs2.3.0.36.38.4 or 2.6.37 with vs2.3.0.37-rc3 on gentoo?
From: Ed W <lists@wildgooses.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:24:12 +0000


> additionally, you'll need to add a newer version of
> sys-cluster/util-vserver (even newer than the ~amd64 ebuild from the
> tree, which is - =sys-cluster/util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2910 ). Just bump
> the ebuild to at least>=sys-cluster/util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2926 in
> your local overlay - patch is trivial...

That basically means copying the file from 
/usr/portage/sys-cluster/util-vserver to 
/usr/local/portage/sys-cluster/util-vserver, and then renaming it.  
Additionally you may need to copy over all the files in the files 
subdirectory and finally run "ebuild blah_123.ebuild digest" to get 
portage to accept that it's a real ebuild

Once you have played with these basics then modifying from there will be 
a useful new skill

One thing I use a lot is to create custom profiles (ie your 
/etc/make.profile destination).  These are customised per server type 
(thinking mainly guests now) and it allows you to easily customise 
individual classes of guests (www-apache, www-nginx, mail, etc) for USE 
flags, masked packages, etc


Building a kernel is probably scary if you haven't done it before but 
it's quite straight forward, especially if you don't really need an 
initramfs.  Roughly you just unpack the kernel, run patch to patch the 
vserver patches, then copy over your last good .config, run "make 
oldconfig" to get the old .config suitable for your new kernel and 
perhaps review other options.  Then it's "make", "make modules_install", 
copy kernel to /boot and modify your grub appropriately to boot the new 
kernel (keep the old one around in case it doesn't)

For sure it may take a few hours the first time, but once you understand 
the process you can easily run it yourself.

Also investigate the builtin ways to add additional patches to the 
gentoo kernel ebuilds.  Never used them myself, but I think you can set 
some environment params which causes the ebuild to add extra patches to 
the build and that way you can keep your automated build process as 
normal...?  Sounds cool...

Good luck

Ed W