Written by a leading developer and maintainer of the Linux kernel,Linux Kernel in a Nutshell is a comprehensiveoverview of kernel configuration and building, a critical task forLinux users and administrators.
No distribution can provide a Linux kernel that meets all users'needs. Computers big and small have special requirements that requirereconfiguring and rebuilding the kernel. Whether you are trying toget sound, wireless support, and power management working on a laptopor incorporating enterprise features such as logical volume managementon a large server, you can benefit from the insights in this book.
Linux Kernel in a Nutshell covers the entirerange of kernel tasks, starting with downloading the source and makingsure that the kernel is in sync with the versions of the tools youneed. In addition to configuration and installation steps, the bookoffers reference material and discussions of related topics such ascontrol of kernel options at runtime.
A key benefit of the book is a chapter on determining exactly what drivers are needed for your hardware. Also included are recipes thatlist what you need to do to accomplish a wide range of popular tasks.

Greg Kroah-Hartman has been building the Linux kernel since 1996 and started writing Linux kernel drivers in 1999. He is currently the maintainer of the USB, PCI, driver core and sysfs subsystems in the kernel source tree and is also one half of the -stable kernel release team. He created the udev program and maintains the Linux hotplug userspace project. He is a Gentoo Linux developer as well as the co-author of the third edition of the "Linux Device Drivers" book and a contributing editor to Linux Journal. He also created and maintains the Linux Device Driver Kit. He currently works for SuSE Labs/Novell, doing various Linux kernel related tasks.

Preface;
Audience for the book;
Organization of the material;
Online Version and License;
Conventions Used in This Book;
Contact Information;
Acknowledgments;
Chapter 1: Introduction;
1.1 Using this book;
Chapter 2: Requirements for building and using the kernel;
2.1 Tools to build the kernel;
2.2 Tools to use the kernel;
Chapter 3: Retrieving the kernel source;
3.1 What tree to use;
3.2 Where to find the kernel source;
3.3 What to do with the source;
Chapter 4: Configuring and Building;
4.1 Creating a configuration;
4.2 Modifying the configuration;
4.3 Building the kernel;
4.4 Advanced building options;
Chapter 5: Installing and Booting From a Kernel;
5.1 Using a Distribution's Installation Scripts;
5.2 Installing By Hand;
5.3 Modifying the Bootloader For the New Kernel;
Chapter 6: Upgrading a kernel;
6.1 Download the new source;
6.2 Applying the patch;
6.3 Reconfigure the kernel;
6.4 Can't this be automated?;
Chapter 7: Customizing a Kernel;
7.1 Using a Distribution Kernel;
7.2 Determining the Correct Module From Scratch;
Chapter 8: Kernel Configuration Recipes;
8.1 Disks;
8.2 Devices;
8.3 CPU;
8.4 Networking;
8.5 Filesystems;
8.6 Security;
8.7 Kernel debugging;
Chapter 9: Kernel boot command-line parameter reference The majority of this chapter is based on the in-kernel documentation for the different kernel boot command line reference options, which were written by the kernel developers and released under the GPL.;
9.1 Module-specific options;
9.2 Console options;
9.3 Interrupt options;
9.4 Memory options;
9.5 Suspend options;
9.6 CPU options;
9.7 Scheduler options;
9.8 Ramdisk options;
9.9 Root disk options;
9.10 Init options;
9.11 kexec options;
9.12 RCU options;
9.13 ACPI options;
9.14 SCSI options;
9.15 PCI options;
9.16 PnP BIOS options;
9.17 SELinux options;
9.18 Network options;
9.19 NFS options;
9.20 Hardware specific options;
9.21 Timer specific options;
9.22 Miscellaneous options;
Chapter 10: Kernel build command line reference;
10.1 Informational Targets;
10.2 Cleaning Targets;
10.3 Configuration Targets;
10.4 Build Targets;
10.5 Packaging Targets;
10.6 Documentation Targets;
10.7 Architecture-Specific Targets;
10.8 Analysis Targets;
Chapter 11: Kernel Configuration Option Reference This chapter lists the most important configuration options offered when you run make config or one of its graphical interfaces. The majority of the chapter is based on the in-kernel documentation for the different kernel configuration options, which were written by the kernel developers and released under the GPL.;
Helpful Utilities;
patch and diff This section is based on an article originally published in Linux Journal.;
Managing Your Patches With quilt;
git;
ketchup;
Chapter 12: Bibliography;
12.1 Books;
12.2 Tool locations;