Can I multiple patch the kernel ?

[evilangel]

HI all,

I am going to install a system on which i want to add grsecurity patch on the kernel.
Then i want to make it a Debian system.
So, in my understanding, I have to apply some Debian patch on the kernel.

So can i download the kernel from kernel.org, and apply grsecurity and then Debian patch ?

Or I can download a Debian prepatched kernel (linux-source package)and apply grsecurity patch after ?

Thanks

[cormander]

It all depends on how many patches there are in the debian queue and whether or not they conflict with grsecurity/pax. And if one conflicts, taking it out may start to make other debian patches start to fail to apply. Its a bad domino effect.

Only real way to find out is to give it a whirl.

An example of this ... at this current moment I grabbed the latest fedora 2.6.25.2 kernel-xen from rawhide and applied pax ... so far there were only a few things that conflicted... the execshield patch, which made four other patches fail when I took it out (all post-execshield related) and I fixed one of them due to compile errors. Then there were 10 minor hunk failures from pax that I had to fix, and it's in the process of building. We'll see if it works out

But if I tried to do this for a RHEL kernel for example, it would be impossible (1600+ patches to go through).

So if you know what you're doing, it isn't too hard. If not - you're going to have to stick with using a vanilla kernel + grsecurity/pax.

[evilangel]

OK.
I think I will use a vanillia kernel with grsecurity/pax patch then.

But in such a case, is it possible/relevant to use the Debian .config file on my vanillia kernel ?

Thanks

[cormander]

Yes you can (and probably should!) do that. Just make sure you add grsecurity/pax options after you copy your debian .config, before you build the kernel.