I suggest the following:
1) Put a virgin kernel in /usr/src/linux-X.X.XX
where X.X.XX is the kernel version
2) Have your _MODIFIED_ kernel in /usr/src/linux
3) diff -u --recursive --new-file linux-X.X.XX linux > my_patch
gzip -9 my_patch # creates my_patch.gz
4) If you want to mail the patch out:
uuencode my_patch my_patch > my_patch.uue
then append it to your mail message, which MUST include
a description of the patch, and the kernel version it is for.
(I use Elm, which uses vi as the editor "<ESC>:r my_patch.uue")
DO _NOT_ USE MIME! Many people can't read MIME messages!
Note that Step 1 will put the kernel version in the patch! :-)
This is exremely helpful, but you should also state the version
in the text of your message!
Debugging the kernel can be done with strategic placements of
printk() ... unless you want to force a panic and get a register dump.
This is not fancy, but it works :-)
A fancy way to debug: create a /proc entry that spews out useful
info. This is a really easy thing to do. Just be sure to remove
any code for your debugging entry BEFORE sending the patch out!!!
-- Andrew E. Mileski mailto:aem@ott.hookup.net http://www.redhat.com/~aem/ Linux Plug-and-Play Project Leader http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/pnp/ PGP public keys are available from http://www.redhat.com/~aem/pgp-keys.txt