Linux Kernel Compilation made easy for Ubuntu users - KernelCheck

KernelCheck is a graphical user interface program designed to make the kernel-compiling process as easy as the click of a button. A kernel is the base of any operating system – in our case, the Linux operating system. KernelCheck will fetch the latest information from http://www.kernel.org, which hosts the source packages for the Linux kernel, and ask the user which one they would like to compile into a .deb package (with the option of installing the kernel after the compilation). This automated process is a fork of AutoKernel by Robert Wolterman (xtacocorex), Timothy Janssen (mentok), and Kristof Verbeken (PingunZ). KernelCheck is currently licensed under the GNU Public License version 3.

KernelCheck Features:
  * Fetch latest kernel information (mature kernel, mature kernel patch, stable development prepatch)
  * Download and compile any 2.6 kernel into a .deb package
  * Auto-fix for ALSA sound in new kernels
  * Auto-optimize new kernel
  * Option to configure kernel options manually
  * Option to install the nVidia kernel module/driver on reboot
  * Option to reconfigure the X server
  * Custom kernel patching

KernelCheck Installation:
Download the tar.gz file from here and install it via CLI (command line interface) (make sure you are root):

tar -xzf kernelcheck-1.2.5.tar.gz
cd kernelcheck-1.2.5
python setup.py install

you can also download the .deb file from here and  doubleclick on this .deb file to install kernelcheck.


Using KernelCheck:
When  you  start  KernelCheck,  you should get a screen like this ...

Click  forward  to  continue.  On  this screen you will need to download the kernel  information.  Click  the  button that  says “Get  Kernel Information” to download  it.  This  gets  all  the information  KernelCheck  needs  to determine the latest kernel.

Configure  kernel  options  manually:
opens  the xconfig dialog for the user to select options for the kernel

  * Auto-configure ALSA options: Turns on HD sound for supported cards and activates ALSA
  * Optimize  the  kernel: performs  various optimizations to the kernel configuration
  * Install  kernel  package after compilation completed
  * Reconfigure the X Server
  * Install nVidia driver: Runs the nVidia binary driver setup on reboot
  * Apply custom patch to new kernel: Opens a terminal during the build process so the user can custom patch the kernel
  * Clean up kernel source after build: deletes /usr/src/linux and it's source after build, not recommended unless diskspace is limited
  * Number of jobs to send to the CPU: number of compilation jobs to be sent to the CPU

Supported Platforms
At the moment, KernelCheck is only supported on Debian-Based platforms. Some of these include Debian, Ubuntu (or any derivatives), Mint, etc. RPM and Slackware based are planned to be supported in the future.