In this post I will be detailing the steps needed to compile a new kernel in Debian Linux 5.  This particular case we are purpose building a kernel with the drivers necessary for Hyper-V Guests to take advantage of synthetic devices.  Additionally I plan on expanding this series with instructions for manual compiles of other distributions as well as some pre-compiled image based installs.

DISCLAIMER:  These instructions are not provided with any guarantee of support.  Microsoft (company behind Hyper-V) does not acknowledge Debian as a supported guest operating system.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

• Install Debian 5 amd64 inside of a Hyper-V VM.
• My Hyper-V VM was 40GB IDE VHD with 1 Processor, 1GB of RAM, and 1 Emulated Network Adapter (I will later swap for a Synthetic once the kernel is installed) - other configs may work, but have not been tested.
• If you are on a network which requires a proxy server ensure you export http_proxy before attempting to use apt or wget.

INSTALL SOFTWARE PREREQUISITES
# apt-get install build-essential ncurses-dev kernel-package fakeroot
DOWNLOAD KERNEL SOURCE
# cd /usr/src
# wget -c http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.32.1.tar.bz2
PREPARE KERNEL SOURCE
# bzip2 -d linux-2.6.32.1.tar.bz2
# tar xf linux-2.6.32.1.tar
# cd linux-2.6.32.1
BUILD KERNEL CONFIGURATION
# make menuconfig

Device Drivers > Staging Drivers > Microsoft Hyper-V Client Drivers

COMPILE KERNEL (takes about 1 hour)
# make-kpkg clean
# fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --revision=hv.custom.1.0 kernel_image
INSTALL KERNEL
# cd ../
# ls -l
# dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.32.1_hv.custom.1.0_amd64.deb
SWITCH CONFIGURATIONS FROM EMULATED TO SYNTHETIC NETWORK ADAPTER
# sed -i 's/eth/seth/g' /etc/network/interfaces
CONFIGURE MODULES TO LOAD AT BOOT
# echo –e “hv_vmbus\nhv_storvsc\nhv_blkvsc\nhv_netvsc” >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
# update-initramfs –u –k 2.6.32.1
SHUTDOWN GUEST TO SWAP VIRTUAL HARDWARE 
# init 0 
REPLACE NETWORK ADAPTER AND POWER ON GUEST

In Hyper-V: Copy the MAC address from the Network Adapter (Emulated) to be used on the newly created Network Adapter.

VERIFY CORRECT KERNEL
# uname -a
VERIFY MODULES LOADED
# lsmod | grep hv
VERIFY NETWORK CONFIGURATION
# ifconfig | grep seth -C 1
VERIFY STORAGE PERFORMANCE
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/testfile bs=4M count=1000 
 

NOTES

• If you are not able to boot into the correct kernel you may need to change the default in grub.  Ubuntu 9.10 + uses grub2 which has different files and procedures to update it.  Grub simply update the /boot/grub/menu.lst with the correct number of your kernel as default.  Grub2 update /boot/grub/grub.cfg and update with the correct version of your kernel as default, then execute update-grub to write the change to the boot sector.