README


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Linode (http://www.linode.com) is a VPS host with very neat, 
very scriptable server-managing software, which supports 
Arch Linux servers and custom kernels. This project maintains 
the PKGBUILD for an Arch package (installable with pacman) 
containing a kernel that is super-optimized for running on a 
Linode instance, and also the grub menu to boot from it.

Optimizations include compiling for Linode's exact cpu type and 
stripping out all code for hardware that does not exist on Linode, 
i.e. almost everything but the virtual xen block devices, NICs and 
console. I also removed almost all filesystem support as 99% of 
you will just be using their ext3 image and the other 1% will want 
to tweak things anyway.

To build this package on any arch linux machine, just do this:

* git clone git@github.com:twomen/linux-linode.git ~/linux-linode
* cd ~/linux-linode
* makepkg -c

This will give you a file like: linux-linode-3.0.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

In order to use this super-optimized kernel on your linode, just do this:

* Make sure you have the 64-bit Arch image (2010-05 at time of writing)
* pacman -Syu (just to make sure, the image is really old...)
* Upload pkg file to server
* sudo pacman -U /path/to/linux-linode-*.pkg.tar.xz
* set your linode kernel to pv-grub-64
* reboot
* tell me about any bugs that were my fault :D