Yes, this is VMware related but may apply to other situations too. When configuring VMware to run, I need to install the source and run {edit Makefile to change EXTRAVERSION; make mrproper; make oldconfig; make dep} to run the "vmware-config.pl" which then compiles its extensions if they do not have precompiled versions for the running kernel. This has to be done with the config file for the running kernel. To work properly, I need to load the kernel src rpm and then copy the proper config file (kernel-2.4.2-i686-smp.config in my situation) to replace /usr/src/linux-2.4/arch/i386/defconfig. While all of this works, it would be more convenient if the config file was package with the respective binary. Without the proper config and EXTRAVERSION values, nothing works.
The kernel-sources rpm includes all the config files, and using them to build is part of the documentation. However, your suggestion has merit. I'm going to think about it...
What merit??? My mistake! I did not realize that redhat already packages these files as part of the kernel-source "binary" rpm in the /usr/src/linux-2.4.2/configs directory ... or at least it sure looks like it is. No RFE is necessary ... you already do what I am asking ... I just did not realize it. Perhaps some extra documentation would be nice but no changes. I don't know if it always was this way but it sure is in the "current" kernel-source. I am closing this. Thanks, Gene
The merit was packaging config files with binaries; we package them with the source. I figured I would think about shipping config files in the binary package as well so that people compiling their own kernels without installing our kernel-source package could see what our starting point was. It's not terribly important, but still worth thinking about.