CentOS 5.5 Kernel Upgrade and iotop Install

To run iotop.py you need a kernel greater than what CentOS provides. The following steps guide this upgrade, so that you can use iotop.

cd /usr/src
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.39.1.tar.bz2
tar xjf linux-2.6.39.1.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-2.6.39.1 linux
cd linux
make mrproper
cp /boot/config-`uname -r` .config
yes "" | make oldconfig (this updates .config to all defaults)

edit .config, adding or updating the following options:
CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED=y
CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED_V2=y

make
make modules_install
make install
reboot

rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/python-ctypes-1.0.2-2.el5.i386.rpm
wget http://guichaz.free.fr/iotop/files/iotop-0.4.3.tar.gz
tar zxvf iotop-0.4.3.tar.gz
cd iotop-0.4.3
./iotop.py


Disclaimer: Perform the above instructions at your own risk.

For instructions on how to make the rpm (so the lengthy compilation can be done once for future installs), see http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_centos
Note: will need to install rpm-build and ncurses-devel

Refs:

http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8488

http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=msg&goto=41203&#msg_41203

http://guichaz.free.fr/iotop/