Slackware, kernel compilation

[MrConfusion]

Hello,

A quick question before I start seriously digging into this. This could, after all, be a known issue.

I've tried compiling a custom kernel in Slackware 14.0. Problem is I keep getting a blank (black) screen and no disk activity after uBoot has done it's thing.

I've checked (by adding sleeps to autoboot.txt) that the uImage loads, checks out OK and is then started.

So with the quick testing with 3 kernels I've compiled, I suppose the problem must be the kernel itself?

SZ uImage provided with Slackware is OK. haven't tried others that come with Slackware.

I first tried the latest kernel version from git. I used the scripts in /root. When that failed, I figured I'll try something that is known to work: rebuild the SZ uImage. So I checked out tag sz_155 (I assumed that is what the default uImage was made from). Then did a make clean; make uImage. But the resulting kernel fails too.

Finally I've done make omap3_pandora_defconfig, no help.

Checked with mkimage that the SZ image coming with Slackware and those I've made myself have same properties except there is one thing that differs quite a bit: the size of kernels I've compiled is significantly smaller than the one in SZ, my kernels are nearly 300kb smaller.

I compile on the Pandora (or rather, I've left it compiling early in the evening and tried booting before going to bed... so, yeah, pretty "extensive" "troubleshooting" so far ). GCC is 4.8.1. I notice that SZ was compiled with GCC 4.5.2, that would explain some size difference, but I'm unsure it would explain this big a difference?

I diffed .config and /proc/config.gz, there are differences, but nothing that should cause the black screen: HFSPLUS support and BSD process accounting V3 file format.

I would imagine I should at least get some message from decompression of the kernel before actual stuff starts happening?

I haven't had time to really dig into this yet, so yes, I could just have missed something.

But naturally if this is simply broken in current Slackware version I would appreciate that knowledge in advance .

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Hi,

This is interesting, i also can't compile a working kernel on -current, and 14.0 worked the last time i used it.

So it means that this problem comes from the newer sources.

Notaz may have an idea about that.

But you say that GCC is 4.8.1, i presume that you meant 4.7.1 ?

 

[MrConfusion]

But you say that GCC is 4.8.1, i presume that you meant 4.7.1 ?

Well...

gcc -v:

gcc version 4.8.1 (GCC)

?

But this means in theory I could compile the kernel on 14.0 and stick that to -current.

That is probably quicker than eliminating/verifying the null-warnings I started to get from head.S after removing the section mismatch from the video initialization code.

But I haven't had time to actually check those warnings properly yet, so I guess I'll still take a look some evening.

As always, it would help to see a successfull compile before trying to fix a broken one, as I get no clear errors and it might well be none of the warnings are in any way related to the problem at hand.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

So you're actually using an old -current, not 14.0.

Yes, you can compile on older version. Don't forget to also compile the 3d module.

 

[MrConfusion]

So, yes, I just noticed these things currently go to eleven .

I checked and I got 9.

Anyway, it´s also good to know that updating to current-11 won't help either.

I´ll probably just create a second SD with 14.0 and add any missing pieces from there, or if the pain grows too big, I´ll just revert to the stable version like a good boy.