[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Thanks. My search for a magic bullet has been fruitless, pointless, frustrating, and a unhealthy. I have no idea how to duplicate missing config files -- I barely understand config files even when they ARE provided. I need to study that first, it seems. Most of my career (even when programming for unix-ish machines) was done using CP/M or MS-DOS or Windows machines for the build tools. The unix-ish (or more commonly bare metal with no firmware other than mine) systems were just the target, and I have plugged in too many thousands of EPROMS over the years. So yeah, my lifetime coding reflexes do not work well here unless I have a toolchain that "just works" without thinking about it instead of thinking about my application...

I will be done posting here for a bit while I study, but I will keep an eye out for anything y'all post to this thread. A working toolchain would be nice...

Reverse engineering a (menu) config file:

One of those things I putter around on when bored with life.
Also one of the things I have never finished.
But the basics are:

Going forward with menuconfig (kernel, busybox, uClibc, buildroot, etc):

You want feature: "Churn Butter on Wednesday" -
Find in menuconfig menus and then set to: 'yes' -
When the makefile is later run -
Finding symbol: CBW_CONFIG='y' it adds to the string OBJS-Y += cbw.o -
Later in the makefile processing all objects mentioned in the OBJS-Y (string) symbol are built -

Each *.o file built has its own set of (run-time) symbols.

The final <whatever> being built has an accumulation of symbols from each of its components.

So to reverse the process:

First a little prep work -
make allyes
that **should** (but will not) build every possible *.o in its tree

Now run a script (using a language that supports associative keyes) to list (using a standard elf tool) sysmbols in each *.o.
Make a catalog (when you find an entry point symbol cbw_init, do):
cbw_init: cbw.o, CBW_CONFIG=y, etc. etc. etc.

Now run a script on the final <whatever> was built -
For each symbol found, look it up in the above catalog, append the configuration symbol (CBW_CONFIG=y) to the output list you are building.

With an object like uClibc.so - ELF tools will give you the symbol list and details -

For the K1's kernel (also built with menuconfig):
cat /proc/kallsyms
while the kernel is running (do it now - before we both forget).
(/proc/kallsyms contains a list of symbols from every *.o = 'y' or 'm' when the kernel was built)