iLiad How to compile the iRex stock kernel and modules?

[jharker]

Has anyone been successful at compiling the stock iLiad kernel source as provided by iRex? How did you do it? I've tried using the v2.95.3 cross-compiling tools provided by iRex, but I'm still having problems. Anyone have a simple approach to getting this to work?

I'm trying to do this in preparation for compiling the kernel modules, which I'm also having no luck with. Has anyone got this working yet?

[jharker]

Bump. Anyone? I have played with it a teeny bit more and still have no idea.

Ah, well, it's not coming up for a while in the timeline anyway...

[hansel]

Her is how you can build the kernel and kernel modules. This is tested on Ubuntu 8.10, gcc version 4.3.2

1: Download and install the toolchain form Irex:

  cd /tmp                                                                 
  wget http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/cross-2.95.3.tar.bz2
  tar xvfj cross-2.95.3.tar.bz2                                                  
  #location is important: path is compiled in binaries                           
  sudo mkdir /usr/local/arm                                                      
  sudo mv 2.95.3  /usr/local/arm/2.95.3

2: Download the kernel sources

  # Last-Modified: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:28:15 GMT
  wget http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1.tar.bz2
  tar xvfj linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1.tar.bz2

3: Apply patch(es)

  cd linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1

# big patch, probably already applied? gives warnings if tried...
# Last-Modified: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:28:11 GMT
wget http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1.patch.gz

# small patch for 2.11
# Last-Modified: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:45:48 GMT
  wget http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1-v2.11.patch
# apply patch
patch -p0 < linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1-v2.11.patch

4: Set the right PATH to activate the right compilers . The order is important! Check that gcc --version shows your local compiler
and arm-linux-gcc --version shows 2.95.3

  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/arm/2.95.3/bin

5: Provide depmod.old (make install complains about a missing /sbin/depmod.old)

sudo ln -s /sbin/depmod /sbin/depmod.old

6: Build everything

# this copies the right kernel configuration to .config
# (arch/arm/def-configs/irex?)
make irex_config
make oldconfig        # sets things with the settings in .config
make dep              # creates files with dependencies

make zImage   # create the kernel
make modules  # builds the modules

7: Group all results in a handy place, (not in /boot and /lib/modules...)

mkdir /tmp/irex_stuff
make INSTALL_PATH=/tmp/irex_stuff install
make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/tmp/irex_stuff modules_install

8: Compile a kernel module

Example: the Irex button driver from
http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLi...drivers.tar.gz

cd /tmp
tar xvfz irex_er0100_kernel_drivers.tar.gz
cd button
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/arm/2.95.3/bin
make KERNEL_PATH=/tmp/linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1

Enjoy!

[jharker]

Fantastic! Thank you! I'll give this a shot.

Looking at your guide, I think the source of my problems might have been putting the PATH in the wrong order. I had /usr/local/arm/2.95.3/bin:$PATH, which is the wrong way around. I also didn't have depmod and depmod.old...

[hansel]

Originally Posted by jharker

Looking at your guide, I think the source of my problems might have been putting the PATH in the wrong order. I had /usr/local/arm/2.95.3/bin:$PATH, which is the wrong way around.

When you do that, it crosscompiles some tools that are needed in the build process. Took me some time to discover what was happening...

[hansel]

Added to original post: compile a kernel module

[ericshliao]

There is a file "zImage_nfs" in http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/ . What is it for? From its file name, is it for booting by nfs?

[hansel]

Originally Posted by ericshliao

There is a file "zImage_nfs" in http://developer.irexnet.com/pub/iLiad/Linux%20kernel/ . What is it for? From its file name, is it for booting by nfs?

I think it's a kernel with nfs enabled. This allows it to mount remote file systems. An educated guess would be that it is a kernel tailored by Irex developers to ease development. The Iliad can boot from a remote file system on your development pc. In this way you don't have to re-flash all the time when changing (most) things.

You can probably build it by typing make irex_nfs_config instead of make irex_config in step 6. You can see the differences by looking at the config files themselves: they live in linux-2.4.19-rmk7-pxa2-irex1/arch/arm/def-configs

B.t.w: this is a handy way to handle your own experimental kernel recipes.

h.t.h, Hansel