Experimental kernel compiling

yasar11732 · 2012-03-01 21:28:42

Hi,

Today I compiled a kernel for the first time, following this; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … ild_System . It went quite well. But I am looking for a way to quickly change some settings, and recompile and see what works and what doesn't. If I try to reissue makepkg, without touching src directory, makepkg command extracts the linux tarfile over previous src directory and this messes up with the patches. On the other hand, removing this directory also removes all object files thus requiring me to recompile all of them again. And since I am using an old laptop, this takes really long time (couple of hours...). How do you think I should experiment with compiling kernel? What would you suggest?

graysky · 2012-03-01 21:43:33

Capture the config file you generated when you tweaked the settings and then use it as a starting point rather than the ARCH config file. I am assuming that you're tweaking via an nconfig or menuconfig so this will work quite well.

ethail · 2012-03-01 21:43:43

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ccache

use ccache to help with the build time

edit: also take a look at linux-ck package ( to say one) on the aur as how to use your current config for the new kernel.

Last edited by ethail (2012-03-01 21:50:22)

graysky · 2012-03-02 00:41:16

ethail wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ccache
use ccache to help with the build time

...how will this help?

ethail · 2012-03-02 09:22:40

If he's experimenting with configurations, and building several times the same kernel (version) but with changes in the configuration, a LOT of files are going to remain the same. That's were ccache comes in providing the file already build (if it did not change) instead of rebuilding it for the same result.

It helps lowering the build time if files have not changed, nothing else.

yasar11732 · 2012-03-02 09:52:22

Thank you both. I also discovered that with "-e" switch to makepkg, you can skip the extracting the source and use whatever is in src directory.

yasar11732 · 2012-03-02 10:10:04

Ohh, and by the way, it compiles all drivers possible. Can I make it only compile the ones that I need. I only need couple of drivers.

graysky · 2012-03-02 11:05:21

@ethail - sorry, my bad. I thought you recommended that he install cacheclean not enable ccache. :red face:

ethail · 2012-03-02 11:17:13

@graysky don't worry

@yasar11732

You can by running localmodconfig, as said before, take a look at graysky's linux-ck package from the AUR, for having an example of how to use your current config and / or running with localmodconfig.

Also, you can use modprobed_db to have a list of which modules you've ever used (while you had it instaled), and never have any module missing that you actually use. My suggestion on this is that you run modprobed_db while using the ARCH kernel, as it has all modules you'll need, then run localmodconfig

I hope this helps.

Last edited by ethail (2012-03-02 11:17:44)

graysky · 2012-03-02 12:23:30

+1 for modprobed_db (and not just because I wrote it)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-03-01 21:28:42

Experimental kernel compiling

#2 2012-03-01 21:43:33

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#3 2012-03-01 21:43:43

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#4 2012-03-02 00:41:16

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#5 2012-03-02 09:22:40

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#6 2012-03-02 09:52:22

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#7 2012-03-02 10:10:04

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#8 2012-03-02 11:05:21

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#9 2012-03-02 11:17:13

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

#10 2012-03-02 12:23:30

Re: Experimental kernel compiling

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