Arch Linux

Shepy

Member

Registered: 2020-01-29

Posts: 5

[ SOLVED ] Regarding building the kernel via Arch Build System

Hi,

Until then I was compiling a vanilla kernel following the Traditional compilation procedure. Plus some modifications.
In this way I managed to have a tiny kernel specially made for my machine, which boots in (kernel) 1.05s

Recently I wanted to try using the Arch Build System method.
I managed to compile and install, but apart from the .config I did not hack too much.

As almost everything goes through the PKGBUILD I am a bit lost, in terms of customization, since this is not normally my way of doing things.

So I have a few questions about it :

1. I saw that during the installation of the pkg, that mkinitcpio is a dependency and it will create an initramfs.
Normally I don't use any initramfs.
How can I deactivate this dependency and prevent the creation of an initramfs during the installation of the pkg ?

2. In the _package-headers() step I saw some "special" headers installation.

# http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/20402
  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/media/usb/dvb-usb" -m644 drivers/media/usb/dvb-usb/*.h

Are they always installed ?

3. About MAKEFLAGS, cflags, -march= etc ...

1. Should I specify them in /etc/makepkg.conf or in the Makefile arch/x86/Makefile ?

2. If I want some Parallel Execution do I have to specify it in the build() step ? 

   make bzImage modules htmldocs
   make -j8 bzImage modules htmldocs

   Or will the MAKEFLAGS of /etc/makepkg.conf prevail ?

My english is very bad, my apologies.

Last edited by Shepy (2020-02-05 21:56:17)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,232

Re: [ SOLVED ] Regarding building the kernel via Arch Build System

The only question here that's really kernel specific is the first one, the others are general PKGBUILD/makepkg basics you should make yourself familiar with before proceeding:

1. Find the line(s)

     # Used by mkinitcpio to name the kernel
     echo "$pkgbase" | install -Dm644 /dev/stdin "$modulesdir/pkgbase"

   and comment/remove them, without a pkgbase file, mkinitcpio will ignore it for initramfs creation.

2. They will "always" be installed as part of the -headers subpackage. If you don't install the headers package you aren't going to get any of the files that happen within that function, read about split packages: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PKGBUILD#pkgbase (and in general read that entire page)

3. all of the things that are general part of the make invocation (and not directly tied to a specific target of the existing Makefile) should be properly declared in the makepkg.conf , all of the things you are asking about here are detailed in: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Makepkg

Last edited by V1del (2020-02-05 12:06:25)

Shepy

Member

Registered: 2020-01-29

Posts: 5

Re: [ SOLVED ] Regarding building the kernel via Arch Build System

The only question here that's really kernel specific is the first one, the others are general PKGBUILD/makepkg basics you should make yourself familiar with before proceeding

Indeed, thinking about it my questions are more related to makepkg. But as the PKGBUILD I am talking about is specifically related to the kernel and therefore must contain specific functions for the kernel compilation I thought that posting here was the right solution.

Without wanting to be mean, I find that the configuration layer added by this makepkg system is more complicated compared to a traditional kernel compilation. Of course there are advantages, too

PKGBUILD/makepkg basics

For the moment it's not yet "basic" for me, but it will come

1. Thank you for the explanation !
The comment "# Used by mkinitcpio to name the kernel" was misleading to me.

2. Thank you for the additional information and the reading advice.

3. Same