Should I be worried that something is wrong? Its been going for the past 4 hours, and still isnt done. Is this normal? Ive heard it should be done in less than 2 hours.

What CPU are you running, and how much RAM? A P200 with 64MB can take hours, especially with the "make modules" step and if everything is set up as a kernel-loaded module.

Don't panic yet...

Damien

AMD 1.1 ghz
256 MB of ram
Im on the make modules step right now.....
have been for the past 4 hours or so....

Been going almost 6 hours now. Im beginning to worry... How will I know if something is really wrong?

Well, it took about 8 hours on my dual-PIII-450 workstation and over 12 on a dual PPro-200, both chocked with RAM. It takes a LOOOONG time.

You'll see errors, if anything breaks, another step later will die. If you see no strange messages, you're good. I think mine finished on "nothing left for modules" or something like that. Don't forget to make modules_install at the end.

Damien

Dude - worst case scenario should be that if you start the compile in the evening (ie, 6 or 7 PM) and you let it run overnight, then by the next morning it should be finished. If it isn't, I'd say you've got some problems or something is seriously hosed. For comparison purposes, one of my rigs is a P3 600Mg, 512 Mg RAM, and it took about 3 or 4 hours. My other rig is more powerful and it took about 2 hours or so. Dunno if this helps, but that's my experience -- J.W.

Make that 600 Mz, not 600 Mg. Sorry -- J.W.

Um. I compiled a 2.4.20 kernel twice in Core on a P100 with 32MB RAM. I fell asleep both times but it was done when I woke up, so if I stayed awake 4 and slept 8 and it finished the instant before I woke up, it took 12 hours, max. On a machine like that, I'd figure something was wrong. But if the messages are still scrolling and no errors are coming, I guess it's fine. If it completely hangs on a single step that'd be different, I guess. I've got Slack on a 1.1GHz Athlon w/512MB RAM at the moment and I'll be pretty upset if it isn't a *lot* faster.

I just finished a Gentoo kernel compile and it still took a while. Rig specs is below. I am chrooted from Mandrake. I went a took a LONG hot bath and watched about a hour of TV before it finished.

If the hard drive light blinks on occasion and the CPU is running along, it's working on it. Just have to let it run the course.

Good luck on the compile. Hope you got it setup right.

later

It depends on how many things you configured. If you just made EVERYTHING as modules then expect it to take a long time. That you're saying is a little on the long side but not unheard of. Like someone else said: if the messages keep scrolling then you're OK. If not, then you're screwed.

WOW! ten minutes is a long time for me!
Guess I should be greatful, rather than impatient!

Ten minutes? That's just enough time to do a Homer Simpson.

Seriously though, how do you have your kernel set up? You must be running pretty lean to go that fast. Are you going through the make modules_install step? That takes the longest.

Damien