Compiling the 2.0.39 kernel
 

I've never had any trouble compiling the Linux 2.2.x or 2.4.x series kernels before. I'm now trying to compile the vintage 2.0.39 kernel and the whole procedure is giving me fits!

I downloaded it from kernel.org

First I did the usual, "make xconfig" and selected what I wanted.

Next I did the "make dep" and it bombed out in the /drivers/char directory with an "*** [fastdep] Error 135" error.

After messing around with it trying different configs, all with the same results. I decided to patch the kernel with the "latest 2.0.40-pre 4" patch.

This time the "make dep" was successful!

So I did the "make clean" just to play it safe.

Then the "make bzImage"
But I started getting errors that said "Invalid `asm' statement:"
and "fixed or forbidden register [some machine register] was spilled for [some class] "

I am compiling this on a Slack-8 machine (gcc version 2.95.3) that has successfully compiled other kernels.

:confused: So what is the trick to this?

Well, it's old stuff... Probably requires old compilers/libraries to compile...

Besides being cool, what is the reason for wanting to compile an old kernel? Maybe you don't have the correct assembler. I am not sure, but I think that's what asm stands for. If this is on an old system, that originally came with the 2.0 kernel, then I would make sure I had all the development packages installed from the old CD as well. Or floppy, or whatever medium was used.

Two reasons currently:

1) One of my favorite "mini" distros is MuLinux. It is based on the 2.0.36 kernel. This kernel however, will not read ext2 filesystems created with the "Sparse" inode spacing mode enabled, which is now in common practice. The 2.0.39 will. I was simply going to replace the kernel.

2) Somebody here at Linuxquestions.org posted for some information on a linux distro that would run in 2 megs of RAM but still had network connectivity. I only knew of Small-Linux, which he already tried. I then suggested he compile his own kernel, putting in just what he needed. I wanted to do a quick minimal compile on this kernel just to see if it would be possible to run this kernel in such a small memory space and have enough RAM left over to do anything. I think Small-Linux used the 1.3 kernel of something.