make bzImage
 

hello,
i am trying to compile my own 2.4.9 kernal put it keeps failing. i am running mandrake 8.1 in kde. i used the control center to cofigure the kernal and it seemed to work ok. i made dependncies and it was ok. but when i make bzImage i get an error in sock.h:739 (?) __pad is too big. i check it and the valur is set to 8. so just to see, i put it to 4 and make bzImage again. this time it gives me another error in /usr/src/linux-2.4.9/include/net/sock.h:751: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type. i don't know what that means. i tried a plain make config too, instead of the gui way, but i get the same error. any help would be appreciated. thank you

well, it's a bit of a cop out, but i'd say that as yuo're doing it from scratch anyway, you get the lastest kernel 2.4.17 anyway, and go from there.

.17 is newer then .9? mandrake came with .8-24mdk which i assume is based off .8. i will try it though and post my results.

ok, i tried it with .17 and it went much better and really appeared like it was going to make it, but... i get an error in
/usr/src/linux-2.4.17/include/net/sock.h:739: size of array '__pad' is too large
then i get
make [3]: *** [loopback.o] error 1

and then 5 more errors similar to that last one then exit to the prompt. i don't know what anyof this means. what is '__pad'? what part of my .config should i change to avoid this? should i try make -k -i? thanks again.

This is just a guess...

Are you including all you can in your kernel?? If so, it can get to be too big!! Ideally, your kernel should only be as big as necessary to run your system. If you can allow some part of it to be loaded as a module (dynamically), you might want to do so.

Seeing as how I've never received the error message you've described, I'm only guessing, but it sounds like a symptom I've heard about with attempts at compiling large kernels.

-CJ

hmm, yeah i guess it might be, didn't think of that... yeah you want to keep as much as possible as a module not in the kernel, it'll make it run faster as well.

and yeah.. it's a bit confusing sometimes, but .17 IS newer than .9 it's not a decimal fraction, ,it's just version numbers separated w/ dots. so .9 is NOT .90 yeah?

Might seem ovious, but if you get a Error 1 during that process that usually means you didn't type su root before you tried it and was doing it as a normal user.

no, you can compile as anyone, ,just the make install that needs to be root for a global install

all i want to include in my kernel is 3com nic, usb, mouse, hpt366, i don't need any scsi, pcmcia or smp, or amateur radio or any of that. and i want it optimized for athlon. is that too big? should i be making ALL my driver stuff as modules? thanks.
here is my PC, do any of you have a known working .config that i could look at that would be apropriate?
athlon xp 1800+
epox 8K7A+ (amd 760 north, via 686b south)
usb mouse
3com nic (3c905b)
geforce 2 pro


has anyone seen any audigy drivers for linux yet?

well things like card drivers are best as modules, they can eaily bloat the kernel, and slow it down. yuo should WANT to make modules where possible. remember there's a whole load nmore stuff you 'want'.. frame buffer? ide support? loopback block support?

and you can't just give someone a .config file like that... a decent one at least. the standard kernels on a distro have a very generic configuratino, everything in sight is compiled, and teh resulting kernel is naff. you gotta go it alone or stick with rpms.

should usb and mouse support be modules too? loopback.c is what keeps getting me the error, it says '__pad' in sock.h:739 is too big. can the loopback thing be compiled as a module? can you look at sock.h line 739 and tell me what your value for __pad is? maybe if i could compare a working .config file with mine i could see where they are different, or i could try to build with the working file and see if i get any errors. if it gets errors too, then i must have bad source files or bad path somewhere, right? thanks for your help.

loopback should definitely be a module. it's very handy, it lets you mount iso images as drives, very handy if you've a big harddrive, and don't want to get the cdr's out to install somethign from disk...

usb mice can be made as drivers... actaully i jujst found out that i hadn't compiled them as modules, when they ususally are.. so i'll probably recompile my kernel soon and turn them into modules... thanks!

personally, i've never seen this __pad thing. hmm ok, looking at the sock.h file, i guess it's actaully SMP related... have you disabled SMP in the processor type section? it's for multi processor machines, which you don't want. i expect

ok, i did have smp disabled but just for the heck of it, i enabled it and tried a build again with the same error. so i tried build -k to see what would happen, and i start getting errors on the very next line (740) and the line after that, errors about there not being any ; or type declerations, but everything looked ok when i inspected the file. everything it said wasn't there, was. it appeared to be giving me format errors (if that is the right way to say it). i tried swapping out both files with the 2.4.16 versions and i got the same error. i switched everything i could to be a module, but still same error. what could it be? and i am logged in as root, too.

one other thing, i have 512mb ram but after about an hour it is all full (12% free) and another after that i am hitting swap space. wtf? 65% is 'cached' whale 20% is 'used+shared' how do i clear that out ? thanks again.

well, i know it's auseful thing to say, but you simply must be doing something wrong somewhere along the line.. the course code works fine...

and teh memory thing is fine, it's what linux doe, leave everyhigng in cache where possible, it improves performance i guarentee. if the RAM is needed, the cache will be replaced automatically. there is no way to empty it. that one catches everyone out sooner or later, certainly got me!

well im guessing here but it might help if you run 'make mrproper' before anything, that will "prepare" the system for a Kernel compile and then did you run 'make clean' to remove old object files, maybe, just MAYBE you should do that and see if it works
hope that helps