compilling kernel
 

Is there any difference between the process of compiling/updating the kernel on a SARPI system and a "normal" x86 PC? I'm guessing there isn't, but I don't like guess work.

The difference is that SARPi is not an operating system. Slackware ARM is an operating system.

The process of compiling a kernel is pretty much the same on all Slackware systems with the only difference being the architecture on which it runs.

Having once (only) done this I hope you are a patient person.
Cross compiling might be a better option.

I would advise, from personal experience, that the better option is to compile the kernel on the architecture you're intending to use it on.

Ok, so I got the kernel compiled, which was easy. But now I'm realizing that there's no lilo.conf and I dont' know where to put the kernel(bzImage) or how to get the boot process to load it? The SARPI website only talks about rpi-update. I guess I'll use that, if there is other way.

You don't need lilo, the Pi GPU will look after the firmware in the VFAT /boot partition, where also your resulting kernel image should reside. Make a backup of the /boot directory before you attempt running your own kernel.
https://elinux.org/RPi_Kernel_Compilation
The Manual Installation section from this doc will also provide you with some details:
https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:ha...rm:raspberrypi

I tried that guide, but when I do, "make ARCH=arm modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/" I get:
So, I tried make modules.builtin and then I get a huge list of all the modules that were supposed to have compiled, the following being an example of one of them:
I'm not really sure how to proceed. make modules? But I already did that, as per the guide.

Few steps before that, it tells you to do
I'm guessing didn't finish as expected.
Check the output in the nohup.out file or another way you can go is doing
so it steps on failure and u should see what failed.

zImage compiles, but make dep fails.

I never had to make dep with x86. The method seems to work otherwise, but it boots with the old kernel. I tried moving the old kernel out of /boot, but then it doesn't boot. The directions there seem to overlook how to get the bootloader to recognize the new kernel. It sounds like that's what make dep is for? When it's only the new one, I get this rainbow cloud screen.

@hedron

There is already an existing thread that describes the kernel build procedure for Raspberry Pi, to be found on the second page of the Slackware ARM sub-forum.
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...is-4175621155/
Note that you have two firmware entities, the firmware for the Raspberry Pi board, provided by Raspberry and treated separately and the usual kernel firmware collection released by the kernel folks.
Although I was interested myself in building the kernel, participated in that thread, I still haven't followed the kernel building procedure, because the audio engine (emulating the snd_bcm2835 sound card) from the Raspberry Firmware is broken since the middle of 2017 and I got stuck with the Raspberry official kernel&firmware that was released before, specifically, the ones extracted from 2017-04-10-raspbian-jessie-lite.img
https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite/images/
Just for orientation, if you use the Raspberry official kernel&firmware, you'll have these files (excepting the /boot/overlays/ subfolder) in the /boot folder/partition :
There's also an official How-To from Raspberry about compiling the kernel, but it doesn't handle the firmware:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/document...el/building.md

Some additional details about the boot procedure, since you were looking after lilo.conf some posts above:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/document...es/bootflow.md
And here you have a nice schematic too:
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.co...-boot-sequence

>Although you could just compile the vanilla kernel from Kernel.org, it will not have the necessary drivers and modules for the Broadcom SoC on the Raspberry Pi
So, I'm supposed to download the github kernel, compile that, then apply the patches? Because I've just been using the "vanilla" kernel. I've tried all that I can think, looking through the links and so on, but still the boot process stalls at the rainbow cloud.

That's the contents of /boot. Keep in mind that I have tried numerous different ways with initrc.gz, deleting everything, not using the dtb files, and things I don't remember.

Ok, that was the problem. I was using the kernel from kernel.org, instead of github.

solved?

maybe a nice roundup post and then [solved]?

FWIW:

the Rpi kernel build process is all but obvious and transparent IMHO, and a nice roundup would help quite a newbie.

:hattip:

The instructions from this thread are pretty much complete:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...is-4175621155/
However, I guess I'll soon need to go through this on my own and will maybe write down a concise, step by step guide, as a post. But I'll need to do some Frankenstein work, building the latest kernel source against an older, unbroken, firmware. They broke the audio generation engine in the firmware some 2 years ago and it doesn't look like they are keen to repair it:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/v...83629&start=50
Due to these recent patches I feel like my otherwise rock solid and well performing 4.4.50 kernel needs some urgent upgrade:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...es-4175647337/
The firmware I'm running now is:
And I'll need to clone the firmware used for building the 4.4.50 kernel:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmw...d4acb39e8d+174
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmw...e16c0194a8e54b
I read in the Raspberry forum, that you can use an older firmware, hope it also works.