I posted this before, but it never got solved. I figured I should not necro-post, so I'm opening this. I've tried building kernels many different ways only to come back to the same results, no modules. If anyone could help me I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
Hi Azrael,
I've read this thread and the previous one that you pointed to. Also, looked at the guides that you have followed.
What do you mean exactly by "No Modules"?
You create a kernel file that you boot but many other dependancies e.g. runtime libraries, are compiled completely separately and inserted into the distro. As someone who has been involved with bespoke kernels for some years I can see that you are having trouble getting to grips with it all. Personally I would not recommend starting with the source code of a prominent distro as it will contain idiosyncrasies which will make it difficult to follow.
To (re)start your learning from ground-zero go to:
and get your hands on a copy of the book (pdf).
https://linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/downloads/stable/LFS-BOOK-10.1.pdf
Read that steadily to get into understanding how a complete distro is built. You can download the lfs (Linux from Scratch) source code and compile it yourself. (You will need to initially install a running known distro in order to 'seed' your development/compilation because "you cannot compile a compiler without a compiler". Once you have compiled your own first set of tools you can dispense with the seeding operating system and just use your own. Then compile new stuff with the compiler that you compiled yourself.)
Be warned that building your own distro will take a good number of days running with 100% CPU. It ain't easy.
Good luck.
Did you only execute 'make' or also 'make modules'?
The command 'make' only builds the kernel.
'make modules' builds the kernel modules.
The general phases are:
Most of the complications come from the configuring step, because new drivers are added or old ones removed and that tends to cause a lot of prompts asking whether you want something compiled into the kernel or not. The steps above try to minimize that but won't be ideal for every situation.
Oh, and be sure to check Documentation/Changes to ensure your build tools are at least the necessary versions.
Good luck! It's much more robust than it was back in the early days, but there are still sometimes minor inconveniences.
@hicksd8 - I didn't think I'd be good enough to do LFS until I had building the kernel down. Perhaps I'm wrong. I will use that book later. Thank you.
@Azhrei @Toon - I've done ' make modules_install', but I have no modules when booting back into the new kernel and running lsmod. There might be 3 there instead of 20. Do the modules get installed somewhere and require insmod to manually install them?
(Sorry for typos or autocorrect errors; I'm on my phone.)
Unfortunately, there's not enough information to help you. You don't say specifically what commands you executed so we don't know how the config file was created (for example, all modules could've been turned off so that everything is being built into the kernel). That's why I laid out the commands I would use to build a kernel that uses modules.
When you run your "modules_install" target, read the output and it'll tell you what directory is being used. Make sure that directory actually has stuff in it. In fact, look for files with th4 same name as the modules that were previously loaded using the stock kernel.
Also, many modules are demand-loaded, meaning they aren't loaded until they're needed. You could always try forcing one to be loaded by running "modprobe".
Normally when we run these module-related commands we get a log of logging information in the terminal.
Perhaps you should capture this logging information and review the entire process log and look for errors and other clues in the log?
The default location where kernel modules are installed is /lib/modules.
Well, I must say, this time was better, but still a lot of modules are missing:
2,17d1
< ufs 90112 0
< qnx4 16384 0
< hfsplus 122880 0
< hfs 65536 0
< minix 45056 0
< ntfs 229376 0
< vfat 24576 0
< msdos 20480 0
< fat 86016 2 msdos,vfat
< jfs 217088 0
< xfs 2068480 0
< ext4 950272 0
< crc16 16384 1 ext4
< mbcache 16384 1 ext4
< jbd2 151552 1 ext4
< dm_mod 155648 0
19c3
< drm_vram_helper 28672 1 vboxvideo
---
> drm_vram_helper 24576 1 vboxvideo
21,22c5
< af_packet 57344 4
< vmwgfx 397312 1
---
> af_packet 53248 2
24,26c7
< intel_rapl_common 28672 1 intel_rapl_msr
< ttm 90112 3 vmwgfx,drm_vram_helper,drm_ttm_helper
< drm_kms_helper 307200 3 vmwgfx,drm_vram_helper,vboxvideo
---
> intel_rapl_common 24576 1 intel_rapl_msr
27a9
> crc32_pclmul 16384 0
29c11,15
< cec 86016 1 drm_kms_helper
---
> vmwgfx 360448 1
> joydev 24576 0
> mousedev 24576 0
> serio_raw 16384 0
> pcspkr 16384 0
31,35c17
< rc_core 53248 1 cec
< snd_ac97_codec 180224 1 snd_intel8x0
< syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
< aesni_intel 376832 0
< sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
---
> snd_ac97_codec 167936 1 snd_intel8x0
37,38c19,22
< joydev 24576 0
< sg 45056 0
---
> snd_pcm 118784 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
> snd_timer 36864 1 snd_pcm
> video 49152 0
> aesni_intel 376832 0
39a24,28
> sg 40960 0
> drm_kms_helper 282624 3 vmwgfx,drm_vram_helper,vboxvideo
> syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
> sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
> cryptd 24576 2 crypto_simd,ghash_clmulni_intel
41,42d29
< snd_pcm 143360 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
< cryptd 28672 2 crypto_simd,ghash_clmulni_intel
44,46c31,33
< mousedev 24576 0
< serio_raw 16384 0
< pcspkr 16384 0
---
> cec 49152 1 drm_kms_helper
> rc_core 49152 1 cec
> snd 94208 4 snd_intel8x0,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm
47a35,36
> ttm 81920 3 vmwgfx,drm_vram_helper,drm_ttm_helper
> vboxguest 364544 1
49,50d37
< snd_timer 40960 1 snd_pcm
< snd 98304 4 snd_intel8x0,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm
52,53c39,40
< vboxguest 409600 0
< drm 622592 7 vmwgfx,drm_kms_helper,drm_vram_helper,vboxvideo,drm_ttm_helper,ttm
---
> drm 540672 7 vmwgfx,drm_kms_helper,drm_vram_helper,vboxvideo,drm_ttm_helper,ttm
> fuse 135168 1
55,59c42,45
< sunrpc 614400 1
< fuse 155648 1
< ip_tables 32768 0
< x_tables 49152 1 ip_tables
< btrfs 1662976 1
---
> sunrpc 585728 1
> ip_tables 28672 0
> x_tables 45056 1 ip_tables
> btrfs 1572864 1
60a47,48
> libcrc32c 16384 1 btrfs
> crc32c_generic 16384 0
63,65c51
< libcrc32c 16384 2 btrfs,xfs
< crc32c_generic 16384 0
< usbhid 57344 0
---
> usbhid 53248 0
67c53
< cdrom 45056 3 hfsplus,hfs,sr_mod
---
> cdrom 40960 1 sr_mod
70,71d55
< crc32_pclmul 16384 0
< psmouse 176128 0
72a57,58
> psmouse 163840 0
> e1000 126976 0
74d59
< e1000 135168 0
76d60
< video 49152 0
The only error I got was one about bzImage not being found. I ran 'make bzImage' and was able to complete. I checked the new /lib/modules/5.12.8 directory, but it seems these missing modules are not found:
$ find /lib/modules/5.12.8 -name "ufs" | wc -l
0
Any advice for this?
Thank you @Neo, @Toon and @Azhrei . I appreciate it.
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