BSD

Hey guys, I have installed Freebsd 5.3 Release, and I can't compile my custom kernel. I even tried compile the Generic kernel to see if I had some error in my custom kernel, and that didn't compile either. The Freebsd FAQ pages states one solution would be to "re-fetch the source tree". How is that done? Thanks in advanced for you help.

Hi !
What exactly did you tryed ? It never happend to me to fail compiling the kernel... how did you tryed to compile it ?
I usualy compile it like this:

1. cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/
2. cp GENERIC newKernel
3. vi newKernel (and edit to fit my options)
4. config newKernel
5. cd ../compile/newKernel/
6. make depend
7. make
8. make install clean

Try this steps. It's the most easyest way to compile the kernel. If it's not working, post here the errors you get and we'll figure it out ;-)
Good luck !
Bye !

Thanks Sergui-IT. I tried those steps and it failed on step 7 in your previous list, "make". The error was "End of file not found". Can you tell me how to re-fetch the source tree, and what exactly does that mean? Thanks alot.

Hi !
Have you tried to compile a new version of the kernel ? Or the kernel that came with your install CD ? Anyway, the problem seems to be in one of the files... try to reinstall the sources from your install CD. If you are new and you don't want to do something complicate simply try the sysinstall command (as root). It's a very easy-to-use interface for installing packages. The same you used when you installed FreeBSD. You'll have the install menu and select from the packages the kernel sources to install.
Another option, fetching the source tree, it's a little more complicated and... not so good. At least, I don't like it This is how I'm doing this:

1. Create a "supfile" that contains something like this :

Code:

*default host=cvsup.ro.FreeBSD.org
*default base=/usr
*default prefix=/usr/ncvs
*default compress
*default release=cvs tag=.
*default delete use-rel-suffix

src-sys

2. Create the /usr/ncvs directory
3. Go into the directory where your supfle is and try : cvsup -g -L 2 supfile. This will download (fetch) the last kernel source tree to your computer and will put it in /usr/ncvs. After that, you have to do the normal compilation (config newKernel, make depend, make, make install clean) with your new fetched kernel source.
You should also take a look at this links:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...nelconfig.html (for more details on kernel build)
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ook/cvsup.html (for using cvsup)

Well... I hope this helps... sorry for my bad english, it's not my native language
Good luck !
Bye-Bye!

Thanks alot Sergui-IT. I re-installed from the installation CD and everything seems to be working now. Thanks again.

Hey, I'm also having a problem with my custom kernel.
After the #cd ../compile/mykernel (some say newkernel) the make depend commando fails. It tells me that it's missing a header file, I think it was called miibus or something. And the installation aborts. Any ideas?

I'm also using the FreeBSD 5.3 release, I tried to reinstall all the packages already.

Hi !
Well... I do have an ideea
miibus is required for some network cards to work. On the original GENERIC file you can find something like this:

Code:

# PCI Ethernet NICs that use the common MII bus controller code.
# NOTE: Be sure to keep the 'device miibus' line in order to use these NICs!
device          miibus          # MII bus support

Probably when you "customized" your kernel for compilation, you deleted the "device miibus" line, but you leaved support for some network card that requires miibus. Try to insert the "device miibus" line in your file. It will probably work without any problems...
Good luck !