[SOLVED] Compile modules for the Live CD kernel

Cyberwizzard · Apprentice Joined: 02 Apr 2004 Posts: 244 Location: Norway

I decided to post my actual problem under a new topic (this one) hoping someone could help me then

I got the live disc kernel running on a machine and I'd like to compile some new modules for that kernel (2.6.15-r5 gentoo) but that specific version is no longer in the portage tree. Is there a way to use a r1 or different revision to compile the modules? I mean there can't be that many changes in the revisions that an external module (vmware) can't be compiled against it... right?

sfragis · Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 4:11 pm Post subject:

IMHO, one could use a different revision (such as r1 or r8, which are still in portage); a change in the revision number should reflect kernel bug fixes mainly. If you want to build the module with emerge, I think that /usr/src/linux must be a valid link to an existing kernel tree. Suppose you emerged gentoo-sources-2.6.15-r1. That will cause the module being installed in /lib/modules/2.6.15-r1/x/y/z.ko even if you booted with a different kernel (2.6.15-r5 in your case). You can try moving the module to the right directory /lib/modules/2.6.15-r5/x/y/z.ko. Maybe a "depmod -a" is also useful.
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Regards
Fabio Strozzi

Cyberwizzard · Apprentice Joined: 02 Apr 2004 Posts: 244 Location: Norway

So in theory I should be able to emerge vmware-modules (from the overlay) and grab the modules from the r1 or r8 module directory and depmod -a my way in there? Sounds good

Cyberwizzard · Apprentice Joined: 02 Apr 2004 Posts: 244 Location: Norway

I'm logging here what I'm doing:

I just unmasked and emerged gentoo-sources-2.6.15-r8. Then I set /usr/src/linux to the r8 sources. Next I copied the System map file from /boot to the sources dir and renamed it to System.map.
Next I copied and decompressed /proc/config.gz to /usr/src/linux/.config

Next I ran 'make oldconfig' and 'make modules_prepare' to be able to run 'emerge vmware-modules'.
After emerging the modules I moved the misc directory in /lib/modules from the r8 to r5 and ran 'depmod -a'.

I entered 'modprobe vmmon' and 'modprobe vmnet' and behold... IT WORKED!

I tried something like this before but it failed time after time... This time I changed 3 things: used the r8 kernel, copied the System.map emerge complained about and ran 'depmod -a' to fix the dependencies (instead of forcing them in).

Thanks a lot!