Thema: [HowTo] Build own openATV SH4 Image

openATV 5.3 and OE-A 34 you can now use Ubunto 16.04.1 LTS

Hi all,

I do need to rebuild the kernel for my stb (azbox minime) due to an update to a built-in module (dvb-core), but every time I rebuild the image / kernel and reflash the stb, I get the old kernel version. During the bulding process I am sure that the module files are complied but I don't know they aren't linked used to produce a new kernel image.

I used the following commands do rebuild the kernel:

Code:

bitbake -v -c clean linux-azbox
bitbake -v -f deploy linux-azbox

or

Code:

bitbake -v -c clean linux-azbox
bitbake -v linux-azbox

or, for the entire image,

Code:

MACHINE=azboxminime DISTRO=openatv make image

I have already read some posts about it but I get no success when following those instructions (e.g.: [SOLVED] Best way to clean, rebuild kernel |Intel Communities).

What I'm supposed to do to get the kernel image really rebuilt?


Thank you,
Rodrigo

Hi Rodrigo.

The problem is that the shitbake recipes copy the reprompiled zbimage-linux-xload kernel into the build.

http://source.mynonpublic.com/${MACHINE}/${MACHINE}-${SRC}-${SRCREV}.tar.gz;name=azbox-kernel-${MACHINE} \

I have gone back to some of SpaceRats commits when he locally build this new precompiled kernel, trying to rebuild it again.
[azbox] Tryfix for kernel compilation * oe-alliance/oe-alliance-core@eac0178 * GitHub
To date I have not overcome an problem with "oe_make oldconfig" throwing following error. "No rule to make target `oldconfig' "
in later commits this is gone as he then links the precompiled kernel instead
[azbox] Revised kernel config from oe-a 2.3 * oe-alliance/oe-alliance-core@f32fe1d * GitHub

maybe you have some joy , but you definately need to modify the linux bb and the includes to compile the kernel instead of copying the precompiled one.

But i'm no expert and banging my head at the moment....

just found some explanation on oldonfig.. need to read and see if i understand
What does "make oldconfig" do exactly in the Linux kernel makefile? - Stack Overflow

With using the defconfig from the commt, seems to get over the oldconfig issue.
edit: maybe not, could well be I had commented out. So I put new defconfig back.
Now having trouble with intiramfs during compile...
with some jiggery pockery I got kernel build.
The question now is whether the new precompiled kernel works when I flash to the box.
Thats a test for the weekend.

From a building log (bitbake -v linux-azbox > build.log) I realized that a pre-compiled kernel is downloaded from "http://source.mynonpublic.com/azboxminime/azboxminime-2015-r3.tar.gz" and a local kernel is built and then stored at "build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/azboxminime/tmp/work-shared/azboxminime/kernel-source/".

Also according to the building log, it seems that the local kernel (zbimage-linux-load) is not used and only the pre-compiled one is employed to build the deployment files, but there is an stage where the compiled vmlinux file is copied to the file vmlinux-3.9.2-opensat and then stored at "build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/azboxminime/tmp/work/azboxminime-oe-linux/linux-azbox/3.9.2-r0/image/boot/", the same way it would be used in a PC linux distribution.

I tried to use a local and updated built version kernel. I flashed it after an locally built and not update image was flashed. As spected, the stb works fine with the image with the pre-compiled kernel, but it stoped booting when I flashed my updated kernel version. This problem may be due to my update (insertion of some printk messages), but I also think that the local building process may be missing some stages/doing a incomplete-incorrect building.

I will try to flash a non-updated locally built kernel (exactly the one that comes with the building environment) to verify if it works.According to the building log, the file zbimage-linux-load is a romfs (room file system) which includes a modified version of the kernel file (vmlinux) among other data. Is this image used to boot the entire stb or the image flashed (image0.jffs2 ) has another kernel file (vmlinux-3.9.2-opensat) which is loaded?

Hi. Yes. I got local kernel to build but stb not booting (in fact I needed to do restore to revive). File size a good bit smaller than the precompiled one. Not sure why.

Edit: which commit are you building against? And did you have to comment out/ change anything for the build to work?
i have taken out the oldconfig as this kept throwing errors. Maybe that's why my kernel is broken?

Hi ok. I was using 4.0, but they should be same.
I had rolled back to the earlier commits as I wasn't sure the newer (head) were actually compiling the kernel and not just copy the precompiled one.

also when spacerat did the last compile he mentioned in the testing thread that he pulled the Linux libc header as per the original openazbox repo. oe-core/meta-openpli/recipes-linux at master * OpenAZBox/oe-core * GitHub