Kernel Build

First get Linux/MIPS kernel sources, for example from CVS. In the next step we need to configure the kernel sources by running make config, make menuconfig, make xconfig

Common problems

Problems caused by non-Linux/MIPS toolchain

make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-mips/arch/mips/kernel' mips_4KC-gcc 
-D__ASSEMBLY__ -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/eldk/usr/src/linux-mips/include
-D_MIPS_SZLONG=32 -D_MIPS_SZPTR=32 -D_MIPS_SZINT=32  -g -G 0 -mno-abicalls
-fno-pic -pipe   -c -o entry.o entry.S
 
entry.S: Assembler messages:
entry.S:225: Error: unrecognized opcode `reg_s $8,164($29)'
entry.S:226: Error: unrecognized opcode `reg_s $8,164($29)'

_MIPS_SZLONG etc. are normally defined by the gcc compiler driver. That is they should never be defined by the application itself. The precense of such kludgery usually indicates the use of a toolchain that wasn't configured for a Linux/MIPS target.

Ld dies with signal 6

collect2: ld terminated with signal 6 [Aborted]

This is a known bug in some very old binutils versions. You will have to upgrade to at least binutils 2.8.1 plus very current patches. With Linux 2.4 or newer binutils 2.13.2.1 or newer is probably recommended.

Linux 2.6 build fails early

$ make
CHK     include/linux/version.h
HOSTCC  scripts/basic/fixdep
HOSTCC  scripts/basic/split-include
HOSTCC  scripts/basic/docproc
CC      scripts/mod/empty.o
gcc: cannot specify -o with -c or -S and multiple compilations
make[2]: *** [scripts/mod/empty.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [scripts/mod] Error 2
make: *** [scripts] Error 2

There are two possible causes for this failure known:

• Make sure you have set CONFIG_CROSSCOMPILE or add CROSS_COMPILE=<target> to the make invocation.
• A few early Linux 2.6 kernels had a bug which would always result in this error message. In this case you really should upgrade.

Linux 2.6 built fails with "ld: final link failed: Bad value"

This is caused by a linker bug that exists in at least binutils&nbps;2.15. If you hit it you should upgrade to binutils 2.16.