I appreciate that bodhi creates new updated versions of "Linux Kernel 6.4.11 Kirkwood package and Debian rootfs" and "Linux Kernel 6.4.11 MVEBU package and Debian armhf rootfs", it has made my NASes so much more useful.

But lately I've started thinking about how to make them? Not to replace the versions here, but just to learn and understand.

Tried Googling and think you might have a Linux computer and in it you create a cross compiler, and I have also read here http://projects.doozan.com/uboot/build_uboot.htm

Found this guide https://wiki.debian.org/HowToCrossBuildAnOfficialDebianKernelPackage which seems like a good start.
There are for example, crossbuild-essential-armel that I think could be used for Kirkwood and crossbuild-essential-armhf that you can use for Mvebu.

And then you can follow the guide, but set ARCH=armel or ARCH=armhf.

But
If you run the fakeroot make lines, are the files created automatically as
linux-image-6.4.11-mvebu-tld-1_1_armhf.deb
linux-headers-6.4.11-mvebu-tld-1_1_armhf.deb

(zImage-6.4.11-mvebu-tld-1 you probably created this)
(config-6.4.11-mvebu-tld-1 you probably created this)
(linux-dtb-6.4.11-mvebu-tld-1.tar you probably created this)
(linux-6.4.11-mvebu-tld-1.patch you probably created this)

and same for
linux-image-6.4.11-kirkwood-tld-1_1_armel.deb
linux-headers-6.4.11-kirkwood-tld-1_1_armel.deb

(config-6.4.11-kirkwood-tld-1 you probably created this)
(zImage-6.4.11-kirkwood-tld-1 you probably created this)
(linux-dtb-6.4.11-kirkwood-tld-1.tar you probably created this)
(linux-6.4.11-kirkwood-tld-1.patch you probably created this)

Or are there more steps for the kernel? And are there even more things to do? Have you put more stuff in the cross compile folders?

Later also how to make a rootfs file.

See this as question as low priority, as I am not in a hurry to learn all this and I need to digest the information slowly to understand it.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2023 08:03AM by raffe.

Building a kernel is more or less following the steps in the page you linked.

The relevant commands I use are:

make olddefconfig ARCH=arm
make -j$(nproc) ARCH=arm KBUILD_DEBARCH=armel CROSS_COMPILE="arm-linux-gnueabi-" bindeb-pkg

make olddefconfig ARCH=arm
make -j$(nproc) ARCH=arm KBUILD_DEBARCH=armhf CROSS_COMPILE="arm-linux-gnueabihf-" bindeb-pkg

etc

Hello, all.

I am running Debian 13.3 on my host. I installed all dependencies, including

libdev-ssl

I checked out

git checkout debian/6.18/forky

Followed the procedures in both posts, including and those on https://wiki.debian.org/HowToCrossBuildAnOfficialDebianKernelPackage

In the first stages (the fakeroot/make lines) I was warned about missing dependecies:

python3-dacite python3-ninja

When I finally ran

make -j$(nproc) ARCH=arm KBUILD_DEBARCH=armel CROSS_COMPILE="arm-linux-gnueabi-" bindeb-pkg

from the debian-kernel directory I was warned about missing dependenciies:

libssl-dev(!) kmod libdw-dev

so I installed all these.

When I run

make -j$(nproc) ARCH=arm KBUILD_DEBARCH=armel CROSS_COMPILE="arm-linux-gnueabi-" bindeb-pkg

again, I get:

dpkg-buildpackage: info: source package linux-upstream
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source version 6.18.9-g7c8e5f70d5d1-2
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source distribution unstable
dpkg-buildpackage: info: source changed by xxxxxx <xxxxxxxxxx>
dpkg-buildpackage: info: host architecture armel
 dpkg-source --before-build .
dpkg-checkbuilddeps: error: unmet build dependencies: libssl-dev
dpkg-buildpackage: error: build dependencies/conflicts unsatisfied; aborting
dpkg-buildpackage: hint: satisfy build dependencies with your package manager frontend
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.package:126: bindeb-pkg] Error 3
make[1]: *** [/xxxxx/kirkwood/debian-kernel/Makefile:1666: bindeb-pkg] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:260: __sub-make] Error 2

I removed and reinstalled libdev-ssl, to no avail. Same thing happened with 6.18.8, by the way. Anybody any clues?

Thanks,

Maarten



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2026 08:28AM by MaartenJD.