[Dev] [Assist] How can I compile a module for my kernel without having to recompile the whole kernel?

Quiliro Ordóñez quiliro at congresolibre.org
Tue Mar 6 17:44:46 GMT 2012


I am sorry to answer so late. I could not subscribe to the Assist list. 
Thank you Marc-Alexandre for your message and Jorge for forwarding 
it.These are my comments.

It would be better to have just one list so that newbies learn from the 
experts and experts know about newbies problems. Then we will always 
have someone answer questions. If the traffic is high, only then it is 
useful to have separate lists.

El 01/03/12 00:10, Jorge Araya Navarro escribió:
>
>> Hi!
>>
>> I'm using a laptop that needs the vt8623fb module and I don't know how
>> I can just compile the module alone since recompiling the whole kernel
>> (even if it's tweaked) takes way too much time on my machine.
>>

I have not tried to compile a module separately from the kernel. All I 
have done is compiled drivers as modules or into the kernel. 
Nevertheless many drivers  such as video loaded as modules are updated 
without updating the kernel. I would think that you can compile a module 
without compiling the whole kernel.

>> I've lost 3days doing nothing but unsuccessful researches on the subject.
>> Now I spent something like 8~9hours compiling the kernel using the ABS
>> (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernels/Compilation/Arch_Build_System)
>> with the modules I needed and it just ended up creating a dummy empty
>> package (while saying that everything was done successfully).
>> Not to mention that patching the kernel from 3.2 to 3.2.7 just fails
>> miserably for no reason (?!) so I had to tweak the PKGBUILD to grab
>> the GNU/Linux Libre Kernel 3.2.7 directly.
>>

Directly from where? Please describe the process you did and the manuals 
you consulted as well as the error messages that you received. That will 
help suggest solutions.

>> It's seriously driving me mad and I'm starting to wonder if I just
>> doesn't have a IQ high enough to do all of theses things.
>>

Don't feel sorry for yourself. Just keep trying.

>> If anyone knows how to help me, you have all my attention. For now
>> I'll just prevent myself from smashing this computer on the floor.
>> Also, before anyone start to answer my problem by not answering it: I
>> don't want to use another distribution than Parabola. I have a problem
>> and I want to fix it.
>>

That's the soul of a real hacker!

>> Thank you all in advance for your answers,
>> Marc-Alexandre Espiaut
> I'm forwarding this message to the dev list because looks like nobody 
> wants to help me out with the list for assist people.

It is not possible for me to subscribe to Assist because the 
confirmation string is not accepted.

> I can't help you out with that, is very technical for my skills, but, 
> that module's source code is free as in freedom? sorry, we must ask 
> first...
>

If the sources used are linux-Libre there will be no problem about freedom.

After writing all this email I can see the module is in the kernel now 
http://labs.parabola.nu/issues/14
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