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Is it possible to compile the kernel without Woof-CE?
Hello everyone!
I want to re-compile the kernel (because the one in Fossapup is too old, I want 5.15). However, I don't want to reboot into Puppy Linux, because I think it would be nice to be able to use the computer during the re-compilation process. Can I re-compile it while I'm in Linux Mint? What patches do I need to add? Do I need to simply add the AUFS patch? Or there is something else that is required?
Also, the kernel sources from Linux Mint repositories seem to have AUFS support -- is this what's needed for Puppy Linux?
@Chrysolite Azalea - I guess it would be possible (not sure how, as puppy has special requirements), but
why bother - the kernels section of the forum has plenty of update options.
I have made suitable kernels - you could use the 5.15.70 kernel linked below (choose ubuntu derivative one):
viewtopic.php?p=67696&sid=aac35733a431a ... 2d6#p67696
@Chrysolite Azalea You can. I use the kernel-kit independently of woof-CE to make kernels for another operating system.
This method needs to be run from a Puppy Linux with it's devx SFS loaded.
get woof-CE by git clone or download.
open a terminal in the woof-CE directory. Run ./merge2out
select the Puppy Linux type to build.
Once woof-CE has created the build directory there will be a kernel-kit directory, enter this and open up /build.conf and set the parameters for the kernel to build. Then running /build.sh the script will begin the build as you've prescribed in the configuration file.
Remember this is best run from a Puppy Linux distro that is close to the target type the kernel is being built for.
Puppy Linux kernels require AUFS. The version used will be set in the configuration file.
I have had issues lately with the build script downloading the firmware tarball with an error of a certificate mismatch. But I am building kernels using Fossapup64 or Bionic64 for KLV-Airedale that use no AUFS and have Overlayfs modules built in. The options for the firmware is set to NO
Which means I download the firmware drivers then manually create the fdrv SFS
I have made real time huge kernels for Puppy Linux with real time and AUFS patches applied using the kernel-kit with out actually running woof-CE more than the initial setup to run a build.
It doesn't matter how and where you build the kernel, as long as 1) aufs is built-in and 2) all drivers needed to mount the partition you're booting from (for example, PCI support, support for your PCIe bridge, support for USB mass storage devices, support for the file system on that partition ...) are also built-in.
The kernel is self-contained: it doesn't use userspace libraries.
kernel-kit, part of woof-CE, automates the process of building a kernel, but the included kernel configurations (for 5.10.x, 5.15.x, ...) were built by hand to satisfy these requirements.
EDIT: forgot to mention, squashfs support must be built-in as well
rockedge wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 11:53 pm@Chrysolite Azalea You can. I use the kernel-kit independently of woof-CE to make kernels for another operating system.
This method needs to be run from a Puppy Linux with it's devx SFS loaded.
get woof-CE by git clone or download.
open a terminal in the woof-CE directory. Run ./merge2out
select the Puppy Linux type to build.
Once woof-CE has created the build directory there will be a kernel-kit directory, enter this and open up /build.conf and set the parameters for the kernel to build. Then running /build.sh the script will begin the build as you've prescribed in the configuration file.Remember this is best run from a Puppy Linux distro that is close to the target type the kernel is being built for.
Puppy Linux kernels require AUFS. The version used will be set in the configuration file.
I have had issues lately with the build script downloading the firmware tarball with an error of a certificate mismatch. But I am building kernels using Fossapup64 or Bionic64 for KLV-Airedale that use no AUFS and have Overlayfs modules built in. The options for the firmware is set to NO
Which means I download the firmware drivers then manually create the fdrv SFS
I have made real time huge kernels for Puppy Linux with real time and AUFS patches applied using the kernel-kit with out actually running woof-CE more than the initial setup to run a build.
Thank you! The problem is, when I tried to compile the kernel with kernel-kit, it exited with an error, because a download failed due to an HTTPS certificate mismatch. How can I solve this problem?
Either run kernel-kit on a distro that doesn't have broken CA certificates, or make wget run with --no-check-certificate.
on a distro that doesn't have broken CA certificates
This sounds good but is not the reality. So which Puppy distro doesn't have "broken CA certificates"?
I can't find one and I've tried the kernel-kit which worked well on all of these distro's not so long ago but now doesn't. I spend more time trying to get the kernel-kit to go then actually compiling anything. That was NOT the case before. I just built several real time huge kernels not so long ago with few problems.
Now it's fix the certificate or whatever for AUFS and the rest of the downloads like the firmware issue.
Totally bites if you catch my drift.
How about telling me which Puppy to use then so I do not see either one of these script stopping errors.
1. the aufs-utils download failure
2. the https download issues
@dimkr Is this impossible to fix? Is this kernel-kit now designed to work only in a very specific circumstance?
Solution proposal
I think that the problem could possibly be solved by running a local Gitea server with a copy of all repositories, I'm planning to propose a pull request that allows to choose custom Git repositories soon.
kernel-kit has hardly changed throughout the years: the problem is not a kernel-kit bug.
kernel-kit doesn't have many requirements. Unmodified, it runs on a clean (!), minimal Debian or Ubuntu installation quite easily (https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... it.yml#L77) and works perfectly. Why does it work? Because CA certificates are up to date.
As far as I see, Puppy users who have trouble with kernel-kit and CA certificates have that problem because they run kernel-kit on Bionicpup or Fossapup, which have outdated CA certificates. The CA certificates in Fossapup are almost 2.5 years old! This problem should disappear if CA certificates (a package called "ca-certificates") are updated.
EDIT: there's another possibility. Certificate validation can fail if the system clock is misconfigured. If that's the case, all HTTPS requests fail and the browser doesn't work.
@dimkr yes I am very well aware of updating the ca-certificates. First thing I tried out 2 years ago was updating them because of other projects requiring these to be current. Not always a good result though doing this on BIonicpup or Fossapup.
I am well aware of a system clock not in sync issues and I check the OS I am working with has the correct time set. Been doing this stuff since 1975 and especially working with web sites and the Internet the clock sync is always very important.
I just have not had much consistent success with updating the ca-certificates in either BIonic or Fossapup. I just built kernel 6.0.1 for KLV-Airedale using the kernel-kit from the latest woof-CE (testing branch) git pull successfully on a Fossapup64. This build went smoothly but this kernel requires no AUFS, has Overlayfs and NTFS support built in and the firmware drivers tarball I downloaded and created the firmware component for the kernel manually. This works well.
I suppose I could use a minimal Ubuntu but don't have one ready. Would Vanilla Dpup be a candidate for running the K-Kit?
If I were to stick to Puppy for the builds which would be the one? Maybe jammy?
Maybe a @wiak's FirstRibit.sh script can build me a frugal installation version of Ubuntu that will run the K-Kit. I don't have any full partitions though I do have spare drives I could pull off the shelf and plug in with a SATA->USB adapter.
I would prefer using a Puppy Linux so we'll see what can be leveraged.
@ozsouth has shared working K-Kit components I am looking forward to working with as well! 
UPDATE: this command (to set globally for git) in the terminal seems to be a temporary workaround ->
Code: Select all
git config --global http.sslverify falseBasically any Puppy built today would work. It should work just fine even in bionic64 and focal64 test builds from https://github.com/puppylinux-woof-CE/w ... /build.yml, because they're built with today's CA certificates and not those from years ago.
@dimkr Extremely good point. I should just build a fresh Fossapup64-CE or a Bionic64-CE with woof-CE! My PowerEdge R210 II does an excellent job running woof-CE and building locally gets good results.
I just finished a successful build of kernel 6.0.1-KLV with no AUFS, Overlayfs and NTFS built in. Sources, headers, vmlinuz, modules and firmware look to be complete.