Problems Compiling a Kernel with make-kpkg

**forest2** · March 30th, 2014

Hi,

I'm on Ubuntu Studio 14.04 Beta 2 (upgraded through apt-get from Beta 1,) and I'm trying to compile my own low-latency kernel with make-kpkg. I just want to remove xhci-hda and ehci-hda from the kernel so my USB Audio Interface (the PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL) will work correctly. With the xhci-hda driver built into the kernel, the AudioBox is treated as a usb 3 device and there is crackling noise in the playback. I've found this problem reported by other presonus users elsewhere. Here are the details on xchi-hda and the kernel.

I modify the config file via make menuconfig, but then when I run

sudo make-kpkg clean

I get the following output:

Code:

exec make kpkg_version=12.036+nmu3 -f /usr/share/kernel-package/ruleset/minimal.mk clean
====== making target minimal_clean [new prereqs: ]======
This is kernel package version 12.036+nmu3.
test ! -f .config || cp -pf .config config.precious
test ! -e stamp-building || rm -f stamp-building
test ! -f Makefile || \
            make    ARCH=i386 distclean
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency'
  CLEAN   .
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency/drivers/net/dpa/Makefile:7: /usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency/drivers/net/dpa/NetCommSw/ncsw_config.mk: No such file or directory
make[4]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency/drivers/net/dpa/NetCommSw/ncsw_config.mk'.  Stop.
make[3]: *** [drivers/net/dpa] Error 2
make[2]: *** [drivers/net] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_clean_drivers] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency'
make: *** [minimal_clean] Error 2

The same thing happens with the 3.13.0-20-lowlatency version of the kernel as well. I have the build-essential package installed as well as linux-headers-lowlatency and linux-headers-generic. It seems like the device driver ncsw_config.mk is just missing, and I've filed a bug, but I thought someone more experience with compiling kernels might have some other advice? Any ideas?

**su:bhatta** · March 30th, 2014

Am I missing something or are you compiling the 3.13.0-12 low-latency kernel?

Todays or maybe yesterdays upgrade brought in the 3.13.0-20 kernel.

From my system:

Code:

~$ uname -a
Linux  3.13.0-20-lowlatency #42-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Fri Mar 28 10:25:59 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

In case you are updating with CLI, then use :

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Make sure you have linux- lowlatency installed, otherwise the upgrades will not bring in the latest kernel.

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-lowlatency

BTW, all 14.04 posts go to Ubuntu +1, be it any flavor.

**forest2** · March 31st, 2014

Originally Posted by bhattabhishek

Am I missing something or are you compiling the 3.13.0-12 low-latency kernel?

Todays or maybe yesterdays upgrade brought in the 3.13.0-20 kernel.

Thank you for the quick response. Originally, I tried compiling the 3.13.0-20 low latency kernel but encountered the same problem. So then I tried it with the 3.13.0-12 low latency kernel, thinking maybe that might work. I get the same error with either one. I tried the generic (high-latency?) kernel and encountered the same error there as well.

Originally Posted by bhattabhishek

In case you are updating with CLI, then use :

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Make sure you have linux- lowlatency installed, otherwise the upgrades will not bring in the latest kernel.

I do have linux-lowlatency installed. I'm not sure what you mean by "CLI." I'm upgrading via apt-get, but I hadn't though to do a dist-upgrade. I was just doing

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and then

sudo apt-get install package-name

for any packages that were being held-back. I'll try a dist-upgrade when I get home.

Originally Posted by bhattabhishek

BTW, all 14.04 posts go to Ubuntu +1, be it any flavor.

Sorry about that.

**su:bhatta** · March 31st, 2014

Originally Posted by forest2

I do have linux-lowlatency installed. I'm not sure what you mean by "CLI."
Sorry about that.

CLI=Command Line

Dont be sorry I also learn't it the same way, last year.

Did you get the 3.13.0-20 lowlatency? using:

Code:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Also, I learnt from experienced members to run

Code:

sudo apt-get -f install

after every upgrade & dist-upgrade, to make sure there are no broken upgrades that might corrupt the system

**cariboo** · April 1st, 2014

@forest2, you have to pay attention to what the error message says. In your case it says that there is a missing directory or file:

Code:

/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency/drivers/net/dpa/NetCommSw/ncsw_config.mk: No such file or directory

Have you checked to see if the above mentioned directory and file exists?

**forest2** · April 1st, 2014

Originally Posted by cariboo907

@forest2, you have to pay attention to what the error message says. In your case it says that there is a missing directory or file:

Code:

/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-12-lowlatency/drivers/net/dpa/NetCommSw/ncsw_config.mk: No such file or directory

Have you checked to see if the above mentioned directory and file exists?

Yes, of course, I've gone to the directory and the file is missing. As I said, I've filed a bug report

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntustudio/+bug/1299878

but it seems odd that one random driver would be missing. This is a feature I don't even think I need, but I can't find the place in menuconfig or in the .config file to turn it off.

**forest2** · April 1st, 2014

Originally Posted by bhattabhishek

CLI=Command Line

Did you get the 3.13.0-20 lowlatency? using:

Code:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Also, I learnt from experienced members to run

Code:

sudo apt-get -f install

after every upgrade & dist-upgrade, to make sure there are no broken upgrades that might corrupt the system

I originally got the 3.13.0-20 kernel by directly upgrading with

sudo apt-get install linux-lowlatency

Tonight, I also tried

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get --reinstall -f install linux-lowlatency

but there were no new files for the dist-upgrade to download and I'm still have the same error with make-kpkg clean.

**forest2** · April 5th, 2014

I added this info to the bug report, but thought I'd post it here as well:

A couple of days ago, I ran

Code:

 sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get -f dist-upgrade

and thereby installed linux-headers-3.13.0-22-lowlatency. In the process, I got these errors:

Code:

 Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.13.0-22-lowlatency /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 3.13.0-22-lowlatency /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.13.0-22-lowlatency (i686)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/openvswitch/2.0.1+git20140120/build/make.log for more information.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.13.0-22-lowlatency /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 3.13.0-22-lowlatency /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 3.13.0-22-lowlatency /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Generating grub configuration file ...
Warning: Setting GRUB_TIMEOUT to a non-zero value when GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT is set is no longer supported.
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-20-lowlatency
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-20-lowlatency
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-12-lowlatency
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-12-lowlatency
Found memtest86+ image: /memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /memtest86+.bin
done
Setting up libsystemd-journal0:i386 (204-5ubuntu16) ...
Setting up python3-cairo (1.10.0+dfsg-3ubuntu2) ...
Setting up python3-gi-cairo (3.12.0-1) ...
Setting up python3-pexpect (3.1-1) ...
Setting up catfish (1.0.2-2) ...
Setting up libbaloocore4 (4:4.12.97-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libbalooxapian4 (4:4.12.97-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libbaloofiles4 (4:4.12.97-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up linux-headers-3.13.0-22 (3.13.0-22.44) ...
Setting up linux-headers-3.13.0-22-generic (3.13.0-22.44) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/dkms 3.13.0-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-generic
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.13.0-22-generic (i686)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/openvswitch/2.0.1+git20140120/build/make.log for more information.
Setting up linux-headers-3.13.0-22-lowlatency (3.13.0-22.44) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/dkms 3.13.0-22-lowlatency /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-lowlatency
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.13.0-22-lowlatency (i686)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/openvswitch/2.0.1+git20140120/build/make.log for more information.
Setting up linux-headers-generic (3.13.0.22.26) ...
Setting up linux-image-lowlatency (3.13.0.22.26) ...
Setting up linux-headers-lowlatency (3.13.0.22.26) ...
Setting up linux-lowlatency (3.13.0.22.26) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-22-lowlatency

In particular, does "Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.13.0-22-lowlatency (i686)" mean that I just have a bad installation? I've been troubleshooting this problem for over a week and getting nowhere. The file ncsw_config.mk is definitely missing from that directory so now what? Anyone have any ideas about what to do to fix this?

I should add that I tried making a dummy text file in the directory titled ncsw_config.mk just to see what would happen. In that case, make-kpkg clean accepted the dummy file, but then found another missing .mk file. I'm really stumped.

**forest2** · April 15th, 2014

Two weeks later and this problem persists. It basically makes my computer unusable for the purpose I bought it, which is making me really angry at Ubuntu. What kind of distribution ships a buggy usb3.0 driver built into the kernel (rather than as a module)??

I got desperate today and tried making a fake ncsw_config.mk file. I just went to that directory, opened a blank file titled ncsw_config.mk in vi, and then saved it. When I ran make-kpkg clean, it accepted the fake file, but then told me

Code:

/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency/ubuntu/aufs/Makefile:2: ubuntu/aufs/magic.mk: No such file or directory

so I went to /usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency/ubuntu/aufs/ and again made a fake magic.mk file.
Now I was able to run make-kpkg clean without any errors. I have to run it with sudo though because with fakeroot I get errors because various permissions are denied. Then I tried running

sudo make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=.041514 kernel_image kernel_headers

and I get the following output:

Code:

exec make kpkg_version=12.036+nmu3 -f /usr/share/kernel-package/ruleset/minimal.mk debian APPEND_TO_VERSION=.041514  INITRD=YES
====== making target debian/stamp/conf/minimal_debian [new prereqs: ]======
This is kernel package version 12.036+nmu3.
test -d debian             || mkdir debian
test ! -e stamp-building || rm -f stamp-building
install -p -m 755 /usr/share/kernel-package/rules debian/rules
for file in ChangeLog  Control  Control.bin86 config templates.in rules; do                                      \
            cp -f  /usr/share/kernel-package/$file ./debian/;                               \
        done
for dir  in Config docs examples ruleset scripts pkg po;  do                                      \
          cp -af /usr/share/kernel-package/$dir  ./debian/;                                 \
        done
test -f debian/control || sed         -e 's/=V/3.13.9.041514/g'  \
                -e 's/=D/3.13.9.041514-10.00.Custom/g'         -e 's/=A/i386/g'  \
  -e 's/=SA//g'  \
  -e 's/=I//g'				    \
  -e 's/=CV/3.13/g'			    \
  -e 's/=M/Unknown Kernel Package Maintainer <unknown@unconfigured.in.etc.kernel-pkg.conf>/g'		    \
  -e 's/=ST/linux/g'      -e 's/=B/i386/g'    \
                  /usr/share/kernel-package/Control > debian/control
test -f debian/changelog ||  sed -e 's/=V/3.13.9.041514/g'       \
            -e 's/=D/3.13.9.041514-10.00.Custom/g'        -e 's/=A/i386/g'       \
            -e 's/=ST/linux/g'     -e 's/=B/i386/g'         \
            -e 's/=M/Unknown Kernel Package Maintainer <unknown@unconfigured.in.etc.kernel-pkg.conf>/g'                            \
             /usr/share/kernel-package/changelog > debian/changelog
chmod 0644 debian/control debian/changelog
test -d ./debian/stamp || mkdir debian/stamp
make -f debian/rules debian/stamp/conf/kernel-conf
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
====== making target debian/stamp/conf/kernel-conf [new prereqs: ]======
make EXTRAVERSION=.041514   ARCH=i386 \
                    oldconfig;
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
scripts/kconfig/conf --oldconfig Kconfig
#
# configuration written to .config
#
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
make EXTRAVERSION=.041514   ARCH=i386 prepare
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
scripts/kconfig/conf --silentoldconfig Kconfig
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
make[3]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency/arch/x86/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl', needed by `arch/x86/syscalls/../include/generated/uapi/asm/unistd_32.h'.  Stop.
make[2]: *** [archheaders] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
make[1]: *** [debian/stamp/conf/kernel-conf] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-24-lowlatency'
make: *** [debian/stamp/conf/minimal_debian] Error 2
Failed to create a ./debian directory:  at /usr/bin/make-kpkg line 984.

I have no idea what to do. I think I'm just going to have to use a different distro. It seems like nobody bothered to update the kernel configuration files, but then surely others have experienced these problems as well??