POCKET BEAGLE - CONFIGURE & COMPILE KERNEL?

Electronics
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POCKET BEAGLE - CONFIGURE & COMPILE KERNEL? Hello all! I’ve got a Pocket Beagle running 4.9.83-ti-r104. I would like to change the kernel configuration to include support for the Realtek RTL8821AE WiFi. I see the option in the Network Device Support section of the kernel config menu, but I am not able to compile the kernel using the normal Debian steps.

Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to compile the kernel from the headers after changing the kernel configuration?

Thanks,

Joe

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I would suggest cloning https://github.com/RobertCNelson/bb-kernel/tree/am33x-v4.9 and running the ./build_kernel.sh script.

@Jason_Kridner @Robert_Nelson : any other suggestions?

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git clone https://github.com/beagleboard/linux
git checkout 4.9
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=- bb.org_defconfig
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE= -j8

I’ve forgotten the Debian packaging foo, but shouldn’t be far. See http://bbb.io/linux… I need to update that one.
https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/4.9

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Thank you for responding! Robert Nelson himself suggested his script - and boy does it ever work! Very nicely done - saved me days of getting up to speed!

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The recompile is still going - I guess it is going to take a few hours!

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Ugh! It ran out of space last night. I expanded the file system just now and start it over…

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don’t want to cross compile? to build modules, you only need headers.

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Thanks Jason! Actually, this is good - I want to know how to rebuild the kernel so I can tinker it with later. Is there a tutorial somewhere on building modules just using the headers?

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http://bbb.io/linux has a bit on new modules, but the write-up is old. Building modules in the kernel tree is a bit similar. I did this recently for editing a SPI display driver. Here’s the gist: https://gist.github.com/jadonk/837bca668111a8f39bf06e1a2c274158http://bbb.io/linux

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I’ve compiled and installed modules using RedHat - perhaps debian is similar …

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Reporting back - I ran yakbuild on the pocket beagle - it took 15 hours, and it worked. I was able to use the install_kernel script in the tools directory to install the kernel. Enabling the driver I thought was did not work with my device. Then I used “rebuild_kernel” to enable some others, which only took a few minutes to run, and it still didn’t work.

I am currently running yakbuild on my desktop RedHat system - it is cross-compiling the kernel much, much faster, obviously. I assume I can use the same tools to install it on the pocket beagle, if I copy over the deployment files. I have a source driver I will try adding compiling and installing.

In the mean time, I bought a BeagleBone wireless to try, so I will be able to move forward with that while I work on getting the pocket beagle to work with a wifi adapter.

Thanks again to everyone - especially Robert Nelson! yakbuild is very nice!