Compiling kernel stuck at config

Guddler

Hello. I'm pretty sure I just need a memory jogger here because I know I did this 6 months ago!

I'm trying to compile "linux-current". Why? Because I want a kernel that has "PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY=y" rather than "PREEMPT=y". Initially I need to just test it again, but from my experience 6 months ago this change makes a VM with VFIO and GPU Passthrough boot in seconds rather than a minute or more. I can't just say "Hey guys, any chance you could change this parameter in the default kernel please?" because I have absolutely no clue what it actually does or what consequence it might have (hence I need to test it again).

I'm using Solbuild. I think I've initialised it properly. Then I've edited 'files/config' in the kernel source but the build still pauses and asks me to confirm the value that I'd like for Preemption Model and even after I enter my choice it never continues. I've left it an hour or more but I'm sure it's not doing anything.

Here is my console output up to and including when I eventually hit CTRL-C (obviously it's not the whole thing, I can post more if needed)

+ make -j8 ARCH=x86_64 oldconfig
  HOSTCC  scripts/basic/fixdep
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/conf.o
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/confdata.o
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/expr.o
  LEX     scripts/kconfig/lexer.lex.c
  YACC    scripts/kconfig/parser.tab.[ch]
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/preprocess.o
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/symbol.o
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/util.o
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/lexer.lex.o
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/parser.tab.o
  HOSTLD  scripts/kconfig/conf
scripts/kconfig/conf  --oldconfig Kconfig
*
* Restart config...
*
*
* General setup
*
Compile also drivers which will not load (COMPILE_TEST) [N/y/?] n
Local version - append to kernel release (LOCALVERSION) [] 
Automatically append version information to the version string (LOCALVERSION_AUTO) [N/y/?] n
Build ID Salt (BUILD_SALT) [n] n
Kernel compression mode
  1. Gzip (KERNEL_GZIP)
  2. Bzip2 (KERNEL_BZIP2)
  3. LZMA (KERNEL_LZMA)
  4. XZ (KERNEL_XZ)
  5. LZO (KERNEL_LZO)
> 6. LZ4 (KERNEL_LZ4)
choice[1-6?]: 6
Default hostname (DEFAULT_HOSTNAME) [solus] solus
Support for paging of anonymous memory (swap) (SWAP) [Y/n/?] y
System V IPC (SYSVIPC) [Y/n/?] y
POSIX Message Queues (POSIX_MQUEUE) [Y/n/?] y
Enable process_vm_readv/writev syscalls (CROSS_MEMORY_ATTACH) [Y/n/?] y
uselib syscall (USELIB) [N/y/?] n
Auditing support (AUDIT) [Y/?] y
Preemption Model
  1. No Forced Preemption (Server) (PREEMPT_NONE)
> 2. Voluntary Kernel Preemption (Desktop) (PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY)
  3. Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop) (PREEMPT) (NEW)
choice[1-3?]: 2
^CWARN[17:05:04] CTRL+C interrupted, cleaning up              
ERRO[17:05:04] Failed to build package                       error="signal: killed"

Girtablulu

https://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/linux_kernel/kernel_configuration/re153.html

https://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/linux_kernel/kernel_configuration/re152.html

as an explanation what you trying to do

Guddler

Thats a very useful site indeed - thank you. So now I'm all the more convinced that what I'm doing isn't likely to break anything, but I still need to work out what I'm doing wrong with recompiling the kernel.

Guddler

Can nobody offer a suggestion as to what I'm doing wrong with compiling this kernel please?

kaktuspalme

Guddler If you use solbuild to build the kernel it's best if you prepare the .config outside of solbuild (download the kernel, unpack it, copy the config file, make oldconfig) and then copy the .config file back to the files folder. At least that's how I do it. But probably you try another version of the kernel. Be aware that it could break nvidia or virtualbox drivers for example.

Guddler

I'll try this - I'm not using NVidia drivers (they're blacklisted). I don't know about virtualbox but I don't think so there either.

Guddler

I gave up. It's not really worth my time. I know I've done it before but I can't remember how and I know even if I do manage to build a custom kernel and it solves my VM boot times then I'd have to battle with it every time a kernel update came out so I'll just put up with VMs taking a minute or two to boot. It's not the end of the world.