Comments on: How to: Compile Linux kernel modules

By: Arnab Chakraborty

Arnab Chakraborty — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:07:47 +0000

Hi,

I found the article very helpful. Unlike many other linux tutorials, this one worked (with me) within the first few attempts! Just one minor point:

I had to change
tail -f /var/log/message
to
tail -f /var/log/messages

Arnab.

By: abhi

abhi — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:03:47 +0000

Thanks a lot. Found this article v. useful

By: Alok

Alok — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:41:09 +0000

Hi
I have tried load module when Linux system comes up but it’s not displaying in
#cat /proc/modules
I have done these things successfully.
# mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hello
# cp hello.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/hello/
# vi /etc/modules

and Added “hello” word in next line.
any suggestion would be welcome

with regards
Alok

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:24:39 +0000

Thanks, this ended a few hours of frustration.

By: blaine

blaine — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:30:28 +0000

Thank you for posting this. It is very hard to figure out how to just make a single module manually. This post should be ranked higher when searching “How to compile a single kernel module”. Self fulfilling prophecy, perhaps?

By: shreyas karmahe

shreyas karmahe — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:42:35 +0000

hi,
could u please tell me how can i install the kernel updates as I despirately need linux source code.

By: reveil

reveil — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:53:29 +0000

Be sure you have tabs instead of spaces in the Makefile. Obvious and common mistake but took me a few minutes to figure this out after copy-pasting.

By: tonychen123@qq.com

tonychen123@qq.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:25:32 +0000

Hey, check that you makefile if you make a mistake with “obj-m” with “obj_m”, I have the same problem as you do.
When I write “obj-m” instead of “obj_m”, everything goes good.

By: Victor

Victor — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:36:52 +0000

Hi,

I’m trying to compile your hello.c module in a Fedora Core 9 with a 2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686 kernel. My gcc compiler is 4.3.0 20080428 (Red Hat 4.3.0-8) (GCC). My kernel-devel package is installed with my current kernel version.

When I try to compile I get the following:

root@leela:[~/pruebas-modulos]$ make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686/build M=/root/pruebas-modulos modules
make[1]: se ingresa al directorio `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686′
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST 0 modules
make[1]: se sale del directorio `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686′

root@leela:[~/pruebas-modulos]$ ls
hello.c hello.o Makefile Module.markers modules.order Module.symvers
root@leela:[~/pruebas-modulos]$

As you can see I do not obtain the .ko file. I have searched across the web in order to understand why I am not getting my .ko file, but I am not able to find anything useful. I would appreciate if you could help me to find why the makefile is not working

Thanks in advance,
Víctor.

By: scrat

scrat — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:25:03 +0000

Oh, big thanks, source of Makefile is very helpful.

By: kernelmodule

kernelmodule — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:48:13 +0000

After executing the insmod the message is not being displayed…Can u pls guide me on whats goin wrong?

By: mix

mix — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:53:17 +0000

The reason that make: Nothing to be done for ‘all’ is you should modify the Makefile, replace the space in each make command with tab.

By: mangesh

mangesh — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:49:16 +0000

how do I cross compile a module using kbuild. Please help

By: touristguy87

touristguy87 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:56:33 +0000

ok I got it somehow, honestly I am not sure how but I patched my install (now running kernel-headers 2.6.24-21 generic) and rebooted, sudo -i, just tried running make and it worked.

before I was getting “can’t find target ‘make’ error that seems so common. It now is working!!!

By: touristguy87

touristguy87 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:19:36 +0000

I followed the instructions as written even copying and pasting the code, I got nada.

I was able to install the headers using
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

then I copied and pasted the hello.c text and the Makefile from this page but I got nothing.
make: Nothing to be done for ‘all’.

I must be missing something

this is in Ubuntu 8.04

By: Mohammad

Mohammad — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:21:17 +0000

Dear Vivek ,
Thanks alots for yr teaching.
i compile a new module on fedora core 6 and make it very good. but in fedora i dont know how to submit for when linux start up , can load automaticly. i didnot find /etc/modules in fedora.

By: john

john — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:27:09 +0000

how to cross compile lkm for arm?

By: Nitin

Nitin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:22:57 +0000

Hi, This was very much helpful but now I’m stuck because i didn’t understand how this particular makefile is working, so i’m not able to write it for multiple files. Please could anyone explain how this makefile works with a example for multiple files.
Thanks,
Nitin.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:56:01 +0000

Hi swift, I guess u have not created Makefile in ur present directory, plz make sure that makefile name is correct and its case sensitive, it should be ‘Makefile’.

By: shan

shan — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:23:59 +0000

dis s wat i encountered wen using

CHK include/linux/version.h
CHK include/linux/utsrelease.h
HOSTCC scripts/basic/fixdep
In file included from /usr/include/bits/posix1_lim.h:153,
from /usr/include/limits.h:145,
from /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include/limits.h:122,
from /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include/syslimits.h:7,
from /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include/limits.h:11,
from scripts/basic/fixdep.c:113:
/usr/include/bits/local_lim.h:36:26: error: linux/limits.h: No such file or directory
In file included from /usr/include/sys/socket.h:35,
from /usr/include/netinet/in.h:24,
from /usr/include/arpa/inet.h:23,
from scripts/basic/fixdep.c:115:
/usr/include/bits/socket.h:310:24: error: asm/socket.h: No such file or directory
scripts/basic/fixdep.c: In function ‘use_config’:
scripts/basic/fixdep.c:204: error: ‘PATH_MAX’ undeclared (first use in this function)
scripts/basic/fixdep.c:204: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
scripts/basic/fixdep.c:204: error: for each function it appears in.)
scripts/basic/fixdep.c:204: warning: unused variable ‘s’
scripts/basic/fixdep.c: In function ‘parse_dep_file’:
scripts/basic/fixdep.c:300: error: ‘PATH_MAX’ undeclared (first use in this function)
scripts/basic/fixdep.c:300: warning: unused variable ‘s’
make[1]: *** [scripts/basic/fixdep] Error 1
make: *** [scripts_basic] Error 2