To add to this, if you're trying to compile a kernel to work for a specific platform or board and it's not working, 'make menuconfig' is your friend for taking a bare bones kernel .config and making it your own. -----Original Message----- From: linux-newbie-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-newbie-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Valdis.Kletnieks@xxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 10:28 AM To: Matthias Brugger Cc: Rajat Jain; linux-newbie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; kernelnewbies Subject: Re: x86_64_defconfig and i386_defconfig: What is the difference? On Tue, 09 Sep 2014 16:06:07 +0200, Matthias Brugger said: > > Can someone tell me if the i386 one is to be used when we want to > > build for a 32bit machine and the x86_64 is to be used for 64 bit machine? > > You can build the kernel with any architecture for any architecture. > This is called cross-compiling. The homepage [0] should explain you > how to do that. Right, but you still need to use a .config appropriate for the target machine, which is what I think Rajat was asking about. A defconfig is usually only known verified to boot on a few (possibly one) examples of that architecture hardware. For embedded ARM, it may be one specific development board or hardware device. For x86, I think they try to keep it "will probably kind of sort of boot on generic PC hardware with a common distro, but anything fancylike a webcam or better graphics than "vga tty emulation" may not work". A defconfig is pretty much just a proof of concept starting point for an actual working config for a given hardware system.
Attachment:
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature
