Thank you Ian, Hit exactly the right spot. I went with
'write the "-armmp" string (without the quotes this time) to a file called "localversion" at the root of your kernel source tree.' and then 'make -j 4 ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- bindeb-pkg' Although it did not do a total rebuild, I think it rebuilt every loadable module (kind of expected if they will check kernel version....). So, after a further 4 hours compile, and a 'dpkg -i linux-image-4.8.7-armmp_4.8.7-armmp-3_armhf.deb' I now have on the device: ===================================== Debian GNU/Linux stretch/sid debian ttyS0 debian login: debian Password: Last login: Mon Dec 19 16:27:02 GMT 2016 from 192.168.1.180 on pts/0 Linux debian 4.8.7-armmp #0 SMP Sat Dec 17 20:50:54 GMT 2016 armv7l The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. debian@debian:~$ uname -r 4.8.7-armmp debian@debian:~$ =================================================== A very happy man :). I will try to document a little somewhere on a wiki (probably sunxi) with lots of googleable terms the basic steps I took; it's so good to be able to have a mainline OS on what I have considered to be a dead-duck device sitting on my desk (or in my robot, as appropriate). thanks again, Simon On Mon, Dec 19, 2016 at 10:26 AM, Ian Campbell <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, 2016-12-19 at 09:09 +0000, Simon H wrote: >> However, when using >> 'dpkg -i linux-image-4.8.7_4.8.7-1_armhf.deb' >> to install the kernel, the device complains: >> >> "Kernel /boot/vmlinuz-4.8.7 does not match any of the expected >> flavors >> (armmp), therefore not writing it to flash" > > Historically there were several kernel flavours on armhf which would > only boot on their particular hardware flavour and often a tricky > recovery procedure (i.e. involve special cables not everyone has etc) > if you load a bad kernel, so flash-kernel is quite careful/fussy and > checks the flavour which is part of the "uname" string (i.e. "4.8.7" in > your case or "3.16.0-4-armmp" for an official kernel image). It's of > less utility on armmp now that we have consolidated to the single armmp > flavour, we do still have the -lpae subflavour which needs to be > avoided on non-capable hardware so the checks aren't completely useless > on armhf stil. > > I'm not sure if there is a way to say "don't worry about the suffix" it > might be sufficient to edit /etc/flash-kernel/db to add an override > stanza for your machine: > Machine: <contents of your /proc/device-tree/model> > Kernel-Flavors: > i.e. an empty "Kernel-Flavours", or maybe > Machine: <contents of your /proc/device-tree/model> > Kernel-Flavors: "" > i.e. with an explicitly empty string. > > If neither of those works then the easiest solution IMHO (and what I've > always done IIRC, it's been a while since I needed to though) is to set > CONFIG_LOCALVERSION="-armmp" > in your kernel .config or, equivalently, to write the "-armmp" string > (without the quotes this time) to a file called "localversion" at the > root of your kernel source tree. Rebuilding after such a change > should(*) only rebuild a handful of files so it should be reasonably > quick. > > HTH, > Ian. > >> p.s. I did do a kernel compile on the device; after 4 days it >> completed, but i had not packaged it. So I ran make deb-pkg, and it >> cleaned my build - bahh!!! > > (*) Given this p.s. I'm not so sure of that anymore though :-/ >
