I know I am a bit late on this but I recently had my own issues trying to compile the kernel for the vortex86dx. I finally was able to build the kernel as well. Use these steps at your own risk as I am not a Linux guru and some settings you may have to change to your own preference/hardware:
- Download and use a Linux distribution that runs on a similar kernel version that you plan on compiling. Since I will be compiling Linux 2.6.34.14, I downloaded and installed Debian 6 on virtual box with adequate ram and processor allocations. You could potentially compile on the Vortex86DX itself, but that would likely take forever.
- Made sure I hade decencies:
#apt-get install ncurses-dev kernel-package
- Download kernel from kernel.org (I grabbed Linux-2.6.34.14.tar.xz). Extract files from package.
- Grab Config file from dmp ftp site: ftp://vxmx:gc301@ftp.dmp.com.tw/Linux/Source/config-2.6.34-vortex86-sg-r1.zip. Please note vxmx user name. Copy the config file to freshly extracted Linux source folder.
- Grab Patch and at ftp://vxdx:gc301@ftp.dmp.com.tw/Driver/Linux/config%26patch/patch-2.6.34-hda.zip. Please note vxdx user name. Copy to kernel source folder.
- Patch Kernel:
#patch -p1 < patchfilename
- configure kernel with
#make menuconfig
- Load Alternate Configuration File
- Enable generic x86 support
- Enable Math Emulation
- I disabled generic IDE support because I will using legacy mode(selectable in bios)
- Under Device Drivers -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) -> Make sure RDC R6040 Fast Ethernet Adapter Support is selected
- USB support -> Select Support for Host-side USB, EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support, OHCI HCD support
- safe config as .config
- check serial ports: edit .config manually make sure CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS = 4 (or more if you have additional), CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS = 4(or more if you have additional). If you are to use more that 4 serial ports make use config_serail_8250_MANY_PORTs is set.
- compile kernel headers and source:
#make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image kernel_source kernel_headers modules_image