Executing order of "make defconfig; make kernel_menuconfig; make menuconfig"

For Developers
1

Hi, I'm a fresh bird with OpenWRT.

I'm learnning to build my customized image from the source.

But I don't know the correct executing order of these three steps at very first of the building process:

  • make defconfig
    Is this to generate a default .config file at the building root folder? But how does the make-scripts know which target/platform/device I'm expecting?

  • make kernel_menuconfig
    Is this to generate a kernel config file at target/linux/<platform>/<device> directory? and whether or not it will change the .config at top most of source tree at same time?

  • make menuconfig
    Should this step be done before or after make defconfig? Why did I see "before" in some docs? If "before" is right, does make defconfig make any sense?

Thanks! Pls forgive my poor English!

2

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/toolchain/use-buildsystem ?

1 Like
3

Follow @frolic 's link or you can also follow this link that lists almost every link you will need in one spot: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/toolchain/start

Make sure you have your buildroot setup properly with all required dependancies.

I would strongly recommend you make a first build using just a basic build for your device if you have never built from source. If this is your case, you probably will NOT need make kernel_menuconfig at this point, so I will not refer to it now.

Yes. You will need to generate a .config. After cloning the OpenWrt source you need to setup your Target/Platform/Device. (you can also use a config.buildinfo file - see the wiki)

make nconfig/menuconfig	# enter your Target
						# and SubTarget
						# and Target Profile
						# escape out of nconfig/menuconfig and save your changes
./scripts/diffconfig.sh > configdiff	# create configdiff from created .config
cp configdiff .config	# and copy to .config
make defconfig			# make a default config for the selected Target/Release

# I would suggest copying the .config as a backup.

# This should create a default .config for your Target device.

Once you have a good build that you are happy with, you should also update your current .config to reflect it's current state before you run your next build.

./scripts/diffconfig.sh > configdiff	# create configdiff from latest .config`
cp configdiff .config					# and copy to .config
make defconfig
3 Likes