Salix Forums

Hi,
I'm sure this was already posted but I couldn't find any relevant thread.

Installed Salix 13.0.2a iso and, after trying to install virtualbox's guest additions, I got on the log file as for the reason to the failure:

Makefile:23: *** Error: unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again.. Stop.

On debians I usually install a package called build-essential and the linux headers.

Can anyone help me with this?

Regards,

Mean

Upstream Slackware kernel headers are "incomplete" to a certain degree, which doesn't allow to build VBox drivers and similiar just with them. You need to pull the complete kernel source tree used to build the Slackware/Salix kernel by installing the kernel-source package.

Hi, thanks for your feedback.

There is a problem with the installation of the kernel sources available: they are not installable.
There are two referred in Gslapt:

1. kernel-source 2.6.29.6_smp-noarch-2

b]Status: excluded[/b]

Description:
kernel-source (Linux kernel source)
Source code for Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel.
This is the complete source code for the Linux kernel.
This kernel has been patched to fix a null dereference bug in
net/socket.c (CVE-2009-2692).

2. kernel-source 2.6.29.6_smp-noarch-3
Status: excluded
Descritption:
kernel-source (Linux kernel source)
Source code for Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel.
This is the complete source code for the Linux kernel.
This kernel has been patched to fix:
Null dereference bug in net/socket.c (CVE-2009-2692).
Null dereference bug in net/ipv4/ip_fragment.c (CVE-2009-1298).

As a newbie I do not understand almost anything but it seems they are already installed.

Any more clue?

Regards,

Mean

By default Gslapt is set up to exclude certain certain packages from being installed/upgraded. These certain packages, which include the kernel packages, are critical to the functioning of the operating system so it is necessary that the user is aware of the implications of what he/she is doing when upgrading these packages. Using Gslapt it would be all too easy to unintentionally upgrade these packages along with a bunch of other upgrades and not happen to notice, and potentially end up with a system that won't boot or some other problem, which I think (someone correct me if I am wrong!) is why they are in the exclude list.

You can remove the various packages from the exclude list in the preferences, in Gslapt go to Edit/Preferences and click on the Excludes tab and you'll see the list of excluded packages. I would leave them as they are however, at least until you're more comfortable with how everything works. You'll probably find you don't need to do anything with them at all.

To obtain the kernel source or upgrade excluded packages without going through Gslapt you can use slapt-get via the command line.

EDIT: See the handy wiki link provided by Gapan below, along with a much less long-winded, to the point discussion of the issues!

Thanks. Things have worked pretty fine.

maximus wrote:a much less long-winded, to the point discussion of the issues!

maximus, true... but the point you raised explaining *why* the kernel is on the blacklist will be useful to some newcomers nonetheless.