Re: [PATCH v5 4/8] scripts/make_fit: Provide a way to add built modules

Hi Ahmad,

On Sat, 15 Nov 2025 at 07:39, Ahmad Fatoum [off-list ref] wrote:

Hello Simon,

On 14.11.25 15:27, Simon Glass wrote:

quoted

Provide arguments to support building a ramdisk from a directory tree of
modules. This is a convenient way to try out a kernel with its modules.

This makes use of the cpio tool rather than attempting to use a python
module or our own code. The list of modules is provided in a file.

Signed-off-by: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Nicolas Schier <nsc@kernel.org>
Suggested-by: Ahmad Fatoum <a.fatoum@pengutronix.de>

Thanks for taking up the suggestion! I just Cc'd you on a patch that
generates a CPIO with the modules directly as a make target.

I'd prefer going down that route instead as to reuse as much existing code
as possible.

Maybe this even covers Thomas' use case from the other thread?

From my testing, FIT_MODULES=1 this seems to require that
modules_install be done first. But my existing approach builds a FIT
without needing to do the install step.

Just adding the dependency, like this:

image.fit: $(if $(FIT_MODULES),cpio-modules-pkg)

results in:

time ARCH=arm64
CROSS_COMPILE=/home/sglass/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-13.1.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-
make O=/tmp/kern -j30 image.fit FIT_MODULES=1 -s
fixdep: error opening file: init/.main.o.d: No such file or directory
make[4]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/scripts/Makefile.build:287:
init/main.o] Error 2
make[4]: *** Deleting file 'init/main.o'
make[4]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[3]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/scripts/Makefile.build:556: init] Error 2
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
/home/sglass/.buildman-toolchains/gcc-13.1.0-nolibc/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-ar:
init/main.o: No such file or directory
make[6]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/scripts/Makefile.build:473:
init/built-in.a] Error 123
make[5]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/scripts/Makefile.build:556: init] Error 2
make[4]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/Makefile:2017: .] Error 2
make[3]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/scripts/Makefile.package:193:
modules-install] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/scratch/sglass/linux/Makefile:1647: cpio-modules-pkg] Error 2
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

Makefile has the ability to sequence things, but in this case we are
effectively adding a target within the Makefile.

What do you suggest?

[..]

Regards,
Simon