Re: Question on CVE-2017-5754 on Debian 8.9

Not sure, but didn't you want the very latest 4.15rc for some
Meltdown/Spectre issues? Are these also in 4.14.15?

I copied the config file from the boot directory for the current 4.15.0 rc8 kernel as .config.

I then ran make menuconfig and then realised I didn't need to change anything and exited.

I didn't run your

yes ""| make oldconfig thing - it seemed a bit peculiar to me.

Maybe I should have.

Instead I ran the command recommended here:

https://wiki.debian.org/BuildADebianKernelPackage

which was

make ARCH=i386 defconfig

I then ran
make-kpkg

and it then asked me lots of questions concerning kernel options that I had to answer interactively.

I think I should have tried your funny quotation pipe command with the oldconfig option - it would have been better.

Here is some of the output before it crashed:

kexec system call (KEXEC) [Y/n/?] y
kexec file based system call (KEXEC_FILE) [N/y/?] n
kernel crash dumps (CRASH_DUMP) [Y/n/?] y
kexec jump (KEXEC_JUMP) [N/y/?] n
Physical address where the kernel is loaded (PHYSICAL_START) [0x1000000] 0x1000000
Build a relocatable kernel (RELOCATABLE) [Y/n/?] y
Randomize the address of the kernel image (KASLR) (RANDOMIZE_BASE) [Y/n/?] y
Alignment value to which kernel should be aligned (PHYSICAL_ALIGN) [0x200000] 0x200000
Randomize the kernel memory sections (RANDOMIZE_MEMORY) [Y/n/?] y
Support for hot-pluggable CPUs (HOTPLUG_CPU) [Y/?] y
Set default setting of cpu0_hotpluggable (BOOTPARAM_HOTPLUG_CPU0) [N/y/?] n
Debug CPU0 hotplug (DEBUG_HOTPLUG_CPU0) [N/y/?] n
vsyscall table for legacy applications
1. Native (LEGACY_VSYSCALL_NATIVE)
> 2. Emulate (LEGACY_VSYSCALL_EMULATE)
3. None (LEGACY_VSYSCALL_NONE)
choice[1-3?]: 2
Built-in kernel command line (CMDLINE_BOOL) [N/y/?] n
#
# configuration written to .config
#
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.14.15'
make \
ARCH=x86_64 dep
make[2]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-4.14.15'
Makefile:942: *** "Cannot generate ORC metadata for CONFIG_UNWINDER_ORC=y, please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel". Stop.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.14.15'
debian/ruleset/targets/common.mk:194: recipe for target 'debian/stamp/conf/kernel-conf' failed
make[1]: *** [debian/stamp/conf/kernel-conf] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-4.14.15'
/usr/share/kernel-package/ruleset/minimal.mk:93: recipe for target 'debian/stamp/conf/minimal_debian' failed
make: *** [debian/stamp/conf/minimal_debian] Error 2
Failed to create a ./debian directory: at /usr/bin/make-kpkg line 970.
root@mikef-PC:/usr/src/linux-4.14.15#

It has written things to the config file so I think I might be wise to delete it, copy it over again

and repeat everything with the Shakespearian pipe command next time.

Suggestions on recovering gracefully here are welcome.

Regards

.-.. .. ...- . .-.. --- -. --. .- -. -.. .--. .-. --- ... .--. . .-.

It would be illogical to assume that all conditions remain stable.
-- Spock, "The Enterprise Incident", stardate 5027.3