[vbox-dev] Difficulties with building VirtualBox 4.3.18 for Linux

[Klaus Espenlaub]

Markus,

On 07.11.2014 13:42, Markus Elfring wrote:
> Hello,
>
> It seems that I can not log into my account for the bug tracker again so far.
> https://www.virtualbox.org/query?reporter=elfring

You need an Oracle Single Sign On account associated with this nickname. 
We can help with the latter, but the former is something we can't influence.

> So I try to clarify the following issues by the means of this mailing list.
> I stumbled on these surprises during a build try on my openSUSE system.

Strange. I'm sure that lots of people already managed to build 
VirtualBox for OpenSUSE.

> 1. Would it help to mention the kBuild software also as a prerequisite?
>     https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux%20build%20instructions
>     http://trac.netlabs.org/kbuild/timeline

Why should we? If one checks out the source repo one will get kBuild 
automatically, and it is also part of the tarballs. If you use this 
kBuild version you won't have build trouble.

> 2. Config.kmk:
> 2.1 A version check is performed in this make file.
>      Which script should be responsible for setting the variable
>      "KMK_REVISION" appropriately?

This is done by kmk/kBuild automatically. If you run the right thing it 
will just work (tm).

> 2.2 More settings are expected to be passed from variables in the
>      environment configuration.

Not sure what you're talking about.

> 2.3 How should the command "include $(PATH_OUT)/DynamicConfig.kmk"
>      be resolved?

There's a target generating this in Config.kmk. Should be nothing to 
worry about.

> 2.4 Is an out-of-source build approach supported?

Of course. It seems that you're fighting the build system instead of 
using it.

> 3. env.sh:
>     Some environment variables are set by this script. Will they only work
>     as expected in the corresponding make files if names will be used there
>     with a leading "K"?	

Don't follow what you're after... if you follow the build instructions 
there should be no need to worry about these details.

The generic build instructions for Linux (not distro specific) are at 
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux%20build%20instructions

If you want to create straight an RPM package, try
$ cd src/VBox/Installer/linux
$ rpm/rules binary

See rpm/rules for additional tweaks if you have very specific requirements.

Klaus
>
> Regards,
> Markus