Syslinux - Nov 2008 - Issues compiling syslinux-3.72 on Linux 2.6.25(.19)

Howdy.

I'm one of the maintainers of Astlinux (www.astlinux.org).  We're 
updating the kernel from 2.6.20, to 2.6.25 (.19), and as such, some 
packages that previously compiled stopped doing so.

We also went from syslinux-3.63 to syslinux-3.72, hoping that a newer 
version would be more amenable to a more recent kernel.

No joy.

We're cross-compiling on FC8 (updated) on an i386 platform, as we had 
been for months.

Now we see:

...
make[2]: Entering directory
`/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/syslinux-3.72/linux'
/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/staging_dir/bin/i586-linux-uclibc-gcc
-Wp,-MT,syslinux.o,-MMD,.syslinux.o.d -W -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g -Os -I.
-I.. -I../libinstaller -c -o syslinux.o syslinux.c
/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/staging_dir/bin/i586-linux-uclibc-gcc
-Wp,-MT,syslxmod.o,-MMD,.syslxmod.o.d -W -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g -Os -I.
-I.. -I../libinstaller -c -o syslxmod.o ../libinstaller/syslxmod.c
/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/staging_dir/bin/i586-linux-uclibc-gcc
-Wp,-MT,bootsect_bin.o,-MMD,.bootsect_bin.o.d -W -Wall -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -g
-Os -I. -I.. -I../libinstaller -c -o bootsect_bin.o
../libinstaller/bootsect_bin.c
In file included from syslinux.c:52:
/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/staging_dir/bin-ccache/../lib/gcc/i586-linux-uclibc/4.1.2/../../../../i586-linux-uclibc/sys-include/linux/msdos_fs.h:61:
error: expected ')' before 'media'
make[2]: *** [syslinux.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[2]: Leaving directory
`/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/syslinux-3.72/linux'
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/syslinux-3.72'
make: *** [/home/philipp/kernel/build_i586/syslinux-3.72/isolinux.bin] Error 2
# 



Oddly, the line:

static inline int fat_valid_media(u8 media)


is also the same that causes dosfstools to not compile... so this might 
be an issue with kernel header changes... but we were hoping someone had 
come up with a patch for this.

Any assistance is appreciated.

Thanks,

-Philip

Philip Prindeville wrote:
> 
> Oddly, the line:
> 
> static inline int fat_valid_media(u8 media)
> 
> 
> is also the same that causes dosfstools to not compile... so this might 
> be an issue with kernel header changes... but we were hoping someone had 
> come up with a patch for this.
> 
> Any assistance is appreciated.
> 
You have broken kernel headers; they have since been fixed.

You can simply remove the fat_valid_media() definition; it should never
have been exported to userspace.

	-hpa