I config some options in the manuconfig and then type make command to recompile but it show this error:

make[1]: *** No rule to make target `init/main.o', needed by `init/built-in.o'. Stop.
make: *** [init] Error 2

please help me to slove this problem
Thank you so much!!

Where are you issuing this "make" command?
Which kernel is this? (output of uname -r is nice)
Which distro is this?
(You can display your distro under your name by editing your profile.)

Anyway - at a first guess I'd say you were using the makefile in the headers directory instead of the one in the kernel source directory.

my distro is 4.3
kenel: 2.6.9-34.EL
I type the make command when I lie in /usr/src/kernel/2.6.9-34.EL dir.
But the error still show in screen.
Please, hepl me!

No it isn't. Distros have a name, as well as a number: like "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4" or "Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake)". Perhaps this is "CentOS 4.3" or "RHEL4 AS"?

Show me the content of the directory: I don't think this directory is where your kernel source lives. i.e. Centos puts the development headers here and not the source code.

tip: gconfig or xconfig are easier to use than menuconfig.
http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1110

I normally make in /usr/src/linux

I'm using mandriva, but I noticed the same dir used with fedora and red hat.

The more info you give the more help you may get.

the dir "linux" is a link to the source tree.

So, you don't actually work in the source directory but in a sym-link to it.

I think it must be safer to do so, for the kernels sake, rather than risking making a mess of the source tree.

A bit like dynamically reading and writing to the same file at the same time, rather than editing a copy of the file in memory, then saving it.

Odd - in my installation of FC4, I had to run make in /usr/src/linux/<kernel-version>/ ... otherwise, how would it know which kernel to be making? And it weren't a link neither. Same with Ubuntu. But FC5, I understand, requires make to be run in /usr/src/linux/<kernel ver>/BUILD or something like that, and CentOS is like that too.

Did you follow that link in my last post?

Yes I did read that post, But I still only referenced my own experience.

Sorry about that. I'm still learning too.

The symlink I mentioned is usually pointed at the last installed kernel-source, if installed from a rpm file.

Otherwise you would normaly run a ln command to do it, if from a tar ball.

I have little other advice at this stage, except, if there is a readme in the kernel-source directory, what does it say?

Hope you find a solution soon.

funnybossvn: how you getting on? (No rush - it's only been three days... and I probably get the next day ahead of you anyway.)