[ipxe-devel] FTBFS config/local/colour.h: No such file or directory

[Geert Stappers]

On Sun, Apr 19, 2026 at 07:20:28AM +0000, Geert Stappers via ipxe-devel wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 19, 2026 at 07:12:00AM +0000, Geert Stappers via ipxe-devel wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Reporting a  fails to build from source  error

Which is hard to reproduce.


> > 
> > 22:00 -!- rustyaxe [**redacted**] has joined #ipxe
> > 22:01 < rustyaxe> Just pulled git and hitting In file included from
> >   core/ansicol.c:32: ./config/colour.h:36:10: fatal error:
> >   config/local/colour.h: No such file or directory
> > Day changed to 19 apr 2026
> > 07:09  * stappers thinks: Most likely that rustyaxe meanwhile found what
> >   to do in addition to `git clone $URL`, `cd ipxe/src` and`make`.
> > 07:37 < rustyaxe> stappers: for now just touch'd the file and it seems
> >   to build, but wont be able to test if its actually usable til
> >   tomorrow. never had to fool with that before
> > 08:27 < stappers> Returning to the good habit of reading documentation
> >   is a way to avoid  "had to fool with	...."
> > 08:31 < rustyaxe> https://ipxe.org/download - the documentation there
> >   seems the same as last time i built ipxe a long time ago.
> > 08:32  * stappers tries to reproduce
> > 08:34 < rustyaxe> looks like just a new include maybe got missed in a
> >   checkin but havent dug into it much. it built after just touching it
> >   so seems theres defaults for whatever would have been defined in there
> > 08:35 < stappers> fatal: destination path 'ipxe' already exists and is
> >   not an empty directory.
> > 08:35  * stappers contineus to try to reproduce
> > 08:36 < stappers> Before I forget: rustyaxe: Thanks for reporting
> > 08:36 < rustyaxe> yw, looks like a lot of new features since i last
> >   rebuilt the pxe environment here
> > 08:37 < rustyaxe> just did git clone ...; cd ipxe/src; make
> > 08:38 < stappers> % ls -l config/local/colour.h
> > 08:38 < stappers> -rw-r--r-- 1 stappers stappers 0  4 jul  2019 config/local/colour.h
> > 08:39 < stappers> % mv config/local/colour.h{,.not_now}
> > 08:43 < stappers>   ....
> > 08:43 < stappers>   [FINISH] bin/ipxe.lkrn
> > 08:43 < stappers>   [GENFSIMG] bin/ipxe.iso
> > 08:43 < stappers> util/genfsimg: could not find isolinux.bin
> > 08:43 < stappers> make: *** [arch/x86/Makefile.pcbios:68: bin/ipxe.iso] Error 1
> > 08:44 < stappers> That is a different error
> > 08:49  * stappers reports the rusty axe error to the iPXE mailinglist
> 
> 08:52 < rustyaxe> that means you dont have isolinux (from syslinux)
>   installed -- which seems to fwiw result (on debian) in a nonbootable
>   iso. i dont care about the iso
> 08:53 < rustyaxe> The bin/ipxe.pxe exists, working on putting it somewhere
>   i can test it for functionality now
> 08:54 < rustyaxe> usually i just let it build the iso and ignore it,
>   since i only need the .pxe image
> 08:55 < rustyaxe> i tried the .iso in proxmox, isolinux starts, fails
>   at i think it was ldlinux.c32 not found -- i dont mind to test further
>   if its helpful. on debian trixie
> 08:57 < rustyaxe> yea failed to load ldlinux.c32
> 09:12 < stappers> https://lists.ipxe.org/pipermail/ipxe-devel/2026-April/thread.html
> 09:15  * stappers continues his sunday morning
> 

09:26 < rustyaxe> the resulting ipxe.pxe works just fine, for what
  its worth. dropped it in and all's well. Just not sure where that
  local/colour.h should come from. if anyone has any questions or
  anything, ill idle here sometime
09:26 < rustyaxe> thanks stappers have a good sunday,
  its sleep time for me!
10:12 < stappers> 08:38 < stappers> -rw-r--r-- 1 stappers stappers 0  4 jul  2019 config/local/colour.h
10:13 < stappers> It says mine config/local/colour.h has file size of
  zero bytes
11:53 < NiKiZe> rustyaxe: all config/local/*.h are touched automatically
  by Make if it determines that they are needed...
11:54 < NiKiZe> However, in some rare cases there is a race, where
  (probably a timestamp) does not match, and Make don't think the touch
  is needed.
11:54 < NiKiZe> You can almost never reproduce this if you
  make a new clean checkout.
13:28 < stappers> % ls -l src/config/local/colour.h
13:28 < stappers> -rw-r--r-- 1 stappers stappers 0 19 apr 08:40 src/config/local/colour.h
13:29 < stappers> that timestamp is from my `make`
13:30 < stappers> NiKiZe++  for "all config/local/*.h are touched automatically by Make"


Why the result of `touch` for rusty axe was not present, is unknown.




Groeten
Geert Stappers
-- 
Silence is hard to parse