# Kernel 4.8.4 and error while make menuconfig.

## mkp

Hi,

I have a Gentoo box and i want to install new kernel. Now i use 3.6 and i want to upgrade to 4.8 but i receive error:

make[1]: *** virtual memory exhausted.  Stop.

make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2

The machine is a VM Player with 3gb memory and 4gb swap file. I tried kernel 3.19 but the error is: 

scripts/Makefile.host:119: *** missing separator.  Stop.

make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2

What can i search for? How to resolve the problem?

Thanks.

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## eccerr0r

Well, the first thing to check is if you're really out of memory or not?

Run 'free' and see how much memory you have left.

If you truly did run out of memory, it could cause both of these issues.  Might need to look a few lines upwards on the 3.19 case, the OOM error may have shown up earlier and caused that later error.

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## mkp

total         used            free     shared    buffers     cached

Mem:       3131308    1432980    1698328          0     583128      30204

-/+ buffers/cache:     819648     2311660

Swap:      3999996          0        3999996

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## wrc1944

Look at the size of /var/tmp/portage.  It might be huge if you've never checked it and cleaned it out.

If it is, do:

```
rm -rfv /var/tmp/portage/*
```

If you are using up all your RAM, you'd be going into swap conditions all the time. Not an optimal condition.

In any case, 3gb RAM memory and 4gb swap file are not enough to do very much of anything.

Another option is to weed out anything in your kernel config file you don't need for your specific hardware. 

No use in compiling hundreds of items you never have use for.

Also, clean out your distfiles cache with eclean. (read up on it first- you want to set the right flags so as not to remove sources for currently installed files in case you need a reinstall).

Or better yet, put the distfiles directory on another partition and point to it in your make.conf file.

Check the size of log files- they can get huge over time if you don't use any automatic log size management method.

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## eccerr0r

something weird going on. I readily can build kernels with 2GB RAM, and less.

If OP was using tmpfs, the utilization should show up in the buffers memory and should show with less memory free.  There's 1.4GB free right now and no swap is being used.  Ideally should run the 'free' command after the make fails just so that we have a proper picture.  What is running on the computer at the same time?  Browsing with firefox? DE loaded?

Other than that, perhaps an old buggy gcc?  doubt it, but it's a possibility.

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## Ant P.

Been messing with ulimits or vm.overcommit_memory?

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