I was able to get past some of my earlier problems by building everything as Root. That got rid of the edit line dependency issue I faced.
It looks like the make onl-kvm target builds quite a lot of things, including 3 different toolchains for the 3 different support archs. When looking to build the SWI for KVM I'm running into this error:
root@onie:/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work# cd ONL/
root@onie:/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL# ls
builds components debian docs LICENSE make Makefile README.md submodules tools
root@onie:/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL# make onl-kvm
export ONL=`pwd` && make -C $ONL/builds/components
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/components'
All components built.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/components'
export ONL=`pwd` && make -C $ONL/builds/swi/i386/all
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm'
make -C rootfs rootfs.all
update-binfmts: warning: unable to open /proc/filesystems: No such file or directory
update-binfmts: warning: binfmt_misc module seemed to be loaded, but no /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc directory! Giving up.
GEN /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/.rootfs-i386.done
/tmp/tmp.AoUx3dm6ph
ONL=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL
/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL
Creating i386 workspace in /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386
multistrap 2.1.20 using /tmp/tmp.NTUVDH7iHL
multistrap 2.1.20 using /tmp/tmp.NTUVDH7iHL
Using foreign architecture: i386
multistrap building i386 multistrap on 'amd64'
I: Setting /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/lib64 -> /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/lib symbolic link.
Getting package lists: apt-get -o Apt::Architecture=i386 -o Dir::Etc::TrustedParts=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d -o Dir::Etc::Trusted=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/trusted.gpg -o Apt::Get::AllowUnauthenticated=true -o Apt::Get::Download-Only=true -o Apt::Install-Recommends=false -o Dir=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/ -o Dir::Etc=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/etc/apt/ -o APT::Default-Release=* -o Dir::State=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/var/lib/apt/ -o Dir::State::Status=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/var/lib/dpkg/status -o Dir::Cache=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/var/cache/apt/ update
Ign copy: ./ Release.gpg
Could not connect to
127.0.0.1:3142 (127.0.0.1). - connect (111: Connection refused)
Ign copy: ./ Release.gpg
Ign copy: ./ Release
Ign copy: ./ Release
Get:1 copy: ./ Packages [13.8 kB]
Ign copy: ./ Translation-en_US
Ign copy: ./ Translation-en
Get:2 copy: ./ Packages [861 B]
Ign copy: ./ Translation-en_US
Ign copy: ./ Translation-en
Fetched 14.7 kB in 0s (27.2 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
I: Calculating required packages.
apt-get -y -o Apt::Architecture=i386 -o Dir::Etc::TrustedParts=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d -o Dir::Etc::Trusted=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/trusted.gpg -o Apt::Get::AllowUnauthenticated=true -o Apt::Get::Download-Only=true -o Apt::Install-Recommends=false -o Dir=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/ -o Dir::Etc=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/etc/apt/ -o APT::Default-Release=* -o Dir::State=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/var/lib/apt/ -o Dir::State::Status=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/var/lib/dpkg/status -o Dir::Cache=/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/var/cache/apt/ install apt apt-utils bsdmainutils cpio debian-archive-keyring dosfstools ethtool fancontrol gnu-fdisk i2c-tools ifupdown iproute iputils-ping isc-dhcp-client kexec-tools less lldpd lm-sensors localepurge locales lsof make mingetty module-init-tools mtd-utils nano net-tools netbase nfs-common ntp openssh-server pciutils platform-config-qemu procps psmisc python python-flask python-pyinotify realpath resolvconf rssh rsyslog snmpd sudo tcpdump telnetd traceroute usbutils util-linux vendor-config-onl vendor-config-qemu vim-tiny wget zile
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Unable to locate package apt
E: Unable to locate package apt-utils
E: Unable to locate package bsdmainutils
E: Unable to locate package cpio
E: Unable to locate package debian-archive-keyring
E: Unable to locate package dosfstools
E: Unable to locate package ethtool
E: Unable to locate package fancontrol
E: Unable to locate package gnu-fdisk
E: Unable to locate package i2c-tools
E: Unable to locate package ifupdown
E: Unable to locate package iproute
E: Unable to locate package iputils-ping
E: Unable to locate package isc-dhcp-client
E: Unable to locate package kexec-tools
E: Unable to locate package less
E: Unable to locate package lldpd
E: Unable to locate package lm-sensors
E: Unable to locate package localepurge
E: Unable to locate package locales
E: Unable to locate package lsof
E: Unable to locate package make
E: Unable to locate package mingetty
E: Unable to locate package module-init-tools
E: Unable to locate package mtd-utils
E: Unable to locate package nano
E: Unable to locate package net-tools
E: Unable to locate package netbase
E: Unable to locate package nfs-common
E: Unable to locate package ntp
E: Unable to locate package openssh-server
E: Unable to locate package pciutils
E: Unable to locate package procps
E: Unable to locate package psmisc
E: Unable to locate package python
E: Unable to locate package python-flask
E: Unable to locate package python-pyinotify
E: Unable to locate package realpath
E: Unable to locate package resolvconf
E: Unable to locate package rssh
E: Unable to locate package rsyslog
E: Unable to locate package snmpd
E: Unable to locate package sudo
E: Unable to locate package tcpdump
E: Unable to locate package telnetd
E: Unable to locate package traceroute
E: Unable to locate package usbutils
E: Unable to locate package util-linux
E: Unable to locate package vim-tiny
E: Unable to locate package wget
E: Unable to locate package zile
apt download failed. Exit value: 100
cp: cannot create regular file `/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/usr/bin/': Not a directory
/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/tools/scripts/onl-mkws: line 190: /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/tmp/config.sh: No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/tmp/config.sh': No such file or directory
mount: mount point /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/proc does not exist
chroot: failed to run command `/tmp/config.sh': No such file or directory
warning: failed to read mtab
umount: /home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/rootfs-i386/proc: not found
make[3]: *** [/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm/rootfs/.rootfs-i386.done] Error 1
make[2]: *** [rootfs-i386.sqsh] Error 2
make[1]: *** [component] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL/builds/swi/i386/kvm'
make: *** [swi] Error 2
root@onie:/home/kishore/repo/rt-onl-work/ONL#