Modifying OS Image

Using the cross compile wiki (Omega1 FWIW) I built a new OS image and have successfully installed that image. However, I tried to modify the image by adding things through menuconfig (i.e. gdb support, etc.) but the compiled image size never changes.

Is there something else I need to do to modify the openwrt-generic-onion-...-factory.bin file?

@Mitch-Christensen Forgive me if I'm pointing out the obvious to you.
A module in menuconfig can be in one of 3 states indicated as follows:

< > - indicates the module is NOT selected

<M> - indicates that the module will be built as a separate package (a .ipk file that can be copied over and installed with opkg)

<*> - indicates that the module will be included in the built image

Repeatedly selecting a module in menuconfig will cycle it through the above states - you need it to be in the <*> state to be included in the image. This is covered in brief in the heading of the menuconfig screen.

Also, of course, you need to re-run make after making and saving any changes in menuconfig

Yeah, I was aware of the tri-state (< >, <M>, <asterisk>) marking in menuconfig. I was careful to select the <*> version. Also, running make following my selections succeeded, and resulted in the set of expected .bin files (in bin/ar71xx/).

I have two clones of the source code. One stock/unmodified and one modified to include gdb (and a few other modules). Comparing the sizes for the onion images from each show the exact same size, leading to my suspicion that I'm not actually changing anything by modifying the build via menuconfig.