Building linux kernel headers

Как установить заголовочные файлы ядра в Linux

Когда вы компилируете драйвер устройства как модуль ядра, вам необходимы установленные заголовочные файлы ядра. Также они требуются, если вы собираете пользовательское приложение, которое взаимодействует напрямую с ядром. При установке заголовочных файлов ядра, необходимо убедиться, что их версия совпадает с версией ядра установленного в системе.

Если версия вашего ядра не менялась после установки дистрибутива, или вы обновляли его с использованием системного менеджера пакетов (то есть apt-get, aptitude или yum) из системных репозиториев, то заголовочные файлы вы также можете установить с помощью пакетного менеджера. Однако если вы скачивали исходный код ядра и компилировали его самостоятельно, то заголовочные файлы необходимо устанавливать с помощью команды make.

Здесь мы предполагаем, что ваше ядро установлено из основного системного репозитория вашего дистрибутива, и вы хотите установить соответствующие заголовочные файлы ядра.

Установка заголовочных файлов ядра в Debian, Ubuntu или Linux Mint

Если вы не компилировали ядро вручную, то можете установить соответствующие заголовочные файлы ядра с помощью команды apt-get.
Сначала проверьте, не установлены ли уже требуемые заголовочные файлы с помощью команды:

Теперь установите заголовочные файлы, как показано ниже.

Проверьте, что установка прошла успешно.

По умолчанию в Debian, Ubuntu или Linux Mint заголовочные файлы находятся в /usr/src.

Установка заголовочных файлов ядра в Fedora, CentOS или RHEL

Если вы не обновляли ядро вручную, то можете установить соответствующие заголовочные файлы ядра с помощью команды yum.
Сначала проверьте, не установлены ли уже требуемые заголовочные файлы. По умолчанию заголовочные файлы ядра расположены в /usr/src/kernels/.
Если подходящих заголовочных файлов не установлено, вы можете установить их с помощью команды yum. Она автоматически найдет подходящий пакет.

Если заголовочные файлы ядра, установленные с помощью вышеприведенной команды, не соответствуют установленному в системе ядре, значит оно устарело. В этом случае обновите ядро системы до последней версии с помощью приведенной ниже команды. После обновления необходимо перезагрузить систему.

Теперь проверьте, что установлены заголовочные файлы соответствующей версии с помощью команды:

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How to Install Kernel Headers in Ubuntu and Debian

In our last article, we have explained how to install kernel headers in CentOS 7. Kernel Headers contain the C header files for the Linux kernel, which offers the various function and structure definitions required when compiling any code that interfaces with the kernel, such as kernel modules or device drivers and some user programs.

It is very important to note that the kernel headers package you install should match with the currently installed kernel version on your system. If your kernel version ships with the default distribution installation or you have upgraded your Kernel using dpkg or apt package manager from the Ubuntu or Debian base repositories, then you must install matching kernel headers using package manager only. And if you’ve compiled kernel from sources, you must also install kernel headers from sources.

In this article, we will explain how to install Kernel Headers in Ubuntu and Debian Linux distributions using default package manager.

Install Kernel Headers in Ubuntu and Debian

First check your installed kernel version as well as kernel header package that matches your kernel version using following commands.

Check Kernel Version and Kernel Headers in Ubuntu

On Debian, Ubuntu and their derivatives, all kernel header files can be found under /usr/src directory. You can check if the matching kernel headers for your kernel version are already installed on your system using the following command.

Check Kernel Headers in Ubuntu

From the above output, it’s clear that the matching kernel header directory doesn’t exist, meaning the package is not yet installed.

Before you can install the appropriate kernel headers, update your packages index, in order to grab information about the latest package releases, using the following command.

Then run the following command that follows to install the Linux Kernel headers package for your kernel version.

Install Kernel Headers in Ubuntu

Next, check if the matching kernel headers have been installed on your system using the following command

Verify Installed Kernel Headers in Ubuntu

That’s all! In this article, we have explained how to install kernel headers in Ubuntu and Debian Linux and other distributions in the Debian family tree.

Always keep in mind that to compile a kernel module, you will need the Linux kernel headers. If you have any quires, or thoughts to share, use the comment form below to reach us.

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Exporting kernel headers for use by userspace¶

The “make headers_install” command exports the kernel’s header files in a form suitable for use by userspace programs.

The linux kernel’s exported header files describe the API for user space programs attempting to use kernel services. These kernel header files are used by the system’s C library (such as glibc or uClibc) to define available system calls, as well as constants and structures to be used with these system calls. The C library’s header files include the kernel header files from the “linux” subdirectory. The system’s libc headers are usually installed at the default location /usr/include and the kernel headers in subdirectories under that (most notably /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm).

Kernel headers are backwards compatible, but not forwards compatible. This means that a program built against a C library using older kernel headers should run on a newer kernel (although it may not have access to new features), but a program built against newer kernel headers may not work on an older kernel.

The “make headers_install” command can be run in the top level directory of the kernel source code (or using a standard out-of-tree build). It takes two optional arguments:

ARCH indicates which architecture to produce headers for, and defaults to the current architecture. The linux/asm directory of the exported kernel headers is platform-specific, to see a complete list of supported architectures use the command:

INSTALL_HDR_PATH indicates where to install the headers. It defaults to “./usr”.

An ‘include’ directory is automatically created inside INSTALL_HDR_PATH and headers are installed in ‘INSTALL_HDR_PATH/include’.

© Copyright The kernel development community.

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Building External Modules¶

This document describes how to build an out-of-tree kernel module.

1. Introduction¶

“kbuild” is the build system used by the Linux kernel. Modules must use kbuild to stay compatible with changes in the build infrastructure and to pick up the right flags to “gcc.” Functionality for building modules both in-tree and out-of-tree is provided. The method for building either is similar, and all modules are initially developed and built out-of-tree.

Covered in this document is information aimed at developers interested in building out-of-tree (or “external”) modules. The author of an external module should supply a makefile that hides most of the complexity, so one only has to type “make” to build the module. This is easily accomplished, and a complete example will be presented in section 3.

2. How to Build External Modules¶

To build external modules, you must have a prebuilt kernel available that contains the configuration and header files used in the build. Also, the kernel must have been built with modules enabled. If you are using a distribution kernel, there will be a package for the kernel you are running provided by your distribution.

An alternative is to use the “make” target “modules_prepare.” This will make sure the kernel contains the information required. The target exists solely as a simple way to prepare a kernel source tree for building external modules.

NOTE: “modules_prepare” will not build Module.symvers even if CONFIG_MODVERSIONS is set; therefore, a full kernel build needs to be executed to make module versioning work.

2.1 Command Syntax¶

The command to build an external module is:

The kbuild system knows that an external module is being built due to the “M= ” option given in the command.

To build against the running kernel use:

Then to install the module(s) just built, add the target “modules_install” to the command:

2.2 Options¶

($KDIR refers to the path of the kernel source directory.)

make -C $KDIR M=$PWD

The directory where the kernel source is located. “make” will actually change to the specified directory when executing and will change back when finished.

Informs kbuild that an external module is being built. The value given to “M” is the absolute path of the directory where the external module (kbuild file) is located.

2.3 Targets¶

When building an external module, only a subset of the “make” targets are available.

make -C $KDIR M=$PWD [target]

The default will build the module(s) located in the current directory, so a target does not need to be specified. All output files will also be generated in this directory. No attempts are made to update the kernel source, and it is a precondition that a successful “make” has been executed for the kernel.

The default target for external modules. It has the same functionality as if no target was specified. See description above.

Install the external module(s). The default location is /lib/modules/ /extra/, but a prefix may be added with INSTALL_MOD_PATH (discussed in section 5).

Remove all generated files in the module directory only.

List the available targets for external modules.

2.4 Building Separate Files¶

It is possible to build single files that are part of a module. This works equally well for the kernel, a module, and even for external modules.

Example (The module foo.ko, consist of bar.o and baz.o):

3. Creating a Kbuild File for an External Module¶

In the last section we saw the command to build a module for the running kernel. The module is not actually built, however, because a build file is required. Contained in this file will be the name of the module(s) being built, along with the list of requisite source files. The file may be as simple as a single line:

The kbuild system will build .o from .c, and, after linking, will result in the kernel module .ko. The above line can be put in either a “Kbuild” file or a “Makefile.” When the module is built from multiple sources, an additional line is needed listing the files:

NOTE: Further documentation describing the syntax used by kbuild is located in Linux Kernel Makefiles .

The examples below demonstrate how to create a build file for the module 8123.ko, which is built from the following files:

3.1 Shared Makefile¶

An external module always includes a wrapper makefile that supports building the module using “make” with no arguments. This target is not used by kbuild; it is only for convenience. Additional functionality, such as test targets, can be included but should be filtered out from kbuild due to possible name clashes.

The check for KERNELRELEASE is used to separate the two parts of the makefile. In the example, kbuild will only see the two assignments, whereas “make” will see everything except these two assignments. This is due to two passes made on the file: the first pass is by the “make” instance run on the command line; the second pass is by the kbuild system, which is initiated by the parameterized “make” in the default target.

3.2 Separate Kbuild File and Makefile¶

In newer versions of the kernel, kbuild will first look for a file named “Kbuild,” and only if that is not found, will it then look for a makefile. Utilizing a “Kbuild” file allows us to split up the makefile from example 1 into two files:

The split in example 2 is questionable due to the simplicity of each file; however, some external modules use makefiles consisting of several hundred lines, and here it really pays off to separate the kbuild part from the rest.

The next example shows a backward compatible version.

Here the “Kbuild” file is included from the makefile. This allows an older version of kbuild, which only knows of makefiles, to be used when the “make” and kbuild parts are split into separate files.

3.3 Binary Blobs¶

Some external modules need to include an object file as a blob. kbuild has support for this, but requires the blob file to be named _shipped. When the kbuild rules kick in, a copy of _shipped is created with _shipped stripped off, giving us . This shortened filename can be used in the assignment to the module.

Throughout this section, 8123_bin.o_shipped has been used to build the kernel module 8123.ko; it has been included as 8123_bin.o:

Although there is no distinction between the ordinary source files and the binary file, kbuild will pick up different rules when creating the object file for the module.

3.4 Building Multiple Modules¶

kbuild supports building multiple modules with a single build file. For example, if you wanted to build two modules, foo.ko and bar.ko, the kbuild lines would be:

It is that simple!

4. Include Files¶

Within the kernel, header files are kept in standard locations according to the following rule:

If the header file only describes the internal interface of a module, then the file is placed in the same directory as the source files.

If the header file describes an interface used by other parts of the kernel that are located in different directories, then the file is placed in include/linux/.

There are two notable exceptions to this rule: larger subsystems have their own directory under include/, such as include/scsi; and architecture specific headers are located under arch/$(SRCARCH)/include/.

4.1 Kernel Includes¶

To include a header file located under include/linux/, simply use:

kbuild will add options to “gcc” so the relevant directories are searched.

4.2 Single Subdirectory¶

External modules tend to place header files in a separate include/ directory where their source is located, although this is not the usual kernel style. To inform kbuild of the directory, use either ccflags-y or CFLAGS_ .o.

Using the example from section 3, if we moved 8123_if.h to a subdirectory named include, the resulting kbuild file would look like:

Note that in the assignment there is no space between -I and the path. This is a limitation of kbuild: there must be no space present.

4.3 Several Subdirectories¶

kbuild can handle files that are spread over several directories. Consider the following example:

To build the module complex.ko, we then need the following kbuild file:

As you can see, kbuild knows how to handle object files located in other directories. The trick is to specify the directory relative to the kbuild file’s location. That being said, this is NOT recommended practice.

For the header files, kbuild must be explicitly told where to look. When kbuild executes, the current directory is always the root of the kernel tree (the argument to “-C”) and therefore an absolute path is needed. $(src) provides the absolute path by pointing to the directory where the currently executing kbuild file is located.

5. Module Installation¶

Modules which are included in the kernel are installed in the directory:

And external modules are installed in:

5.1 INSTALL_MOD_PATH¶

Above are the default directories but as always some level of customization is possible. A prefix can be added to the installation path using the variable INSTALL_MOD_PATH:

INSTALL_MOD_PATH may be set as an ordinary shell variable or, as shown above, can be specified on the command line when calling “make.” This has effect when installing both in-tree and out-of-tree modules.

5.2 INSTALL_MOD_DIR¶

External modules are by default installed to a directory under /lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)/extra/, but you may wish to locate modules for a specific functionality in a separate directory. For this purpose, use INSTALL_MOD_DIR to specify an alternative name to “extra.”:

6. Module Versioning¶

Module versioning is enabled by the CONFIG_MODVERSIONS tag, and is used as a simple ABI consistency check. A CRC value of the full prototype for an exported symbol is created. When a module is loaded/used, the CRC values contained in the kernel are compared with similar values in the module; if they are not equal, the kernel refuses to load the module.

Module.symvers contains a list of all exported symbols from a kernel build.

6.1 Symbols From the Kernel (vmlinux + modules)В¶

During a kernel build, a file named Module.symvers will be generated. Module.symvers contains all exported symbols from the kernel and compiled modules. For each symbol, the corresponding CRC value is also stored.

The syntax of the Module.symvers file is:

The fields are separated by tabs and values may be empty (e.g. if no namespace is defined for an exported symbol).

For a kernel build without CONFIG_MODVERSIONS enabled, the CRC would read 0x00000000.

Module.symvers serves two purposes:

It lists all exported symbols from vmlinux and all modules.

It lists the CRC if CONFIG_MODVERSIONS is enabled.

6.2 Symbols and External Modules¶

When building an external module, the build system needs access to the symbols from the kernel to check if all external symbols are defined. This is done in the MODPOST step. modpost obtains the symbols by reading Module.symvers from the kernel source tree. During the MODPOST step, a new Module.symvers file will be written containing all exported symbols from that external module.

6.3 Symbols From Another External Module¶

Sometimes, an external module uses exported symbols from another external module. Kbuild needs to have full knowledge of all symbols to avoid spitting out warnings about undefined symbols. Two solutions exist for this situation.

NOTE: The method with a top-level kbuild file is recommended but may be impractical in certain situations.

Use a top-level kbuild file

If you have two modules, foo.ko and bar.ko, where foo.ko needs symbols from bar.ko, you can use a common top-level kbuild file so both modules are compiled in the same build. Consider the following directory layout:

The top-level kbuild file would then look like:

will then do the expected and compile both modules with full knowledge of symbols from either module.

Use “make” variable KBUILD_EXTRA_SYMBOLS

If it is impractical to add a top-level kbuild file, you can assign a space separated list of files to KBUILD_EXTRA_SYMBOLS in your build file. These files will be loaded by modpost during the initialization of its symbol tables.

7. Tips & Tricks¶

7.1 Testing for CONFIG_FOO_BAR¶

Modules often need to check for certain CONFIG_ options to decide if a specific feature is included in the module. In kbuild this is done by referencing the CONFIG_ variable directly:

External modules have traditionally used “grep” to check for specific CONFIG_ settings directly in .config. This usage is broken. As introduced before, external modules should use kbuild for building and can therefore use the same methods as in-tree modules when testing for CONFIG_ definitions.

© Copyright The kernel development community.

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