Linux compile the kernel

Kernel/Traditional compilation

This article is an introduction to building custom kernels from kernel.org sources. This method of compiling kernels is the traditional method common to all distributions. It can be, depending on your background, more complicated than using the Kernels/Arch Build System. Consider the Arch Build System tools are developed and maintained to make repeatable compilation tasks efficient and safe.

Contents

Preparation

It is not necessary (or recommended) to use the root account or root privileges (i.e. via Sudo) for kernel preparation.

Install the core packages

Install the base-devel package group, which contains necessary packages such as make and gcc . It is also recommended to install the following packages, as listed in the default Arch kernel PKGBUILD: xmlto , kmod , inetutils , bc , libelf , git , cpio , perl , tar , xz .

Create a kernel compilation directory

It is recommended to create a separate build directory for your kernel(s). In this example, the directory kernelbuild will be created in the home directory:

Download the kernel source

Download the kernel source from https://www.kernel.org. This should be the tarball ( tar.xz ) file for your chosen kernel.

It can be downloaded by simply right-clicking the tar.xz link in your browser and selecting Save Link As. , or any other number of ways via alternative graphical or command-line tools that utilise HTTP, TFTP, Rsync, or Git.

In the following command-line example, wget has been installed and is used inside the

/kernelbuild directory to obtain kernel 4.8.6:

You should also verify the correctness of the download before trusting it. First grab the signature, then use that to grab the fingerprint of the signing key, then use the fingerprint to obtain the actual signing key:

Note the signature was generated for the tar archive (i.e. extension .tar ), not the compressed .tar.xz file that you have downloaded. You need to decompress the latter without untarring it. Verify that you have xz installed, then you can proceed like so:

Do not proceed if this does not result in output that includes the string «Good signature».

If wget was not used inside the build directory, it will be necessary to move the tarball into it, e.g.

Unpack the kernel source

Within the build directory, unpack the kernel tarball:

To finalise the preparation, ensure that the kernel tree is absolutely clean; do not rely on the source tree being clean after unpacking. To do so, first change into the new kernel source directory created, and then run the make mrproper command:

Kernel configuration

This is the most crucial step in customizing the default kernel to reflect your computer’s precise specifications. Kernel configuration is set in its .config file, which includes the use of Kernel modules. By setting the options in .config properly, your kernel and computer will function most efficiently.

You can do a mixture of two things:

• Use the default Arch settings from an official kernel (recommended)
• Manually configure the kernel options (optional, advanced and not recommended)

Default Arch configuration

This method will create a .config file for the custom kernel using the default Arch kernel settings. If a stock Arch kernel is running, you can use the following command inside the custom kernel source directory:

Otherwise, the default configuration can be found online in the official Arch Linux kernel package.

Advanced configuration

There are several tools available to fine-tune the kernel configuration, which provide an alternative to otherwise spending hours manually configuring each and every one of the options available during compilation.

Those tools are:

• make menuconfig : Command-line ncurses interface superseded by nconfig
• make nconfig : Newer ncurses interface for the command-line
• make xconfig : User-friendly graphical interface that requires packagekit-qt5 to be installed as a dependency. This is the recommended method — especially for less experienced users — as it is easier to navigate, and information about each option is also displayed.
• make gconfig : Graphical configuration similar to xconfig but using gtk. This requires gtk2 , glib2 and libgladeAUR .

The chosen method should be run inside the kernel source directory, and all will either create a new .config file, or overwrite an existing one where present. All optional configurations will be automatically enabled, although any newer configuration options (i.e. with an older kernel .config ) may not be automatically selected.

Once the changes have been made save the .config file. It is a good idea to make a backup copy outside the source directory. You may need to do this multiple times before you get all the options right.

If unsure, only change a few options between compilations. If you cannot boot your newly built kernel, see the list of necessary config items here.

Running lspci -k # from liveCD lists names of kernel modules in use. Most importantly, you must maintain cgroups support. This is necessary for systemd. For more detailed information, see Gentoo:Kernel/Gentoo Kernel Configuration Guide and Gentoo:Intel#Kernel or Gentoo:Ryzen#Kernel for Intel or AMD Ryzen processors.

Compilation

Compilation time will vary from as little as fifteen minutes to over an hour, depending on your kernel configuration and processor capability. Once the .config file has been set for the custom kernel, within the source directory run the following command to compile:

Installation

Install the modules

Once the kernel has been compiled, the modules for it must follow. First build the modules:

Then install the modules. As root or with root privileges, run the following command to do so:

This will copy the compiled modules into /lib/modules/ — . For example, for kernel version 4.8 installed above, they would be copied to /lib/modules/4.8.6-ARCH . This keeps the modules for individual kernels used separated.

Copy the kernel to /boot directory

The kernel compilation process will generate a compressed bzImage (big zImage) of that kernel, which must be copied to the /boot directory and renamed in the process. Provided the name is prefixed with vmlinuz- , you may name the kernel as you wish. In the examples below, the installed and compiled 4.8 kernel has been copied over and renamed to vmlinuz-linux48 :

Make initial RAM disk

If you do not know what making an initial RAM disk is, see Initramfs on Wikipedia and mkinitcpio.

Automated preset method

An existing mkinitcpio preset can be copied and modified so that the custom kernel initramfs images can be generated in the same way as for an official kernel. This is useful where intending to recompile the kernel (e.g. where updated). In the example below, the preset file for the stock Arch kernel will be copied and modified for kernel 4.8, installed above.

First, copy the existing preset file, renaming it to match the name of the custom kernel specified as a suffix to /boot/vmlinuz- when copying the bzImage (in this case, linux48 ):

Second, edit the file and amend for the custom kernel. Note (again) that the ALL_kver= parameter also matches the name of the custom kernel specified when copying the bzImage :

Finally, generate the initramfs images for the custom kernel in the same way as for an official kernel:

Manual method

Rather than use a preset file, mkinitcpio can also be used to generate an initramfs file manually. The syntax of the command is:

• -k ( —kernel ): Specifies the modules to use when generating the initramfs image. The name will be the same as the name of the custom kernel source directory (and the modules directory for it, located in /usr/lib/modules/ ).
• -g ( —generate ): Specifies the name of the initramfs file to generate in the /boot directory. Again, using the naming convention mentioned above is recommended.

For example, the command for the 4.8 custom kernel installed above would be:

Copy System.map

The System.map file is not required for booting Linux. It is a type of «phone directory» list of functions in a particular build of a kernel. The System.map contains a list of kernel symbols (i.e function names, variable names etc) and their corresponding addresses. This «symbol-name to address mapping» is used by:

• Some processes like klogd, ksymoops, etc.
• By OOPS handler when information has to be dumped to the screen during a kernel crash (i.e info like in which function it has crashed).

If your /boot is on a filesystem which supports symlinks (i.e., not FAT32), copy System.map to /boot , appending your kernel’s name to the destination file. Then create a symlink from /boot/System.map to point to /boot/System.map- :

After completing all steps above, you should have the following 3 files and 1 soft symlink in your /boot directory along with any other previously existing files:

• Kernel: vmlinuz-
• Initramfs: Initramfs- .img
• System Map: System.map-
• System Map kernel symlink

Bootloader configuration

Add an entry for your new kernel in your bootloader’s configuration file. See Arch boot process#Feature comparison for possible boot loaders, their wiki articles and other information.

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Building Linux with Clang/LLVM¶

This document covers how to build the Linux kernel with Clang and LLVM utilities.

About¶

The Linux kernel has always traditionally been compiled with GNU toolchains such as GCC and binutils. Ongoing work has allowed for Clang and LLVM utilities to be used as viable substitutes. Distributions such as Android, ChromeOS, and OpenMandriva use Clang built kernels. LLVM is a collection of toolchain components implemented in terms of C++ objects. Clang is a front-end to LLVM that supports C and the GNU C extensions required by the kernel, and is pronounced “klang,” not “see-lang.”

Clang¶

The compiler used can be swapped out via CC= command line argument to make . CC= should be set when selecting a config and during a build.

Cross Compiling¶

A single Clang compiler binary will typically contain all supported backends, which can help simplify cross compiling.

CROSS_COMPILE is not used to prefix the Clang compiler binary, instead CROSS_COMPILE is used to set a command line flag: —target= . For example:

LLVM Utilities¶

LLVM has substitutes for GNU binutils utilities. Kbuild supports LLVM=1 to enable them.

They can be enabled individually. The full list of the parameters:

The integrated assembler is enabled by default. You can pass LLVM_IAS=0 to disable it.

Omitting CROSS_COMPILE¶

As explained above, CROSS_COMPILE is used to set —target= .

If CROSS_COMPILE is not specified, the —target= is inferred from ARCH .

That means if you use only LLVM tools, CROSS_COMPILE becomes unnecessary.

For example, to cross-compile the arm64 kernel:

If LLVM_IAS=0 is specified, CROSS_COMPILE is also used to derive —prefix=

to search for the GNU assembler and linker.

Supported Architectures¶

LLVM does not target all of the architectures that Linux supports and just because a target is supported in LLVM does not mean that the kernel will build or work without any issues. Below is a general summary of architectures that currently work with CC=clang or LLVM=1 . Level of support corresponds to “S” values in the MAINTAINERS files. If an architecture is not present, it either means that LLVM does not target it or there are known issues. Using the latest stable version of LLVM or even the development tree will generally yield the best results. An architecture’s defconfig is generally expected to work well, certain configurations may have problems that have not been uncovered yet. Bug reports are always welcome at the issue tracker below!

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Compile kernel module

Sometimes you may wish to compile Linux’s Kernel module without recompiling the whole kernel.

Contents

Build environment

Firstly you will need to install build dependencies such as compiler ( base-devel ) and linux-headers .

Next you will need to get the source code for the kernel version the module is intended to run on. You may try use newer kernel sources but most likely compiled module will not load.

In case the intended kernel version is the installed kernel, find its version with

There are two main options to acquire the required source. Each option has slightly different usage methods and directory structure.

Traditional compilation

See Kernels/Traditional compilation#Download the kernel source. If you fetch latest source using Git you will need to checkout needed version using tag (eg. v4.1).

Arch Build System

For a general overview on Arch Build System read ABS. See Kernel/Arch Build System for acquiring the kernel source, as well as the directory structure, and other details.

Source configuration

When you have the source code, enter its directory. For the #Arch Build System case, that directory would be src/archlinux-linux/ down from where the PKGBUILD is.

The output from make help is beneficial here. Start by cleaning with

An appropriate .config file is now required. If no config file is to be seen nearby, perhaps from a saved .config , and the intended kernel version is the running kernel, you can use its configuration file:

Next ensure the .config file is adjusted for the kernel version. If you are using kernel sources for the exact current version then it should not ask anything. But for another version than the current kernel you might be asked about some options. In any case, for the #Arch Build System option, you might want to examine the PKGBUILD::prepare() function.

If the module you want to compile have some compilation options such as debug build, or it was not compiled before, you can also, possibly must, adjust the kernel configuration. You can do this with one of the many configuration targets mentioned by make help.

Module compilation

In order to compile and load our module cleanly, we must find the value of the EXTRAVERSION component of the current kernel version number so we can match the version number exactly in our kernel source. EXTRAVERSION is a variable set in the kernel top-level Makefile, but the Makefile in a vanilla kernel source will have EXTRAVERSION empty; it is set only as part of the Arch kernel build process. If relevant, the value of the current kernel’s EXTRAVERSION can be found by looking at the output of the uname -r command. In general, the kernel version is the concatenation of three components. Namely, the numeric version, the EXTRAVERSION, and the LOCALVERSION. The numeric version itself is a concatenation of three numbers. If built by a PKGBUILD file, the LOCALVERSION will be taken from the pkgrel variable, prefixed by a hyphen. And the EXTRAVERSION will be the suffix of the pkgver variable, where the period character to the right of the third numeric number of the numeric version is replaced by a hyphen. For example, with the linux package linux 5.5.8.arch1-1 , the LOCALVERSION is -1 . The EXTRAVERSION is -arch1 . The output of uname -r will be 5.5.8-arch1-1 in that example.

Once the EXTRAVERSION value is known, we prepare the source for module compilation:

Alternatively, if you are happy to load modules with modprobe using the —force-vermagic option to ignore mismatches in the kernel version number, you can simply run:

Finally, compile wanted module by specifying its directory name. You can find the module location, thus also its directory name, with modinfo or find.

As a last resort, if nothing else has worked, you can

Which will build all the modules from the kernel configuration.

out-of-tree module compilation

get the official source code of the current running linux kernel as described in Kernel/Arch Build System:

then point to the checked out source when compiling the module:

Module installation

Now after successful compilation you just need to gzip and copy it over for your current kernel.

If you are replacing some existing module you will need to overwrite it (and remember that reinstalling linux will replace it with default module)

Or alternatively, you can place the updated module in the updates folder (create it if it does not already exist).

However if you are adding a new module you can just copy it to extramodules (note, this is just example as btrfs will not get loaded from here)

You need to rebuild the module dependency tree with «depmod» to use installed modules.

If you are compiling a module for early boot (e.g. updated module) which is copied to Initramfs then you must remember to regenerate it with (otherwise your compiled module will not be loaded).

possible errors

If EXTRAVERSION is not set correctly the following errors may occur

adding force-vermagic makes it ignore the version mismatch

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