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How to Compile Linux Kernel from

Source to Build Custom Kernel
by Lakshmanan Ganapathy on June 13, 2013
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Linux kernel is the life force of all Linux family of operating systems including Ubuntu,
CentOS, and Fedora.
For most part, you dont need to compile the kernel, as it is installed by default when
you install the OS. Also, when there is a critical update done to the kernel, you can use
yum, or apt-get to update the kernel on your Linux system.
However you might encounter certain situation, where you may have to compile kernel
from source. The following are few situation where you may have to compile Kernel on
your Linux system.
To enable experimental features that are not part of the default kernel.
To enable support for a new hardware that is not currently supported by the default
kernel.
To debug the kernel
Or, just to learn how kernel works, you might want to explore the kernel source
code, and compile it on your own.
In this tutorial, well explain how to compile Linux kernel from source.
Also, please note that if you just want to compile a driver, you dont need to compile the
kernel. You need only the linux-headers package of the kernel.

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1. Download the Latest Stable Kernel

The rst step is to download the latest stable kernel from kernel.org.
# cd /usr/src/
# wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.9.3.tar.xz

2. Untar the Kernel Source

The second step is to untar the kernel source le for compilation.
# tar -xvJf linux-3.9.3.tar.xz

3. Congure the Kernel

The kernel contains nearly 3000 conguration options. To make the kernel used by most
people on most hardware, the Linux distro like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, RedHat,
CentOS, etc, will generally include support for most common hardware. You can take
any one of conguration from the distro, and on top of that you can add your own
conguration, or you can congure the kernel from scratch, or you can use the default
cong provided by the kernel.

# cd linux-3.9.3
# make menuconfig

The make menucong, will launch a text-based user interface with default conguration
options as shown in the gure. You should have installed libncurses and libncursesdevel packages for this command to work.

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We will use the default cong provided by the kernel. So select Save and save the
cong in the le name .cong.
The following is a sample of the .cong le:
CONFIG_MMU=y
CONFIG_NEED_DMA_MAP_STATE=y
CONFIG_NEED_SG_DMA_LENGTH=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_ISA_DMA=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_BUG=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_HWEIGHT=y

4. Compile the Linux Kernel

Compile the main kernel:
# make

Compile the kernel modules:

# make modules

Install the kernel modules:

# make modules_install

At this point, you should see a directory named /lib/modules/3.9.3/ in your system.

5. Install the New Kernel

Install the new kernel on the system:
# make install

The make install command will create the following les in the /boot directory.

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vmlinuz-3.9.3 The actual kernel

System.map-3.9.3 The symbols exported by the kernel
initrd.img-3.9.3 initrd image is temporary root le system used during boot
process
cong-3.9.3 The kernel conguration le
The command make install will also update the grub.cfg by default. So we dont need
to manually edit the grub.cfg le.

6. Boot Linux to the new Kernel

To use the new kernel that you just compiled, reboot the system.
# reboot

Since, in grub.cfg, the new kernel is added as default boot, the system will boot from the
new kernel. Just in case if you have problems with the new kernel, you can select the old
kernel from the grub menu during boot and you can use your system as usual.
Once the system is up, use uname command to verify that the new version of Linux
kernel is installed.
$ uname -r
3.9.3
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Tags: CentOS Compile Kernel, Compiling Kernel, Compiling Kernel Modules, Debian
Compile Kernel, Fedora Compile Kernel, Install Linux Kernel, Kernel Cong File, Linux
Kernel Cong, Linux Kernel Modules, Linux Kernel Source, Recompile Linux Kernel,
Ubuntu Compile Kernel
{ 18 comments read them below or add one }
1 Anthony June 13, 2013 at 6:10 am
Nowdays, all computers CPU are multicore, multithreaded. It would have been
nice to show make -j N with N the number of (core * thread-by-core) to help built
faster otherwise it can take forever!
nu said!
2 Deepak June 13, 2013 at 8:36 am
one more reason to compile a kernel is if we want to install latest kernel whose rpm
is not available yet.
3 me June 13, 2013 at 8:38 am
You make no mention of things like
make localmodcong
to avoid making hundred of unnecessary modules.
Maybe I dont want gcc on every linux pc, how can an rpm be made.
Your making the compile extremely slow by not including -j # representing the
number of concurrent compiles.
This is guide is far from complete.
4 Feiticeir0 June 13, 2013 at 8:50 am

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Or if you dont want all the bloatware that comes with predened kernels from your
distro although it packs security and enhancement patches.
5 me June 13, 2013 at 8:57 am
/proc/cong.gz
If present, this is the current running cong le compressed.
6 Jalal Hajigholamali June 13, 2013 at 8:59 am
Hi,
Thanks a lot,
useful article
7 Koratsuki June 13, 2013 at 9:25 am
@Deepak: Or use new options/drivers/congs unavailable on older kernels Nice
article
8 Bob June 13, 2013 at 10:42 am
Nice article. Thanks
9 John Yost June 13, 2013 at 1:13 pm
I believe make install updates the lilo.cong le not grub.cfg
10 Jim Lee June 13, 2013 at 3:28 pm
I used to do steps #4 and #5 for my Debian (Sid) install but sometimes found that I
needed the associated headers to satisfy dependencies for things I wanted to install
or recompile afterward (like VMWare player, for example); many times those
headers were not available, especially if I was compiling a bleedding-edge kernel.
These days I just use make deb-pkg instead. This takes care of the compile and
produces the linux-rmware-image, linux-image, linux-headers and linuxlibc-dev .deb packages. A subsequent dpkg -i *.deb installs these packages and
satises those dependencies.
11 Daniel June 13, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Very nice article. But you could have given a warning like This may take some
time, so dont do it right before you are going to bed Now Ill have to wait!
12 chris June 15, 2013 at 12:09 pm
hi i tried to install kernel-3.9.0 but it got interupted during compiling (after
entering the make command).it logged out by itself.so i logged in and assuming
that the compiling was over i proceded to compile the modules and install it .
when i entered the make install command it requested to redo the make make
process.and then install.
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after rebooting the resolution changed and the keyboard and mouse stopped
working.
im currently using the old kernel and i would like to delete the one that i installed.
13 Ethan June 16, 2013 at 3:07 am
Good to see the concise explaination by Lakshmanan.
14 Chad June 19, 2013 at 11:24 am
@chris
Theres no auto pilot here.
And customizing kernel is not for the faint of heart , you should read quite a lot
before you actually start customizing it.
15 Anonymous July 1, 2013 at 10:18 am
make bzImage;
make modules && make modules_install
16 Gomathi August 22, 2013 at 5:45 am
The BEST!
17 YektaPardaz October 4, 2013 at 10:36 am
Thanks for nice article.
But I have a question. How can I cong kernel source for best performance on my
vps? I mean is there a way to remove unnecessary modules of kernel before
building it? Modules like new VGA support, new other le-system support(other
than ext3 and ext4), .. . Im looking for ways to make my custom kernel as small
and fast as possible.
18 cybernard October 7, 2013 at 6:21 am
make localmodcong
that eliminates all modules not currently loaded in memory.
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