09/08/2016

KernelBuild - Linux Kernel Newbies

KernelBuild
GuidetobuildingtheLinuxkernel.

WheredoIfindthekernel?
ThelatestsourcecodefortheLinuxkerneliskeptonkernel.org.Youcaneitherdownloadthefullsourcecodeasatarball(not
recommendedandwilltakeforevertodownload),oryoucancheckoutthecodefromthereadonlygitrepositories.

WhattoolsdoIneed?
TobuildtheLinuxkernelfromsource,youneedseveraltools:git,make,gcc,libssldevand(optionally)ctags,cscope,and/or
ncursesdev.ThetoolpackagesmaybecalledsomethingelseinyourLinuxdistribution,soyoumayneedtosearchforthepackage.
Thencursesdevtoolsareusedifyou"makemenuconfig"or"makenconfig".
OnUbuntu,youcangetthesetoolsbyrunning:
sudoaptgetinstalllibncurses5devgccmakegitexuberantctagsbclibssldev
OnRedHatbasedsystemslikeFedora,ScientificLinux,andCentOSyoucanrun:
sudoyuminstallgccmakegitctagsncursesdevelopenssldevel
AndonSUSEbasedsystems(likeSLESandLeap),youcanrun:
sudozypperingitgccncursesdevellibopenssldevelctagscscope

Whichkerneltobuild?
Ifyouwanttotesttoseeifabugisfixedthentestagainstthelateststablekernelfromkernel.org.Ifyouarebraveandyoursystemis
backedupthelatestreleasecandidatefromLinus'streeisagreattarget.Sometimesthemaintainermaywantyoutousean
experimentalbranchfromtheirowngittree.YoushouldusethegitURLtheygaveyouinsteadofthegitURLsbelow.
Ifyou'redoingdevelopmentforanewfeature,ortryingtotestabugfix,youshoulduseLinus'tree,orthesubsystemmaintainer's
nexttree.Mostsubsystemmaintainerskeeptheirgittreesonkernel.org.Whenindoubt,useLinus'tree.
Ifyoudon'tunderstandwhatastableorreleasecandidatekernelis,youshouldreadtheKernelDevProcesspage.

Downloadingthelateststabletree
First,checkoutthestablekernelgitrepository:
gitclonegit://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linuxstable.git
cdlinuxstable
Next,findthelateststablekerneltagbyrunning
gittagl|less
FindthelateststablekernelbylookingforthelargestvX.Y.Zvalues.Forexample,usethev3.1tagoverthev3.0.46tag.Ifv3.1.1is
available,usethatinsteadofv3.1.ThekerneltagsthatendwithrcXarereleasecandidatekernels,notstablekernels.
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Nowcheckoutthecodeassociatedwiththatkernelwiththecommand
gitcheckoutbstabletag
WheretagisthelatestvX.Y.Ztagyoufound.

Downloadingthelatestrctree
CheckoutLinus'tree:
gitclonegit://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
cdlinux

Settingupyourkernelconfiguration
Manykerneldriverscanbeturnedonoroff,orbuiltasmodules.The.configfileinthekernelsourcedirectorydetermineswhich
driversarebuilt.Whenyoudownloadthesourcetree,itdoesn'tcomewitha.configfile.Youhaveseveraloptionsongeneratinga
.configfile.Theeasiestistoduplicateyourcurrentconfig.

Duplicatingyourcurrentconfig
Ifyou'retryingtoseeifabugisfixed,youprobablywanttoduplicatetheconfigurationonyourrunningkernel.Thatconfigfileis
storedsomewherein/boot/.Theremightbeseveralfilesthatstartwithconfig,soyouwanttheoneassociatedwithyourrunning
kernel.Youcanfindthatbyrunninguname-aandfindingtheconfigfilethatendswithyourkernelversionnumber.Copythatfile
intothesourcedirectoryas.config.Orjustrunthiscommand:
cp/boot/config`unamer`*.config

Makingthedefaultconfig
Remember,adefaultconfigmaynothavetheoptionsyouarecurrentlyusing.Run
makedefconfig

Makingaminimalconfig
Compilingakernelfromscratchfromadistributionconfigurationcantake"forever"becausethedistrosturnoneveryhardware
configurationpossible.Forpeoplewantingtodokerneldevelopmentfast,youwanttomakeaminimalconfiguration.SteveRostedt
usesktest.plmake_min_configtogetatruelyminimumconfig,butitwilltakeadayortwotobuild.Warning:makesureyouhaveall
yourUSBdevicespluggedintothesystem,oryouwon'tgetthedriversforthem!

Changingyourconfig
Ifyouneedtomakeanychangestoyourconfiguration,youcanrunoneofthefollowingcommands.Theserequirethecursestoolsto
beinstalled.
makemenuconfig
or
makenconfig
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Buildingthekernel
Run
make
Or,ifyouhaveamulticoreprocessor,run
makejX
WhereXisanumberlike2or4.Ifyouhaveadualcore,2or3mightbegood.Quadcore,4or6.Donotrunwithreallybignumbers
unlessyouwantyourmachinetobedogslow!
Walkaway,getsomecoffee,lunch,orgoreadsomecomics.

Installingthekernel
Toinstallakernel,youwillneedtoeithermanuallyupdateyourGRUBconfigurationfile,orhaveaninstallkernelscript.Thisscript
installsthekernelto/boot/,installsmodulesto/lib/modules/X.Y.Z/(whereX.Y.Zissomethinglike3.1.5),andupdatesfile
/boot/grub/grub.conf.Fortunately,Ubuntuprovidesaninstallkernelscriptin/sbin/installkernel.ThegrubbyRPMprovidesitforRPM
basedsystems.
Ifyouhaveaninstallkernelscript,youcanjustrun
sudomakemodules_installinstall
Orifyoudon'thavesudoinstalled,run
suc"makemodules_installinstall"

Runningyourkernel
First,makesureyouknowhowtoselectakernelatboottime.Ifyournewkernelisbroken,youwantawaytobootintoyourold
kernel.Thegrubbootloaderusuallypresentsuserswithachoiceofkernelsandyoucanrebootintoaknowngoodkernelifyournew
compiledoesn'twork.Somedistrosuseadefaultgrubconfigthathidesthatmenu.Youcanusuallygetthemenutoappearby
mashingtheESCkeyduringbootaftertheBIOSdisplaydisappears.
Ubuntu:TomakethegrubmenualwaysappearonbootunderUbuntu,removetheGRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIETlinefrom
/etc/default/grub.YoumaywanttoincreasetheGRUB_DEFAULTtimeoutfrom0to15secondsormore.Afteryou'vefinishedediting
thegrubfileyoumayneedtoupdateyourgrubfile.
sudoupdategrub2
Youwill(usually)needtorebootintoyournewkernel.

Patchingyourkernel
Thereareseveralwaystoapplyapatchtoyourkernel.Usuallythemaintainerwillsendyouapatchasattachment,orinlineinthe
mail.Youshouldeithersavethefile,orcopyandpastethepatchintoanewfile.
Toapplythepatch,gotothebasekerneldirectoryandrun
gitampatchfile
Wherepatchfileisthefileyousaved.Ifpatchfails,youcanrun:

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gitamabort
gitresethardHEAD
gitam3patchfile
Thisappliesthepatch,andattemptstorunathreewaymergeifthepatchapplicationfails.Ifallelsefails,youcanattemptto
duplicatethepatchchangesbyhand.
Thenyouneedtorebuildyourkernelandreboot.
(Note:theolderwayofmanuallypatchingthekernelwithpatch-p1<patchfiledoesnotcreateanygithistory,which
makesithardtorevertandretrydifferentpatches.Youwilloftenhavetogothroughseveralpatcheswithamaintainertofindtheright
fixforabug,sohavingthegithistoryisuseful.)

Revertingapatch
Ifamaintainerwantsyoutorevertapatchyouhaveapplied,andtryadifferentpatch,youcanusegittoresetthehistorytothepoint
beforethepatchwasapplied.
Ifgitlogshowsthepatchtoberemovedisthefirstlogentry,youcanrun
gitresethardHEAD^
Ifyouneedtorevertseveralpatches,youcanusegitlogtofindthecommitIDofthefirstcommitbeforethosepatches.Forinstance,
sayyouhaveappliedtwopatchestothestabletree3.4.17,andyouwanttorevertthosepatches.gitlogwilllooklikethis:
$gitlogpretty=onelineabbrevcommit
8901234Testingpatch2
1234567Testingpatch1
5390967Linux3.4.17
1f94bd4drm/i915:nolvdsquirkforZotacZDBOXSDID12/ID13
0187c24x86,mm:Usememblockmemoryloopinsteadofe820_RAM
a0419castaging:comedi:amplc_pc236:fixinvalidregisteraccessduringdetach
Toresetyourtreeto3.4.17,youcanrun:
gitresethard5390967
Ifyoulookatthecommitswithgitkyouwillnoticethatthe3.4.17commitisalsotaggedasv3.4.17.Youcanresetbytagaswell:
gitresethardv3.4.17

TipsandTricks
Ifyouhaveadriverinstalledasamodule,youcanrecompilejustthatdriver.Thissavestime,becausethekernelbuildsystemdoesn't
havetolookforchangesacrosstheentirekerneltreeorcompileanyofthebuiltincode.
Allmodulefilesendwith.ko.Thekernelmakesystemwillcompilejustone.kofileifyougiveitthefullpathtothefile:
makedrivers/usb/host/xhcihcd.ko
Noteyouwillneedtobeinthebasekernelsourcedirectoryforthistowork.Youcan'tmakefromadifferentdirectory.
Youcanalsoreloaddriverswithoutrebootingyourkernel.Forexample,IcanremovethexHCIdriverandreloaditwith
sudormmodxhcihcd&&sudoinsmoddrivers/usb/host/xhcihcd.ko
Makesurethatyouunderstandtheconsequencesofunloadingyourdriver!Forinstance,ifyouunloadtheUSBcoredriverinorderto
tryoutchanges,yourUSBmouseandkeyboardaren'tgoingtoworkuntiltheUSBcoredriverisreloaded.
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Youmayhavetounloadotherdriversthatdependonyourdriverbeforeyoucanreloadit.Uselsmodtofindwhichdriversthatare
loadeddependonyourdriver.E.g.
$lsmod|grepusb
usbnet265962rndis_host,cdc_ether
mii51981usbnet
btusb165750
usbhid446211hid_logitech
usbcore1910789
xhci_hcd,rndis_host,cdc_ether,usbnet,btusb,uvcvideo,usbhid,ehci_hcd
usb_common10931usbcore
Inthiscase,usbcoreisusedbyxhci_hcd,rndis_host,cdc_ether,usbnet,btusb,uvcvideo,usbhid,andehci_hcd.Iwouldhaveto
unloadallthosedriversinordertoreloadtheusbcoremodule.

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