KaarPux Package: linux

The Linux kernel (and initramfs)

Name
linux
Version
4.1.19
Homepage
http://www.kernel.org/
Step
  • Bootstrap 1
  • Bootstrap 4
  • Bootstrap 8
  • Linux
Definition
linux.yaml

Kernel configuration

Our linux kernel configuration file (.config) is - in general - configured as follows:

  • options needed for a default KaarPux system are build-in
  • options for most common hardware needed early (video, keyboard, net, disks) are build as modules
  • some other useful modules (such as netfilter connection tracking helpers) are build as modules
  • as much as possible, everything else has been disabled

Kernel release number

When building a kernel, we do:

LOCALVERSION=$(sha1sum .config | cut -b1-8)
echo "-kx-${LOCALVERSION}" > localversion

so we will end up with a kernel release (uname -r) such as 3.5.0-kx-106155c9.

This makes it possible to have different kernel versions in the system, and let grub choose between them.

initramfs

KaarPux provides a small (less than 1MB compressed) initramfs.

For an introduction to initramfs see Introducing initramfs, a new model for initial RAM disks

The initramfs includes KaarPux Package: busybox which makes it possible to boot with e.g. root=UUID=....

Check out the init file for further options.

Two step building

The kernel is build and installed in two steps (each):

  • linux/scripts/linux/linux_BUILD.sh
  • linux/scripts/linux/linux_INSTALL.sh
  • linux/scripts/linux/linux_BUILD2.sh
  • linux/scripts/linux/linux_INSTALL2.sh

The second step is responsible for building/installing the initramfs.