aweeraman / linux-device-drivers

Sample code for Linux kernel modules and device driver concepts

This repo has been moved to aweeraman/kernel-utils

Compiling the Kernel

Install the pre-requisites in Arch Linux, and invoke the make target to compile the kernel.

pacman -S base-devel bc arch-install-scripts
git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging.git
make SRCDIR=./staging

Running the Kernel in Qemu

Qemu can be used for running the built kernel in a virtualized environment and testing it in isolation without affecting the host system in case of bugs or issues with the kernel.

To do that, first create images for initrd and the root file system:

make build-rootfs SRCDIR=../staging

Set the "linux" symlink to the kernel source directory which contains a built kernel in arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage. You can then launch it with Qemu using the following:

make qemu-start SRCDIR=../staging

Debugging the kernel using gdb

make qemu-debug SRCDIR=../staging

-- from another shell--
gdb
target remote :1234
hbreak start_kernel
continue