This page explains how to rebuild the kernel image for the RPi. There are two possible routes available:
Both of these routes are covered below, however, you are strongly recommended to follow the cross compilation route. The low processing power of the RPi means that a local compile will take many hours.
This section serves to hold a new user's hand just a bit more than some of the other more generic information below in the document. To get more information on the steps in the roadmap, search this page for additional details. It assumes you can navigate filesystems, move files across systems, and have a general understanding of compiling linux kernels, filesystems, partitions, and block devices.
This series of steps yielded a successful custom/updated hardfp kernel to a stock Raspbian installation, cross compiled from an amd64 Debian system without regression on any kernel configuration options or requiring modified boot parameters. Be aware that in the worst case, you may need to overlay a stock set of kernel/modules/firmware on the Raspberry Pi if something fails. If you do not know how to do this, then a reimage of the SD card may be necessary. Assuming this is not an issue for your configuration, continue onward:
The Raspberry Pi should now boot with the newly configured/recompiled kernel.
The kernel source should be downloaded from the RPI linux section on GitHub. Although you could just compile the vanilla kernel from Kernel.org, it will not have the necessary drivers and modules for the Broadcom SoC on the RPi. You can however apply patches from the vanilla kernel to the RPi one - be prepared for potential compiler grumbles though!
Jan '14 the current is rpi-3.10.y, you can check this and other available versions by browsing RPI linux section on GitHub
You can download the source directly using git. For the 3.10 branch:
git init git clone --depth 1 git://github.com/raspberrypi/linux.git
and for the other Stable Code branch change the numbers in the following to suit:
git init git fetch git://github.com/raspberrypi/linux.git rpi-3.6.y:refs/remotes/origin/rpi-3.6.y git checkout rpi-3.6.y
Or you can download a tarball from the same website:
Next, you will need to get a version of GCC in order to build the kernel.
apt-get update apt-get -y dist-upgrade apt-get -y install gcc make bc
pacman -Syu pacman -S gcc make
Detailed OpenSuSE RPI 12.3 Image 20130407 + 3.8.8 kernel hack tutorial witten ( 22042013 updated ) see: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=40664&p=331953#p331953 Kernel Compile takes ~22H on RPI Model B due massive module compiles , Include all IP_VS , ARPD , Fuse-zfs , Zram and more :-)
This works as well for Debian , Fedora remix and others ( just package Install command differ )
zypper install u-boot-tools sudo gcc automake autoconf bison gettext flex libncurses5 ncurses-devel
cd /usr/src mkdir GIT; cd GIT; git init; D=`date +"%m-%d-%Y"` git fetch git://github.com/raspberrypi/linux.git rpi-3.8.y:refs/remotes/origin/rpi-3.8.y git checkout rpi-3.8.y tar cpf rpi-3.8.y.$D.tar rpi-3.8.y cd /usr/src tar xpf GIT/rpi-3.8.y.$D.tar rm linux ln -s linux-rpi-3.8.y linux cd /usr/src/linux kversion=$(make -s kernelrelease) cp linux/.config .config_$kversion cd /usr/src/ # get config-3.8.7.ipvs+krb5+arpd.tar.bz2 from the Tutorial: wget http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=3174 # copy the .config to /usr/src/linux: tar xpfj config-3.8.7.ipvs+krb5+arpd.tar.bz2 #make the Kernel and go sleep :-) cd linux make oldconfig nohup make zImage dep modules & #Next day .. Install It. cd /usr/src/linux kversion=$(make -s kernelrelease) echo $kversion mkdir -p /boot/$kversion make ARCH=arm INSTALL_PATH=/boot/ install cp System.map /boot/System.map-$kversion cp System.map-$kversion /boot/System.map make ARCH=arm modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/ make ARCH=arm INSTALL_PATH=/boot/ zinstall cp .config /boot/config-$kversion cp ./Module.symvers /boot/symvers-$kversion cp arch/arm/boot/Image /boot/kernel.img
Please note that when cross-compiling, your compiler may not target the correct ARM processor by default. This will at best reduce performance, or worse, compile for a much newer processor resulting in illegal instructions in your code. The pre-built compiler or a custom-built compiler are recommended because of this. (For example, the latest GCC Linaro binary targets armv7-a by default, whereas the RPi requires armv6kz). It is possible to add extra compiler options to the HOSTCFLAGS line in Makefile. The correct flags are shown on thesoftware page - note that you may also need to add -marm if your compiler produces Thumb code by default.
Download the pre-built bmc2708 compiler from the RPI tools section on GitHub.
git clone git://github.com/raspberrypi/tools.git
or you can download a tarball from the website using this link.
apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi make ncurses-dev
crossdev -S -v -t arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi
Crossdev should create a cross-toolchain using the latest stable versions of the required packages. If it fails, you can specify exact versions by removing the "-S" flag and adding the "--b", "--g", "--k" and "--l" flags. On 2012-05-06, cross -S -v -A gnueabi arm works just fine.
yaourt -S arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc
The Kernel source requires a case-sensitive filesystem. If you do not have a HFS+ Case-sensitive partition that can be used, create a disk image with the appropriate format. Ensure latest Xcode and command line tools are installed from Apple Developer Connection Install macports
port install arm-none-eabi-gcc port install arm-none-eabi-binutils
If you get an error message that elf.h is missing
sudo port install libelf && sudo ln -s /opt/local/include/libelf /usr/include/libelf
From opensource.apple.com, download and copy elf.h and elftypes.h to /usr/include
Edit elf.h and add
#define R_386_NONE 0 #define R_386_32 1 #define R_386_PC32 2 #define R_ARM_NONE 0 #define R_ARM_PC24 1 #define R_ARM_ABS32 2 #define R_MIPS_NONE 0 #define R_MIPS_16 1 #define R_MIPS_32 2 #define R_MIPS_REL32 3 #define R_MIPS_26 4 #define R_MIPS_HI16 5 #define R_MIPS_LO16 6
If you get a "SEGMENT_SIZE is undeclared" error open the Makefile and change the line:
NOSTDINC_FLAGS += -nostdinc -isystem $(shell $(CC) -print-file-name=include)
to
NOSTDINC_FLAGS += -nostdinc -isystem $(shell $(CC) -print-file-name=include) -Dlinux
Complete script requires raspberrypi.config to be in the same folder that you execute from
sudo port install arm-none-eabi-gcc sudo port install arm-none-eabi-binutils sudo port install libelf && sudo ln -s /opt/local/include/libelf /usr/include/libelf sudo curl http://opensource.apple.com/source/dtrace/dtrace-48/sys/elftypes.h?txt -o /usr/include/elftypes.h sudo curl http://opensource.apple.com/source/dtrace/dtrace-48/sys/elf.h?txt -o /usr/include/elf.h #code to append to elf.h echo " #define R_386_NONE 0 #define R_386_32 1 #define R_386_PC32 2 #define R_ARM_NONE 0 #define R_ARM_PC24 1 #define R_ARM_ABS32 2 #define R_MIPS_NONE 0 #define R_MIPS_16 1 #define R_MIPS_32 2 #define R_MIPS_REL32 3 #define R_MIPS_26 4 #define R_MIPS_HI16 5 #define R_MIPS_LO16 6" > elf-append.h sudo -s 'cat elf-append.h >> /usr/include/elf.h' #Make a case sensitive 3gb disk image, raspberrypi-kernel, and attach it hdiutil create -size 10g -type SPARSEBUNDLE -nospotlight -volname raspberrypi-kernel -fs "Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+" -attach ./raspberrypi-kernel.dmg cp raspberrypi.config /Volumes/raspberrypi-kernel/ mkdir /Volumes/raspberrypi-kernel/src cd /Volumes/raspberrypi-kernel/src #get source, either 1. from zip (faster), or 2. from git #1. from zip curl https://codeload.github.com/raspberrypi/linux/zip/rpi-3.6.y -o ./rpi-3.6.y.zip unzip rpi-3.6.y.zip #2. from git (disabled) #git init #git fetch git://github.com/raspberrypi/linux.git rpi-3.6.y:refs/remotes/origin/rpi-3.6.y #git checkout rpi-3.6.y cpu=$(sysctl hw.ncpu | awk '{print $2}') cpup1=$((cpu+1)) cd /Volumes/raspberrypi-kernel/src/linux-rpi-3.6.y/ export CCPREFIX=/opt/local/bin/arm-none-eabi- make mrproper cp /Volumes/raspberrypi-kernel/raspberrypi.config .config #answer yes to all config options #yes "" | make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} oldconfig make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} -j$cpup1 #make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} modules -j$cpup1
Download and install from here.
Firstly, ensure your build directory is clean:
make mrproper
Next, in all cases, you will want to get a working kernel configuration to start from. You can get the one running on the RPi by typing the following (on the RPi):
zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
then copy .config into your build directory.
Alternatively, the default configuration is available in the downloaded kernel source in arch/arm/configs/bcmrpi_defconfig. Just copy this to .config in the build directory.
From this point on, if you are cross-compiling, set an environment variable CCPREFIX that points to the prefix of your compiler binary as each compiler will be named slightly differently.
export CCPREFIX=/path/to/your/compiler/binary/prefix-of-binary-
If you are building on the RPi, remove ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} from each command.
Ensure that your configuration file is up-to-date:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} oldconfig
If any configuration options have been added, you will be asked what set each option to. If you don't know the answer, just press enter to accept the default.
Optionally, if you want to make changes to the configuration, run this next:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} menuconfig
Now you are ready to build:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX}
If you are on a multi-core system, you can make the build faster by appending -j<N> where <N> is the number of cores on your system plus one (i.e. -j3 for 2 cores).
Find something else to get on with while the compilation takes place. On an average PC with the default configuration, this should take about 15 minutes.
The modules will be build with the following command.
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} modules
The fully built kernel will be arch/arm/boot/Image. Copy your new kernel file into the RPi boot partition, though preferably as a new file (such as kernel_new.img) just in case it doesn't work. If you're building on the RPi, just copy the file to /boot. If you use a different filename, edit config.txt change the kernel line:
kernel=kernel_new.img #kernel=kernel.img
Now you need to transfer the modules. Set an environment variable that points to a temporary module path.
export MODULES_TEMP=~/modules
In the build directory, run the following command:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CCPREFIX} INSTALL_MOD_PATH=${MODULES_TEMP} modules_install
The contents of this directory, a single
lib
directory, should then be copied into the RPi root directory, merging or overwriting
/lib
. NOTE: If you have rebuilt the new kernel with exactly the same version as the one that's running, you'll need to remove the old modules first. Ideally this should be done offline by mounting the SD card on another system.
Your RPi should now be ready to boot the new kernel. However, at this point it's recommended that you update your GPU firmware and libraries. This is required if you've just moved from 3.2 to 3.6 as the firmware interface has changed.
The firmware and boot files should be updated at the same time to ensure that your new kernel works properly. Again, two branches are available:
You can either download the source directly using git: You can download the firmware directly using git. For the master branch:
git clone git://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware.git
and for the next branch:
git fetch git://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware.git next:refs/remotes/origin/next
Or you can download a tarball from the website using these links: master next
Firstly, update the required boot files in the RPi boot directory with those you've downloaded. These are:
Next, you need to copy the VC libraries over. There are two copies of this: one for hard float and one for soft float. To find the correct one, run the following command:
${CCPREFIX}gcc -v 2>&1 | grep hard
If something prints out, and you can see --with-float=hard, you need the hard float ones. NOTE: The current version of Raspbian uses hard float.
Remove the /opt/vc directory from the RPi root, then:
Power cycle your RPi and check the following: