5 ms·

It’s fairly easy to build your own kernel packages from vanilla sources in Debian. I’m running the latest 7.0.x within a few hours of its release. The build tak

It’s fairly easy to build your own kernel packages from vanilla sources in Debian. I’m running the latest 7.0.x within a few hours of its release. The build takes about 30-45 minutes depending on how much time I spend on skimming the ChangeLog. YMMV.

wolfi1 4mo ago
I miss the days when my 486 took about 12 hours to compile a kernel
- throw0101c 4mo ago
  Or it took >15 minutes to generate PGP 2.x private keys due to entropy generation and prime calculations/tests.
z3ratul163071 4mo ago
what about your carbon footprint
- imoverclocked 4mo ago
  I build using excess solar from my house. The build host is a small arm64 SBC that doesn’t require cooling in my passively cooled garage. The resources behind your post likely have a larger carbon footprint.
- dymk 4mo ago
  Turn the shed light off overnight and you’re at net zero
jcalvinowens 4mo ago
> The build takes about 30-45 minutes If you don't actually need all the drivers, you can use "make localmodconfig" to substantially reduce that. My local kernels build in 90 seconds on a 32-thread desktop machine :) The kernel is a lot more stable than people think: I run the daily linux-next on my Debian stable gaming PC to look for bugs, and I don't find very many.
- tredre3 3mo ago
  You're being a bit disingenuous, it builds in 90 seconds because you build it daily and the vast majority of objects are unchanged and cached by ccache.
  - chlorion 3mo ago
    No, I don't think that's what happening actually. A stripped down cold build will literally take 90 seconds without caching on modern hardware. The overwhelming majority of stuff that is being built is drivers, and most of them probably aren't needed for any specific user, so you can disable quite a lot of stuff. Fwiw a full build of the fedora kernel config takes around 5-10m for my 12core ryzen 3900x, and it's definitely not the fastest CPU around.
  - jcalvinowens 3mo ago
    No, 90 seconds is the clean build time without ccache.
- wolfi1 3mo ago
  try to build it with make clean first
  - jcalvinowens 3mo ago
    It's actually faster than I remembered: {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] git describe v7.1 {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] git clean -dffxq {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] zcat /proc/config.gz > .config {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] time make -skj32 tar-pkg './System.map' -> 'tar-install/boot/System.map-7.1.0' '.config' -> 'tar-install/boot/config-7.1.0' './vmlinux' -> 'tar-install/boot/vmlinux-7.1.0' 'arch/x86/boot/bzImage' -> 'tar-install/boot/vmlinuz-7.1.0' real 0m56.539s user 18m41.863s sys 2m8.754s
kro 4mo ago
I did that for a while because of compatibility issues with a newer laptop, it works but generally if there is no reason it's way easier to stay with the provided packages. Compiling weekly due to security patches becomes annoying over time for no real gain other than the version number
cesarb 4mo ago
> It’s fairly easy to build your own kernel packages from vanilla sources in Debian. IIRC, Debian has a command called "make-kpkg" which does nearly all the work for you, ending up with a installable package which works identically to the standard Debian kernel packages.

wolfi1 4mo ago

I miss the days when my 486 took about 12 hours to compile a kernel

throw0101c 4mo ago
Or it took >15 minutes to generate PGP 2.x private keys due to entropy generation and prime calculations/tests.

z3ratul163071 4mo ago

what about your carbon footprint

imoverclocked 4mo ago
I build using excess solar from my house. The build host is a small arm64 SBC that doesn’t require cooling in my passively cooled garage. The resources behind your post likely have a larger carbon footprint.
dymk 4mo ago
Turn the shed light off overnight and you’re at net zero

jcalvinowens 4mo ago

> The build takes about 30-45 minutes If you don't actually need all the drivers, you can use "make localmodconfig" to substantially reduce that. My local kernels build in 90 seconds on a 32-thread desktop machine :) The kernel is a lot more stable than people think: I run the daily linux-next on my Debian stable gaming PC to look for bugs, and I don't find very many.

tredre3 3mo ago
You're being a bit disingenuous, it builds in 90 seconds because you build it daily and the vast majority of objects are unchanged and cached by ccache.
- chlorion 3mo ago
  No, I don't think that's what happening actually. A stripped down cold build will literally take 90 seconds without caching on modern hardware. The overwhelming majority of stuff that is being built is drivers, and most of them probably aren't needed for any specific user, so you can disable quite a lot of stuff. Fwiw a full build of the fedora kernel config takes around 5-10m for my 12core ryzen 3900x, and it's definitely not the fastest CPU around.
- jcalvinowens 3mo ago
  No, 90 seconds is the clean build time without ccache.
wolfi1 3mo ago
try to build it with make clean first
- jcalvinowens 3mo ago
  It's actually faster than I remembered: {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] git describe v7.1 {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] git clean -dffxq {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] zcat /proc/config.gz > .config {0}[calvinow@sousa ~/git/linux] time make -skj32 tar-pkg './System.map' -> 'tar-install/boot/System.map-7.1.0' '.config' -> 'tar-install/boot/config-7.1.0' './vmlinux' -> 'tar-install/boot/vmlinux-7.1.0' 'arch/x86/boot/bzImage' -> 'tar-install/boot/vmlinuz-7.1.0' real 0m56.539s user 18m41.863s sys 2m8.754s

kro 4mo ago

I did that for a while because of compatibility issues with a newer laptop, it works but generally if there is no reason it's way easier to stay with the provided packages. Compiling weekly due to security patches becomes annoying over time for no real gain other than the version number

cesarb 4mo ago

> It’s fairly easy to build your own kernel packages from vanilla sources in Debian. IIRC, Debian has a command called "make-kpkg" which does nearly all the work for you, ending up with a installable package which works identically to the standard Debian kernel packages.