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I installed Ubuntu 24.04 server on a physical server. My kernel version is:

# uname -r
6.8.0-38-generic

Using the Ubuntu 24.04 I just installed, I followed the instructions at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/BuildYourOwnKernel

I obtained the source using apt rather than git. Here is what was downloaded:

# ls -al
total 226600
drwxrwxr-x  4 root root      4096 Jul 17 16:32 .
drwxrwxrwx  6 root root        65 Jul 17 15:08 ..
drwxr-xr-x 29 root root      4096 Jul 17 16:32 linux-6.8.0
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   1919488 Jun 10 10:49 linux_6.8.0-38.38.diff.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      9222 Jun 10 10:49 linux_6.8.0-38.38.dsc
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 230060117 Mar 15 09:29 linux_6.8.0.orig.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root        83 Jul 17 17:01 linux-signed-6.8.0
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      2620 Jun 10 10:49 linux-signed_6.8.0-38.38.dsc
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     26760 Jun 10 10:49 linux-signed_6.8.0-38.38.tar.xz

I do not have to modify any configuration files.

Then I set the current directory to the root of the kernel directory I downloaded:

# cd linux-6.8.0

The next step does not work:

# fakeroot debian/rules binary-headers binary-generic binary-perarch
fakeroot: FAKEROOTKEY set to 724713999
fakeroot: nested operation not yet supported

I have not been able to figure out what I am doing wrong?

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  • 3
    First the basic question: Why do you consider it necessary to build the kernel? Commented Jul 18, 2024 at 16:42
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    I'm coming back to Linux many years. I remember it being easy to build a kernel, though time consuming. First, I wanted to see how the process has changed with the introduction of things like Rust. Second, there is a security project that may involve verifying that what is downloaded can be reproduced from the source. At this point I am trying to gauge the needed effort and resources. Commented Jul 18, 2024 at 17:27
  • For What It's Worth (FWIW!): to compile a kernel is nothing a "normal user" does. So you will need to consider yourself something beyond that, so you may better find a Ubuntu programmer community / group to join to find a valid answer. Also note that those instructions mentions "Disco Dingo" as being "current" - which was released in April 2019 (wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases). I'd say a lot has changed since then. Commented Jul 19, 2024 at 19:05

1 Answer 1

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This is what I did to build the kernel on ubuntu 24.04. From bash history:

 1000  cd linux-6.8.0/
 1002  chmod a+x debian/rules
 1003  chmod a+x debian/scripts/*
 1004  chmod a+x debian/scripts/misc/*
 1011  apt install libncurses-dev gawk flex bison openssl libssl-dev dkms libelf-dev libudev-dev libpci-dev libiberty-dev autoconf llvm
 1012  fakeroot debian/rules editconfigs
 1015  pico debian.master/changelog 
 1016  fakeroot debian/rules clean
 1017  fakeroot debian/rules binary-headers binary-generic binary-perarch
 1018  echo $?

Edited for clarity, hence the nonconsecutive line numbers. The pico command in line 1015 was to add a custom version string. For me the return code was zero, after a few hours of building on this old computer.

I agree you should be able to build the kernel. In my case I wanted to apply a patch to a wifi driver that was causing oops messages in dmesg and making the wifi/network stack stop working (I applied the broadcom patch in https://gist.github.com/joanbm/9cd5fda1dcfab9a67b42cc6195b7b269 ).

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  • I have a similar situation - is it possible to only recompile a .ko file in this case and replace it? Commented Jan 16, 2025 at 9:20
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    Once you've built the kernel, then yes I think you should be able to rebuild only a .ko file that you've modified. With a different driver there should be instructions about how to build/rebuild and install the driver modules. For example this README for a driver I use is very helpful about how to do this: github.com/lwfinger/rtw89/blob/main/README.md Commented Feb 24, 2025 at 23:50

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