Kernel Development Learning Pipeline

Compile smallest custom kernel

Configure, build and test your own kernel for the x86 64 bit architecture from Linuses git tree. Smallest as possible.

What to submit:

• Gzipped custom configuration kernel file
• Achieved size of the kernel with the compiled modules
• Time spend on assignment in hours

Procedure:

• Clone Linuses git tree.
• Checkout release version 6.10
• Do “make defconfig” to load default configuration (try to not cheat and avoid using tiny config)
• Start the configuration process using “make menuconfig” (You will probably have to install several system packages like gcc, make, ncurses-devel)
• Build the kernel using “make”
• Repeat the configuration and build steps until you achieve the smallest bootable kernel (including kernel modules)
• Hint, you can copy the modules to a separate directory to check for their size using “make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH=<path>”

Requirements:

• The compiled kernel must boot on a default qemu x86 64-bit machine with ext4 FS and a ttyS0 console.

Points

• Maximum points for this assignment are 10.