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Linux @lemmy.ml squid_slime @lemm.ee

Kernel Maintenance By a Novice.

been using Arch for years but i am still a novice, yesterday i had found that in order for something to work on my system i will need to edit a few lines in kernel which i did, then removed unnecessary modules > intel, > nvidia, compiled. it worked great but with Arch and its rolling release i am dreading the next update and having to go through this again.
what methods are there to automate this process?

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  • I use a custom kernel on my laptop. I just modified the PKGBUILD of the official arch kernel package, and added my patch as a file. Then I could build a proper package with makepkg. I'm planning on setting up my server to automatically build the patched kernel and serve it in a private arch repository, so I don't have to compile the kernel on my laptop regularly. I'm waiting on forgejo (git forge I host on my server) version 9 to be released first, as it should support arch package hosting by then.

    • this sounds very involved initially but hands off after the fact.

      Script 
      #!/bin/bash

cd ~/ || exit

LATEST_KERNEL=$(curl -s https://www.kernel.org | grep -Po 'linux-\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.tar\.xz' | head -1)
echo "Latest Kernel: $LATEST_KERNEL"

KERNEL_URL="https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/$LATEST_KERNEL"
echo "Kernel URL: $KERNEL_URL"

DIR_NAME=$(echo $LATEST_KERNEL | sed 's/\.tar\.xz//')
mkdir -p ./$DIR_NAME

wget -O ./$DIR_NAME/$LATEST_KERNEL "$KERNEL_URL" || exit

tar -xf ./$DIR_NAME/$LATEST_KERNEL -C ./$DIR_NAME || exit

EXTRACTED_DIR=$(tar -tf ./$DIR_NAME/$LATEST_KERNEL | head -1 | cut -f1 -d"/")

cd ./$DIR_NAME/$EXTRACTED_DIR || exit

zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
echo "Kernel config copied."

if [ -f "drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/dc/link/link_dpms.c" ] && [ -f "drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/dc/link/protocols/link_dp_training.c" ]; then
    echo "Files found, proceeding with modifications..."
    
    sed -i 's/#define LINK_TRAINING_RETRY_DELAY 50 \/\* ms \*\//#include <linux\/module.h>\nstatic int link_training_retry_delay = 50;\nmodule_param(link_training_retry_delay, int, 0644);\nMODULE_PARM_DESC(link_training_retry_delay, "Delay between link training retries (ms)");\n#define LINK_TRAINING_RETRY_DELAY link_training_retry_delay/' drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/dc/link/protocols/link_dp_training.c
    
    sed -i 's/#define LINK_TRAINING_ATTEMPTS 4/#include <linux\/module.h>\nstatic int link_training_attempts = 4;\nmodule_param(link_training_attempts, int, 0644);\nMODULE_PARM_DESC(link_training_attempts, "Number of link training attempts");\n#define LINK_TRAINING_ATTEMPTS link_training_attempts/' drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/dc/link/link_dpms.c
    
else
    echo "One or both files not found in the kernel source directory."
fi

echo "Kernel modifications complete."

make olddefconfig || exit
#make || exit

echo "Compiling the kernel..."
make -j16 || exit

echo "Building modules..."
sudo make modules_install || exit   

echo "Installing the kernel..."
sudo make install || exit   

echo "Backing up existing kernel files..."
sudo cp /boot/vmlinuz-linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux.bak
sudo cp /boot/initramfs-linux.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img.bak

echo "Moving new kernel files to /boot..."
sudo cp ./arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-fix
sudo mkinitcpio -k $(make kernelrelease) -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-fix.img

if [ -f /boot/vmlinuz-fix ] && [ -f /boot/initramfs-fix.img ]; then
    echo "Kernel and initramfs moved to /boot successfully."
else
    echo "Failed to move kernel or initramfs files to /boot."
    exit 1
fi

echo "Kernel compilation, installation, and file replacement completed successfully."
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