Configure, Build and Install Linux Kernel for Ubuntu 16.04

Hello Everyone
I am here again with another interesting topic for technology enthusiastic community. From where exactly we can configure our Linux kernel as per our need, How to build our custom kernel once configuration is over and how to install our new kernel so that our Ubuntu uses new configured kernel.

Procedure:

Step 1: Getting the dependencies:

abhi@vb:~$ sudo apt install install git build-essential kernel-package fakeroot 

libncurses5-dev libssl-dev ccache git bison flex libelf-dev libncursesw5-dev 

Step 2: Update the existing system:

abhi@vb:~$ sudo apt update

abhi@vb:~$ sudo apt upgrade

abhi@vb:~$ sudo apt dist-upgrade

Step 3: Getting the Kernel Source

abhi@vb:~$ uname -r

4.4.0-124-generic

abhi@vb:~$ mkdir kernelbuild

abhi@vb:~$ cd kernelbuild/

abhi@vb:~$ git clone -b linux-4.11.y git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git

abhi@vb:~$ cd linux-stable/

abhi@vb:~$ cp /boot/config-`uname -r` .config

abhi@vb:~$ yes '' | make oldconfig

abhi@vb:~$ make menuconfig

You can configure your kernel as per requirement, where you can add some features, select a particilar driver and remove few features, as needed. Select the option that you want and hit the Space bar. The Space bar cycles between “M,” “*,” and empty. “M” signifies that the feature will be built as a module that will be loaded if needed when Ubuntu starts. “*” means that the feature will be built into the kernel and always loaded. The script does not include blank options in the final product.

When you’re done setting things up, clean the directory.

abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild/linux-stable$ make clean

Now your kernel is ready to build.

Step 4: Building Kernel Packages

abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild/linux-stable$ make -j `getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN` deb-pkg LOCALVERSION=-custom

All that line does is compile the kernel into .deb packages using the amount of CPU cores on your system plus one. It also adds on “custom” to the end of the package version to differentiate your custom kernel from others.

It takes 4-5 Hours to compile kernel on Core i3 processor with 8 GB RAM.

Step 5: Installing the Kernel

You’ll find your new kernel packages one directory up. They’ll be easily identifiable by their version number. You can use “dpkg” to install them.

abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild/linux-stable$ cd ..

abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild$ sudo dpkg -i linux-firmware-image-4.11.12-custom_4.11.12-custom-1_amd64.deb

abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild$ sudo dpkg -i linux-libc-dev_4.11.1-custom-1_amd64.deb
abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.11.1-custom_4.11.1-custom-1_amd64.deb
abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild$ sudo dpkg -i linux-image-4.11.1-custom-dbg_4.11.1-custom-1_amd64.deb
abhi@vb:~/kernelbuild$ sudo dpkg -i linux-image-4.11.1-custom_4.11.1-custom-1_amd64.deb

When the installation finishes, restart your computer. Ubuntu will automatically boot into your new kernel. You can double-check that it did by runing “uname -r” in a terminal when it starts up. If you see your version, congratulations! You’re running your own custom kernel.

abhi@vb:~$ uname -r

4.11.12-custom

Hope you enjoyed updating your kernel and learnt lot in this process.
Happy learning!