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Contents

1 What commit message should I use?
1. 1.1 Code Changes
2. 1.2 Configuration Changes
2 How do I send a patch upstream?
3 Which copyright header should I use?
4 How do I check my patches are correct?
5 How do I backport an upstream patch?
6 Kernel Configuration
7 How to quickly test kernel modifications (the fastest way)
8 How to quickly test kernel modifications (the fast way)
9 How to test kernel modifications (the slow way)
1. 9.1 Testing with an EFI BIOS
2. 9.2 Testing with a legacy BIOS
10 Debugging messages
11 Working on several kernel issues
1. 11.1 Modifying H2C Bios kernel command line
12 Installing onto SSD
13 Getting a Kernel Trace
14 Loading Kernel modules from outside the root filesystem
15 Blacklisting Kernel modules for individual overlays
16 Building and installing kernel-next on a specific overlay

This document describes the basic workflow to follow, after you've made a change to the Linux Kernel in the Chromium OS sources, to submit a your changes to the Chromium OS repository, and to submit your changes upstream to the official Linux Kernel repository.

What commit message should I use?

See the Kernel Design page for some more details.

Code Changes

For changes which cannot be submitted upstream to the official Linux Kernel repository, the commit message is important. We use the following conventions:

Begin the commit message with CHROMIUM:
If it is architecture specific, add the architecture. The following are samples of supported architectures: ARM: or X86:
If it is machine specific, add machine-identifying information. For example, tegra2: or x86-mario:.
Follow the needed tags with the subject for the commit message.
Follow the subject line with the body of the commit message. The message should not only describe what, but also why, you have created the change. Please include information about the testing that you performed to ensure the code is valid.
Signed-off-by is required, and our gerrit server is a bit picky about the order. It appears to require this line immediately before the Change-Id line if present.

An example subject line is: CHROMIUM: ARM: tegra: Add initial support for aebl

Do not include configuration changes (i.e. changes to files within chromeos/config) with other code changes. See the next section for these.

Files may not be suitable for submission upstream because they have Chromium OS-specific information, or may be based on other changes which are local to the Chromium OS project. Such changes may not be upstreamed, but the Chromium OS project team will continue to maintain the changes.

Configuration Changes

When a commit involves configuration changes, make sure that any code changes are separated out into a different commit. The configuration commit should contain only changes to files within the chromeos/config directory tree.

The commit message should start with CHROMIUM: config:

An example message is: CHROMIUM: config: enable aebl config

How do I send a patch upstream?

Changes to parts of the kernel which are not purely Chrome OS- specific should be upstreamed where possible. This includes just about any part of the kernel: ARM- and x86-specific changes, driver patches and changes within the main kernel and mm source. You can start with a code review if you like. Take a look on the kernel mailing list to get a feel for how people submit and review patches.

To upstream, create a remote to track upstream.

For example the main kernel:

git remote add upstream git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git

git fetch upstream

git checkout -b send-upstream upstream/master

You can then create a commit within this branch. This can be done either by cherry-picking the commit from another branch and perhaps changing the commit message:

git cherry-pick my-change

git commit --amend

# edit the message and save

or using git am to turn a patch into a commit:

git am my-change.patch

or manually applying a patch, and then committing:

patch -p1 < my-change.patch
git add ...
git commit
# create a suitable message

Like any kernel patch you should use checkpatch.pl to make sure it is clean (see below). Also see Documentation/SubmittingPatches.txt in the kernel source tree for instructions. You can use 'git show HEAD' to see your patch.

To send upstream, you can create patch files with 'git format-patch', and then email then. This creates a set of patch files named '000n-<something>' where 'n' is incremented starting from 1, and "something" comes from the first line of each change description.

You can use get_maintainer.pl to figure out who to send it to.

# turn top commit into a patch

git format-patch HEAD~



# or perhaps you want to do the top 5 commits

git format-patch HEAD~5

# edit patches if you like



./scripts/get_maintainer.pl 0001-mypatch.patch | \

  sed 's/ *([^)]*) *//g' | \

  sed 's/"//g' | \

  sed 's/^\(.*\)$/--cc="\1" /' | \

  tr -d '\n'

# spits out a list of --cc addresses



# send out email, with subject prefix PATCH v5 (you can leave this out for default)

git send-email --to=linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org --cc=... --cc=... --signoff --subject-prefix="PATCH v5" --annotate 0001-my-change.patch

# Edit the patch as required

(Note: git send-email requires git-email to be installed on your host ('sudo apt-get install git-email'),
or you will get the message "git: 'send-email' is not a git command. See 'git --help'.".)

If you are sending a series of patches it is nice to include a cover letter. This turns up as patch zero in the series. Pass the --cover-letter flag to 'git format-patch' and it will create a 0000-subject file which you can edit to contain your cover letter. When you use 'git send-email' you can send files 000* to send the cover letter and all your patches as one email set.

Another flow that might work is to send email directly, without going through 'git format-patch'. For example you can email the top five commits to the mailing list with something like:

git send-email --to=... -cc=... --signoff --subject-prefix=... --annotate HEAD~5

The --annotate lets you edit them before they go out, which is probably a good idea in this case!

When replying to an email thread with an updated patch, use the something like the following to attach your email to the thread:

git send-email --thread --no-chain-reply-to --in-reply-to=<message id> --to=... --cc=... --signoff --subject-prefix=... --annotate 0002-...

You can find the message id under the label <Message-Id> in gmail in the 'Show Original' link in the drop down options for the email you want to reply to.

There is a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLBrBBImJt4

The patch flow throughout the video is:

git diff
git commit
git show
git format-patch
git send-email

Patch checklist: (at 34:30 of the video)

Kernel builds with patch applied
Correct "From:" address
Concise "Subject:"
Explain the patch
Signed-off-by
Check you have removed Change ID, TEST= and BUG= from the commit message

Which copyright header should I use?

When adding new files to the kernel, please add a regular Google copyright header to them. In particular this is true for any code that will eventually find its way upstream (which should include practically everything we do).

The main reason for this is that there's no concept of "The Chromium OS Authors" outside of our project, since it refers to the AUTHORS file that isn't bundled with the kernel.

* This software is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public

* License version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation, and

* may be copied, distributed, and modified under those terms.

* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the

* GNU General Public License for more details.

How do I check my patches are correct?

There are two aspects of having correct patches to send upstream: not having Chromium OS-specific details, and meeting all the Linux kernel requirements.

For the following sections, you will need to have created a patch file using git format-patch. Also note that you will have to recreate the patch file, and re-check your patch file each time you check in code to your source tree.

Remove Chromium OS-specific Details

Verifying these details is as simple as loading the patch file in your favorite editor. Edit the file manually to become compliant; this will, of course, have no affect on the source or commit message stored by git.

No CHROMIUM:in the subject line of the patch file.
No BUG= in the patch file.
No TEST= in the patch file.
No Change-Id: in the patch file.
Signed-off-by: is in the patch file.

Once all of the above is true, you can move on to checking for compliance with the Linux Kernel guidelines.

Check for Compliance with Linux Kernel Requirements

You should use this perl script to check that your patch conforms to the kernel coding standard. It is kept in the linux kernel tree.

git format-patch HEAD~
scripts/checkpatch.pl 0001-my-change.patch
# make improvements
git add ...
git commit --amend
# rinse and repeat

Automating the Compliance Checks

This script might be useful also, as it checks a series of patches, checks for Chrome OS-specific commit tags and prints a summary at the end. Put it in your path and run it from anywhere.

#! /bin/sh

KERNEL=/path/to/src/third_party/kernel/scripts/
OUT=$(tempfile)
while (( "$#" )); do
    ERRCP=
    ERR=
    checkpatch.pl $1 || ERRCP=1
    grep BUG= $1 && ERR="$ERR BUG"
    grep TEST= $1 && ERR="$ERR TEST"
    grep "Change-Id" $1 && ERR="$ERR Change-Id"
    grep "Review URL" $1 && ERR="$ERR Review URL"
    if [ -n "${ERR}" ]; then
        echo "Bad $1 ($ERR)" >>$OUT
    else
        echo "OK   $1" >>$OUT
    fi
    shift
done
cat $OUT

How do I backport an upstream patch?

Let's suppose you've spotted a juicy new commit in Linus's upstream linux kernel tree that you just must have.
Instead of creating a new branch and manually applying the changes, use git cherry-pick to do it for you.
In addition, the repository maintainers appreciate it if the cherry-picked commit still contains the original author and git hash of the original upstream commit.
Use git cherry-pick -x to do this automatically:

NAME

git-cherry-pick - Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits

SYNOPSIS

git cherry-pick [--edit] [-n] [-m parent-number] [-s] [-x] [--ff] <commit>...

DESCRIPTION

       Given one or more existing commits, apply the change each one introduces, recording a new commit for each. This requires your working tree to be

clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).

OPTIONS

...

-x

           When recording the commit, append to the original commit message a note that indicates which commit this change was cherry-picked from. Append

the note only for cherry picks without conflicts. Do not use this option if you are cherry-picking from your private branch because the information is useless to the recipient. If on the other hand you are cherry-picking between two publicly visible branches (e.g. backporting a fix to a maintenance branch for an older release from a development branch), adding this information can be useful.

First, add Linus's tree as a remote to the chromium-os kernel tree (assuming the chromium-os root is ~/chromiumos):

cd ~/chromiumos/src/third_party/kernel

git remote add linus git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git

git remote update

This will take a little while as git fetches all upstream commits. Luckily, git is smart and won't refetch commits already in the chromium-os tree.

Once the tree is updated, take a brief look at whats been happening upstream recently to a particular path (--oneline shows short-form upstream hashes and the brief commit message):

git log --oneline linus/master /path/of/interest

We can view that juicy commit using its upstream hash:

git show <upstream_commit_hash>

To backport the commit to the chromium-os tree, first start a new branch from the current Tip of Tree (ToT).
Then cherry-pick with -x to preserve the original author and hash, and -s to sign-off-by the commit:

repo sync .

repo start my_upstream_commit .

git cherry-pick -x -s <upstream_commit_hash>

Add TEST= and BUG= lines at the bottom of the patch description. Also, remember to keep the patch subject intact with only an addition of UPSTREAM: or BACKPORT: as a new prefix.

Now, the upstream commit is on its own branch, let's upload it to gerrit, like usual:

repo upload .

This will generate a gerrit change for review.

After review, submit the patch in gerrit like usual.

Kernel Configuration

Kernel configuration in Chromium OS has an extra level of indirection from the normal .config file. So do the instructions - see this page for more information.

How to quickly test kernel modifications (the fastest way)

Please take a look at doc on network-based development. While setting up your environment might appear to be harder and more time consuming, in many cases it will allow to test kernel modifications much faster and easier than the ways described below.

How to quickly test kernel modifications (the fast way)

Do an incremental build of the kernel:

(chroot) $ FEATURES="noclean" cros_workon_make --board=${BOARD} --install chromeos-kernel-[3_8|3_10|3_14]

Update the kernel on the target:

(chroot) $ ~/trunk/src/scripts/update_kernel.sh --remote <ip of target>

Note that using cros_workon_make leaves build artifacts in your source directory under the "build" directory. When you do a regular emerge of the kernel (and are cros_work'ed on) this will slow things down because the entire source directory gets copied. So delete the "build" directory when you're done.

Dealing with a bad kernel installation

One problem with this fast approach is that it requires an already installed and booted target system. If you update with a bad kernel so that it no longer boots, this approach is no longer available. The system is generally recoverable by booting physical media (USB stick or SD card) and copying its kernel blob over your kernel partition:

# Assuming you boot physical media as sdb, and your local disk is sda,

$ dd if=/dev/sdb2 of=/dev/sda2

Dealing with partition corruption due to bad kernel recovery

One time I really screwed up my system by recovering (after bad kernel installation) with 'dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda'. I forgot the '2' after each drive specification.
This overwrote my internal partition table with an exact copy of the USB stick's partition table, including the GUIDs.
When I subsequently tried to boot USB, the system always seemed to boot off the internal disk. 'rootdev -s' reported (internal partition) /dev/sda3.
After an hour or so, consultation with Bill showed that I really was booting the kernel from /dev/sda2, but the kernel found the matching GUID on sda before even looking at sdb.
This was recovered with:

$ a=$(uuidgen)

$ cgpt add -i 3 -u $a /dev/sda

which generates and installs a new GUID for sda3.

Dealing with issues - preparing the environment

Below are described some problems you might encounter. If instructions above work, you might skip them. We assume that you want to boot using the most recently built image.

First, to prepare for other steps:

# cd to the image directory

(chroot) $ cd ~/trunk/src/build/images/${BOARD}/latest



# produce separate images for every partition

(chroot) $ ./unpack_partitions.sh chromiumos_image.bin

SSHD keys

If sshd on the target machine complains about missing keys:

# Mount stateful partition

(chroot) $ sudo mount -o loop part_1 stateful_partition/



(chroot) $ sudo mkdir -p stateful_partition/etc/ssh/



# Generate and save keys.

# The paths below correspond to /mnt/stateful_partition/etc/ssh/ssh_host_{rsa,dsa}_key on target.

# Make sure these are correct for your configuration.

(chroot) $ sudo ssh-keygen -t rsa -f stateful_partition/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

(chroot) $ sudo ssh-keygen -t dsa -f stateful_partition/etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key



# Unmount the stateful partition

(chroot) $ sudo umount stateful_partition

Public key authorization

update_kernel.sh uses for authorization keys that, depending on your configuration, might not be present in your image. If that's the case, you will be prompted for password during script execution. To fix it, run the following commands in your image directory:

# Mount root filesystem

(chroot) $ sudo mount -o loop part_3 rootfs_dir/



(chroot) $ sudo mkdir -p rootfs_dir/root/.ssh/

(chroot) $ sudo cp ~/trunk/src/scripts/mod_for_test_scripts/ssh_keys/testing_rsa.pub rootfs_dir/root/.ssh/authorized_keys



# Unmount root filesystem

(chroot) $ sudo umount rootfs_dir/

iptables configuration

Iptables - again, depending on your configuration - might be configured to refuse all the incoming connections, in which case update_kernel.sh will be unable to ssh to your target machine. If you encounter this problem, to fix it:

Again mount the root filesystem:

(chroot) $ sudo mount -o loop part_3 rootfs_dir/
Edit file rootfs_dir/etc/init/iptables.conf. Find the following line:

iptables -P INPUT DROP
Change it to:

iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
Save and unmount the filesystem:

(chroot) $ sudo umount rootfs_dir/

Dealing with issues - cleaning up

To build new image after modifications to one or more of the partitions, simply run:

(chroot) $ ./pack_partitions.sh chromiumos_image.bin

How to test kernel modifications (the slow way)

Note: there is more information (possibly more useful too) in the disk format document, and more specifically here.

Check out the tree somewhere as usual, make the chroot, build packages, build image, blah blah blah. Create a bootable USB key from that image. We'll modify that key with our testing kernel.

At this point you need to cros_workon the kernel (and clone the kernel tree in case you used mini-layout). See the big picture and instructions in Chromium OS Developer Guide, but as a quick reference you are expected to run the following inside chroot:

~/trunk/src/scripts $ cros_workon start --board=<your platform> chromeos-kernel
~/trunk/src/scripts $ repo sync chromiumos/third_party/kernel

Then, still inside chroot, run this:


~/trunk/src/scripts $ export BUILD_DIR=/tmp/kernel   # pick any new directory you like

~/trunk/src/scripts $ mkdir ${BUILD_DIR}

~/trunk/src/scripts $ cp /build/<your platform>/boot/config ${BUILD_DIR}/.config

~/trunk/src/scripts $ cd ../third_party/kernel/files

~/trunk/src/third_party/kernel/files $ ARCH=<your target arch> make oldconfig O=${BUILD_DIR}

~/trunk/src/third_party/kernel/files $ mv .git .git.bak

~/trunk/src/third_party/kernel/files $ CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/<base_toolchain_name>- \

                                 ARCH=<your target arch> \

                                 make -j <num> <image_type>  modules O=${BUILD_DIR}

~/trunk/src/third_party/kernel/files $ mv .git.bak .git

Where

<your_target_arch> is arm or x86, depending on your platform
<base_toolchain_name> is armv7a-cros-linux-gnueabi- or i686-pc-linux-gnu-, respectively,
<image_type> is bzImage for x86 or uImage for arm,
<num> should be set to an integer which is twice the number of cores on your development machine.

Renaming of the .git directory for the duration for the build is required to prevent mangling the module path by the kernel make. The

make will produce ${BUILD_DIR}/arch/<your_target_arch>/boot/{bzImage|uImage}, which is the kernel image you want to try. The next step varies depending on whether your hardware has an EFI BIOS, legacy BIOS or u-boot. You can ether copy the kernel to your USB stick and tell the bootloader to use your new kernel, possibly with extra debugging arguments, or use netboot/NFS for u-boot equipped targets (see network_based_development for details).

If you need your module to be present on the target, you can scp it from the build location to your target (provided your target is set for ssh access and allows chronos account login).

Testing with an EFI BIOS

Copy the new bzImage file into the /efi/boot/ directory on your USB key's partition 12. The /efi/boot/grub.cfg file will look for the kernel called vmlinuz, but you can edit that config file to add a line to look for your test kernel too. For example, here's my USB key's partition 12:

blackadder$ mount | grep vfat
/dev/sdc12 on /media/disk type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=100135,utf8,umask=077,flush)

blackadder$ ls -l /media/disk/efi/boot/
total 6600
-rwx------ 1 wfrichar root 262656 Apr 21 10:21 bootx64.efi*
-rwx------ 1 wfrichar root 2851056 Apr 21 10:12 bzImage*
-rwx------ 1 wfrichar root 1040 Apr 21 08:51 grub.cfg*
-rwx------ 1 wfrichar root 2821296 Apr 19 11:19 vmlinuz*

blackadder$ cat /media/disk/efi/boot/grub.cfg
set timeout=10
set default=0

menuentry "bzImage normal" {
linux /efi/boot/bzImage quiet console=tty2 init=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait
root=/dev/sda3 ro noresume noswap i915.modeset=1 loglevel=1
}

menuentry "bzImage serial normal" {
linux /efi/boot/bzImage earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,115200 console=ttyS0,115200 i
nit=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait root=/dev/sda3 ro noresume noswap i915.modese
t=1 loglevel=7
}

menuentry "bzImage serial add_efi_memmap" {
linux /efi/boot/bzImage add_efi_memmap earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,115200 console
=ttyS0,115200 init=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait root=/dev/sda3 ro noresume nos
wap i915.modeset=1 loglevel=7
}

menuentry "vmlinuz normal" {
linux /efi/boot/vmlinuz quiet console=tty2 init=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait
root=/dev/sda3 ro noresume noswap i915.modeset=1 loglevel=1
}

menuentry "vmlinuz serial debug" {
linux /efi/boot/vmlinuz earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,115200 console=ttyS0,115200 i
nit=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait root=/dev/sda3 ro noresume noswap i915.modese
t=1 loglevel=7
}

When the USB key boots, I'll see a menu that lets me select which boot path to use.

Testing with a legacy BIOS

Copy the new bzImage file into the /boot directory on your USB key's partition 3. The /boot/extlinux.conf file will look for the kernel called vmlinuz, but you can edit that config file to add a line to look for your test kernel too. For example, here's my USB key's partition 3:

blackadder$ mount | grep sdc3
/dev/sdc3 on /media/C-KEYFOB type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal)

blackadder$ ls -l /media/C-KEYFOB/boot
total 6940
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      19 Apr 23 01:55 System.map -> System.map-2.6.32.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1313402 Apr 23 00:12 System.map-2.6.32.9
-rw-r----- 1 root root 2851056 Apr 26 10:30 bzImage
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      15 Apr 23 01:55 config -> config-2.6.32.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   74534 Apr 23 00:12 config-2.6.32.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     409 Apr 23 01:53 extlinux.conf
-r--r--r-- 1 root root   14336 Apr 23 01:53 extlinux.sys
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      16 Apr 23 01:55 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.32.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2821296 Apr 23 00:12 vmlinuz-2.6.32.9

blackadder$ cat /media/C-KEYFOB/boot/extlinux.conf
DEFAULT chromeos-usb
PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 20

label chromeos-usb
menu label chromeos-usb
kernel vmlinuz

  append quiet console=tty2 init=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait root=/dev/sdb3 ro noresume noswap i915.modeset=1 loglevel=1

label chromeos-test
menu label chromeos-test
kernel bzImage
append console=tty1 init=/sbin/init boot=local rootwait root=/dev/sdb3 ro noresume noswap i915.modeset=1 loglevel=7

When the USB key boots, I can hit TAB to see the list of boot choices, and can pick the one I want by entering the label.

Debugging messages

With either bootloader, you can debug early kernel failures by increasing the verbosity and location of kernel debug messages. You can modify the config files without rebuilding anything. The default boot args have this:

quiet console=tty2 loglevel=1

Using args like these instead may be helpful:

console=tty1 loglevel=7

Working on several kernel issues

git supports multiple branches coexisting in the same directory tree, and kernel make system supports placing the kernel build output in a separate directory (using the O=<path> make command line parameter).

To create separate builds get per kernel git branch, while in the cloned kernel source tree root create a build directory for your current branch, for instance:

mkdir ../build/<branch_name>

and then just add O=../../build/<branch_name> to make invocations described above. Or use the following bash script to take care of all make command line parameters other than make targets:

kmake () {

  b=$(git branch 2>/dev/null | grep '^\*' | awk '{print $2}')

  if [ "${b}" == "" ]; then

    echo "not in a git tree"

    return

  fi

  build_dir="../build/${b}"

  if [ ! -d "${build_dir}" ]; then

    echo "build directory ${build_dir} does not exist"

    return

  fi

  make_jobs=$(expr 2 \* $(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -c '^processor'))

  make ARCH=i386 O=${build_dir} -j "${make_jobs}" $*

}

Modifying H2C Bios kernel command line

Place kernel blob into a file (<original_kernel>), either using dd on the target or by dismantling chromiumos_image.bin generated by build_image. Store the desired kernel command line in a file <new_cmd_line> and then use the following to change the kernel command line:

vbutil_kernel --repack <modified_kernel> --config <new_cmd_line> \
--signprivate <path_to>/vboot_reference/tests/devkeys/<key> \
--oldblob <original_kernel>

where <key> is kernel_data_key.vbprivk for the main kernel or recovery_kernel_data_key.vbprivk for the flash drive based recovery kernel The keys can be found in the vboot_reference repository. Then dd the <modified_kernel> file back to where <original_kernel> came from.

The command line to boot a kernel with verified rootfs disabled can be obtain by editing the regular command line as follows:

vbutil_kernel --verify <original_kernel> --verbose | tail -1 | sed '
s/dm_verity[^ ]\+//g
s|verity /dev/sd%D%P /dev/sd%D%P ||
s| root=/dev/dm-0 | root=/dev/sd%D%P |
s/dm="[^"]\+" //' > new_cmd_line

Installing onto SSD

Instead of booting the kernel from USB as described above, it can be installed directly on the SSD of the target device. With modern H2C Bios, this requires signing the blob with the development key and booting with the target machine's development mode switch set appropriately. Also, since there are two kernel/root partition pairs in our partition scheme, we need to select which one we want to use. Usually we stay with the current pair.

To sign with the devkey as per the Disk Format doc http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/disk-format#TOC-Quick-development:

vbutil_kernel --pack new_kern.bin --keyblock /usr/share/vboot/devkeys/kernel.keyblock --signprivate <keys_path>/kernel_data_key.vbprivk --version 1 --config config.txt --bootloader /lib64/bootstub/bootstub.efi --vmlinuz vmlinuz

Transfer new_kern.bin to the target system. I prefer scp, but it can be placed on USB stick as well.

Identify the preferred kernel partition. This will be either sda2 or sda4. rootdev -s will identify the root partition, and that can be used to identify the currently booted kernel partition.

	Kernel	Root
pair A	`/dev/sda2`	`/dev/sda3`
pair B	`/dev/sda4`	`/dev/sda5`

Copy the image to the partition.

dd if=new_kern.bin of=/dev/sda2

dev_debug_vboot can be used to verify the kernel partition has a properly signed image. Indeed, it will actually tell you in what modes (ie, development, recovery, neither) your kernel will boot.

localhost ~ # dev_debug_vboot

:

TEST: verify HD kernel B with firmware A key

Key block:

Size: 0x4b8

Flags: 7 !DEV DEV !REC

:

cgpt can be used as an alternative to rootdev above to find the currently preferred kernel partition.

localhost ~ # cgpt show /dev/sda

start size part contents

4096 32768 2 Label: "KERN-A"

Type: ChromeOS kernel

UUID: B87DAA9E-E82E-B449-B93A-5EB0BD81BCEC

Attr: priority=3 tries=0 successful=1

36864 32768 4 Label: "KERN-B"

Type: ChromeOS kernel

UUID: 4581FC5C-58D1-8148-9FC4-E4B983C90782

Attr: priority=0 tries=0 successful=0

:

Getting a Kernel Trace

Run the following commands on the target. This needs to be done just once after an install.

touch /var/lib/crash_sender_paused

touch /home/chronos/"Consent To Send Stats"

chown chronos:chronos /var/lib/crash_sender_paused

chown chronos:chronos /home/chronos/"Consent To Send Stats"

sync; sync; sync

The crashes will then appear in /var/spool/crash.

Loading Kernel modules from outside the root filesystem

If you need to load kernel modules from a location other than the root filesystem, module locking must be disabled. Either a kernel command line option can be used:

lsm.module_locking=0

Or, on images with dm-verity disabled (--noenable_rootfs_verification), the restriction can be disabled via the exposed sysctl:

echo 0 >/proc/sys/kernel/chromiumos/module_locking

Blacklisting Kernel modules for individual overlays

If you need to blacklist kernel modules for specific overlays. Modify the overlay-<name>/chromeos-base/chromeos-bsp-<name>/chromeos-bsp-<name>-<version>.ebuild file.

Add the following two lines to the end of the src_install() function:

insinto "/etc/modprobe.d"

doins "${FILESDIR}/<blacklist file>"

The ${FILESDIR} variable points to the files/ directory within the chromeos-bsp-<name>/ directory. Within this directory, add your <blacklist file> (ex cros-blacklist.conf).

For each kernel module you wish to blacklist, add the following line to <blacklist file>:

blacklist <module name>

You can also use # comments within these files to explain why the kernel module needs to be blacklisted.

Building and installing kernel-next on a specific overlay

If given target device is not building kernel-next, you can switch by unmerging the standard kernel and then building kernel-next normally:

cros_workon --board=${BOARD} stop sys-kernel/chromeos-kernel

emerge-${BOARD} --unmerge sys-kernel/chromeos-kernel

cros_workon --board=${BOARD} start sys-kernel/chromeos-kernel-next

cros_workon_make --board=${BOARD} sys-kernel/chromeos-kernel-next --install

~/trunk/src/scripts/update_kernel.sh --board=${BOARD} --remote=hostname...

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