1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
|
<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-kernel-config">
<title>Linux Kernel</title>
<para>
You can override the Linux kernel and associated packages using the
option <literal>boot.kernelPackages</literal>. For instance, this
selects the Linux 3.10 kernel:
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxKernel.packages.linux_3_10;
</programlisting>
<para>
Note that this not only replaces the kernel, but also packages that
are specific to the kernel version, such as the NVIDIA video
drivers. This ensures that driver packages are consistent with the
kernel.
</para>
<para>
While <literal>pkgs.linuxKernel.packages</literal> contains all
available kernel packages, you may want to use one of the
unversioned <literal>pkgs.linuxPackages_*</literal> aliases such as
<literal>pkgs.linuxPackages_latest</literal>, that are kept up to
date with new versions.
</para>
<para>
Please note that the current convention in NixOS is to only keep
actively maintained kernel versions on both unstable and the
currently supported stable release(s) of NixOS. This means that a
non-longterm kernel will be removed after it’s abandoned by the
kernel developers, even on stable NixOS versions. If you pin your
kernel onto a non-longterm version, expect your evaluation to fail
as soon as the version is out of maintenance.
</para>
<para>
Longterm versions of kernels will be removed before the next stable
NixOS that will exceed the maintenance period of the kernel version.
</para>
<para>
The default Linux kernel configuration should be fine for most
users. You can see the configuration of your current kernel with the
following command:
</para>
<programlisting>
zcat /proc/config.gz
</programlisting>
<para>
If you want to change the kernel configuration, you can use the
<literal>packageOverrides</literal> feature (see
<xref linkend="sec-customising-packages" />). For instance, to
enable support for the kernel debugger KGDB:
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: pkgs.lib.recursiveUpdate pkgs {
linuxKernel.kernels.linux_5_10 = pkgs.linuxKernel.kernels.linux_5_10.override {
extraConfig = ''
KGDB y
'';
};
};
</programlisting>
<para>
<literal>extraConfig</literal> takes a list of Linux kernel
configuration options, one per line. The name of the option should
not include the prefix <literal>CONFIG_</literal>. The option value
is typically <literal>y</literal>, <literal>n</literal> or
<literal>m</literal> (to build something as a kernel module).
</para>
<para>
Kernel modules for hardware devices are generally loaded
automatically by <literal>udev</literal>. You can force a module to
be loaded via <xref linkend="opt-boot.kernelModules" />, e.g.
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
boot.kernelModules = [ "fuse" "kvm-intel" "coretemp" ];
</programlisting>
<para>
If the module is required early during the boot (e.g. to mount the
root file system), you can use
<xref linkend="opt-boot.initrd.kernelModules" />:
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
boot.initrd.kernelModules = [ "cifs" ];
</programlisting>
<para>
This causes the specified modules and their dependencies to be added
to the initial ramdisk.
</para>
<para>
Kernel runtime parameters can be set through
<xref linkend="opt-boot.kernel.sysctl" />, e.g.
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
boot.kernel.sysctl."net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time" = 120;
</programlisting>
<para>
sets the kernel’s TCP keepalive time to 120 seconds. To see the
available parameters, run <literal>sysctl -a</literal>.
</para>
<section xml:id="sec-linux-config-customizing">
<title>Customize your kernel</title>
<para>
The first step before compiling the kernel is to generate an
appropriate <literal>.config</literal> configuration. Either you
pass your own config via the <literal>configfile</literal> setting
of <literal>linuxKernel.manualConfig</literal>:
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
custom-kernel = let base_kernel = linuxKernel.kernels.linux_4_9;
in super.linuxKernel.manualConfig {
inherit (super) stdenv hostPlatform;
inherit (base_kernel) src;
version = "${base_kernel.version}-custom";
configfile = /home/me/my_kernel_config;
allowImportFromDerivation = true;
};
</programlisting>
<para>
You can edit the config with this snippet (by default
<literal>make menuconfig</literal> won't work out of the box on
nixos):
</para>
<programlisting>
nix-shell -E 'with import <nixpkgs> {}; kernelToOverride.overrideAttrs (o: {nativeBuildInputs=o.nativeBuildInputs ++ [ pkg-config ncurses ];})'
</programlisting>
<para>
or you can let nixpkgs generate the configuration. Nixpkgs
generates it via answering the interactive kernel utility
<literal>make config</literal>. The answers depend on parameters
passed to
<literal>pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/generic.nix</literal>
(which you can influence by overriding
<literal>extraConfig, autoModules, modDirVersion, preferBuiltin, extraConfig</literal>).
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
mptcp93.override ({
name="mptcp-local";
ignoreConfigErrors = true;
autoModules = false;
kernelPreferBuiltin = true;
enableParallelBuilding = true;
extraConfig = ''
DEBUG_KERNEL y
FRAME_POINTER y
KGDB y
KGDB_SERIAL_CONSOLE y
DEBUG_INFO y
'';
});
</programlisting>
</section>
<section xml:id="sec-linux-config-developing-modules">
<title>Developing kernel modules</title>
<para>
When developing kernel modules it's often convenient to run
edit-compile-run loop as quickly as possible. See below snippet as
an example of developing <literal>mellanox</literal> drivers.
</para>
<programlisting>
$ nix-build '<nixpkgs>' -A linuxPackages.kernel.dev
$ nix-shell '<nixpkgs>' -A linuxPackages.kernel
$ unpackPhase
$ cd linux-*
$ make -C $dev/lib/modules/*/build M=$(pwd)/drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox modules
# insmod ./drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/mlx5_core.ko
</programlisting>
</section>
<section xml:id="sec-linux-zfs">
<title>ZFS</title>
<para>
It’s a common issue that the latest stable version of ZFS doesn’t
support the latest available Linux kernel. It is recommended to
use the latest available LTS that’s compatible with ZFS. Usually
this is the default kernel provided by nixpkgs (i.e.
<literal>pkgs.linuxPackages</literal>).
</para>
<para>
Alternatively, it’s possible to pin the system to the latest
available kernel version <emphasis>that is supported by
ZFS</emphasis> like this:
</para>
<programlisting language="bash">
{
boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.zfs.latestCompatibleLinuxPackages;
}
</programlisting>
<para>
Please note that the version this attribute points to isn’t
monotonic because the latest kernel version only refers to kernel
versions supported by the Linux developers. In other words, the
latest kernel version that ZFS is compatible with may decrease
over time.
</para>
<para>
An example: the latest version ZFS is compatible with is 5.19
which is a non-longterm version. When 5.19 is out of maintenance,
the latest supported kernel version is 5.15 because it’s longterm
and the versions 5.16, 5.17 and 5.18 are already out of
maintenance because they’re non-longterm.
</para>
</section>
</chapter>
|
