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To ensure that the latest kernel version, containing all the essential bug and security fixes is available on as many architectures as possible, starting with 2.6.12 the kernel team introduced a new packaging scheme. In it most of the kernel-related binary packages are built from a single source package linux-2.6. The linux-2.6 source package supports building of kernel images and headers for all currently supported architectures. Subsequent sections of this chapter document the naming and contents of the binary packages built from the linux-2.6 source package.
This package contains the Debian kernel source tarball. The patchlevel of the source is determined by the Debian revision of the package, for example the version 2.6.26-2 of the package linux-source-2.6.26 contains the version 2.6.26 of the Debian kernel source patched to patchlevel 2. Once the package is installed, the source tarball is available at /usr/src/linux-source-version.tar.bz2. For the instructions on obtaining Debian kernel source with arbitrary patchlevel, see Obtaining the Debian kernel source, Section 4.1.
This package contains the manual pages for the functions, constituting the kernel API. These pages are installed into /usr/share/man/man9/, and are accessible with the standard man command. Due to filename conflicts, only one linux-manual package may be installed at any given time.
This package contains the rest of the kernel documentation in various formats. It is installed in /usr/share/doc/linux-doc-version.
This package contains all patches used to produce the Debian kernel source. It also contains the scripts which allow application or un-application of patchsets, bringing the source to the desired patchlevel. After the installation the patches are installed in /usr/src as follows:
This directory contains the hierarchy of subdirectories with individual compressed patch files for a given version. Subdirectories indicate source or purpose of the patches contained within it, like bugfix (essential bugfixes), debian (Debian-specific patches) or features (kernel features not yet merged upstream). Within these directories patches are further subdivided by architecture.
This directory contains the control files, which determine which patches need to be applied (or unapplied) to move from one patchlevel to another. These are text files named N (or N-extra), where N is the number specifiying the patchlevel. The file N contains a list of patches which need to be applied (in case when the name of the patch prepended with plus) or unapplied (if it is prepended with a minus) to move from patchlevel N-1 to patchlevel N. For example, the file 1 lists the patches which need to be applied to go from the original Debian kernel source to the patchlevel 1. Files named N-extra list the architecture-specific patches, along with the architectures they apply to. There is also a special file orig-0, which lists the patches (scripts) which were applied (run) in order to obtain the Debian kernel source from upstream kernel source (by removing the parts incompatible with DFSG). Invocation of a script is identified by X in the first column in this file.
This script may be used to change the patchlevel of the currently available source tree, when run from its top-level directory. For usage example see Obtaining the Debian kernel source, Section 4.1. Current patchlevel of the source tree is stored in the version.Debian file in the top-level directory, and script modifies it appropriately when switching from one patchlevel to another. You can specify patchlevel orig to remove all Debian-specific patches, rolling back to the original Debian kernel source (differing from upstream by removal of firmware and other problematic files, as well as changes required for the resulting kernel to be buildable). Note that there is currently a bug in the script, preventing rollbacks of more than one patchlevel. For example, if your tree is currently at patchlevel 2, a command
$ /usr/src/kernel-patches/all/2.6.26/apply/debian orig
is likely to fail, so use commands
$ /usr/src/kernel-patches/all/2.6.26/apply/debian 1 $ /usr/src/kernel-patches/all/2.6.26/apply/debian orig
i.e. switch the levels one by one instead.
This script brings the tree to the orig patchlevel (equivalent to running /usr/src/kernel-patches/all/version/apply/debian orig). See previous sections for discussion.
This is a dummy package whose sole purpose is to satisfy the build dependencies for a successful kernel build. In the old kernel build system build-depending on the package linux-tree-version-N, provided by the linux-tree-version, would result in the automatic installation of all the required source and patch packages, and patching of the kernel source to patchlevel N before building. It has been obsoleted by the new common packaging system and is provided for backward compatibility only.
This package contains the support files for building of out-of-tree modules for given version and abiname.
The kind of hardware the particular kernel package is designed for is uniquely identified by the architecture, featureset, and flavour. Kernels for all architectures are built from the same Debian kernel source tree, which is obtained using the procedure described in Debian kernel source, Chapter 2. Each architecture usually has multiple flavours of the binary kernel images. Different flavours correspond to different kernel configuration files, used to build the binary images from the same kernel tree.
In order to build a working kernel with an extra featureset not provided by the upstream source, additional changes to the Debian kernel source are required. Again, multiple flavours of binary images may be built from the featureset tree. For example, the i386 architecture has a number of different flavours, such as 486, 686 and 686-bigmem, built from the common Debian kernel source. It also contains xen and openvz featuresets. The source tree for building the kernels for each of these featuresets is obtained by applying additional patches to the Debian kernel source. It may be used to build the xen-686 and openvz-686 binary image flavours. The names of the Debian binary packages incorporate the name of the flavour and, if necessary, the name of the featureset (there is no need to worry about the name of the architecture, since Debian tools will only allow installation of the packages with "correct" architecture). If the arch does not have any featuresets, the featureset part is omitted from the name, as indicated by the square brackets below.
Package names also include the abiname, a small integer, which identifies the kernel's binary compatibility level. The kernels with different abinames are binary incompatible, so upgrading to a kernel with a different abiname will most likely require recompilation of third-party binary modules against the new kernel. The list of architecture-dependent packages together with a short description is given below.
This package contains a common set of kernel headers for a particular featureset (or arch, if featureset is empty). Together with the flavour-specific linux-headers package it provides a full set of kernel headers, suitable for building of out-of-tree modules. This package should not normally be installed directly, but only as a dependency of the flavour-specific headers package (see next description). It unpacks into the /usr/src/linux-headers-version-abiname-common[-featureset] directory.
This package provides flavour-specific header files. It depends on the corresponding linux-headers-version-abiname-common[-featureset] package, and sets up symbolic links into its directory tree in such a way that the directory /usr/src/linux-headers-version-abiname[-featureset]-flavour appears to contain a full set of headers, required for building of out-of-tree kernel modules. For more information on this check out Building out-of-tree kernel modules, Section 4.7. A complete set of kernel headers matching the currently running official kernel may be installed with a command
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
This is a virtual package, providing (via dependencies) the latest binary image for a particular flavour. Example: linux-image-openvz-686.
These virtual packages provide (via dependencies) the latest 2.6 series binary image and matching set of header files (respectively) for a particular flavour. Example: linux-image-2.6-openvz-686
This package contains the binary kernel image and pre-built binary modules for a particular arch/featureset/flavour combination. Names of the files installed by this package are architecture-dependent. Typical locations of essential files for the i386 architecture are:
The binary (compressed) kernel image.
Initial RAM filesystem (initramfs) image. Note, that this file is automatically generated in the installation process and is not shipped as a part of the package. See Managing the initial ramfs (initramfs) archive, Chapter 7 for more details.
The kernel configuration file used to build this particular kernel. May be used to rebuild the kernel from source, if necessary.
Directory containing the pre-built binary kernel modules.
This package provides Linux kernel headers for use by userspace programs, such as GNU glibc and other system libraries.
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Debian Linux Kernel Handbook
version 1.0.11, Fri Jul 1 05:01:39 BST 2011