Debian Linux Kernel Handbook / Chapter 3. Debian kernel packages
Table of Contents
The linux source package supports building of
kernel images and headers for all currently supported architectures.
The linux-signed-arch
source packages support building of signed kernel images for some
architectures.
Subsequent sections of this chapter document the naming and contents
of the binary packages built from these source packages.
This package provides Linux kernel headers for use by userspace programs, such as GNU glibc and other system libraries. Before version 6.6.3-1~exp1 this package was architecture-dependent.
version
This package contains the Debian kernel source tarball. Once the
package is installed, the source tarball is available at
/usr/src/linux-source-.
version.tar.xz
version
This package contains the rest of the kernel documentation in various formats.
It is installed in
/usr/share/doc/linux-doc-.
version
abiname-common[-featureset]
This package contains a common set of kernel headers for a particular
featureset (or no featureset). 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 below). It
unpacks into the
/usr/src/linux-headers-
directory. Before version 4.9 these packages were
architecture-dependent.
abiname-common[-featureset]
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 Chapter 2, Debian kernel source. 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 amd64 architecture has a number of
different flavours, such as amd64 and
cloud-amd64, built from the common Debian kernel source. It
also contains the rt featureset. 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
rt-amd64 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 include the abiname, which changes with each package version and requires recompilation of third-party binary modules against the new kernel. The list of architecture-dependent packages together with a short description is given below.
abiname[-featureset]-flavourThis package provides the kernel configuration file and some module metadata for a specific kernel flavour, and files used in generating bug reports. This was introduced in version 6.19~rc4-1~exp1.
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
This package provides flavour-specific header files. It depends on the
corresponding
linux-base-abiname[-featureset]-flavour
and
linux-headers-abiname-common[-featureset]
packages, and sets up symbolic links into its directory tree in such a way that
the directory
/usr/src/linux-headers-
appears to contain a full set of headers, required for building of out-of-tree
kernel modules. For more information on this check out Section 4.4, “Out-of-tree kernel modules”. A complete set of kernel headers matching the
currently running official kernel may be installed with a command
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
This package provides the kernel image, named either
/boot/vmlinuz-
or
abiname[-featureset]-flavour/boot/vmlinux-.
This was introduced in version 6.19~rc4-1~exp1.
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
This package provides the kernel modules in the directory
/usr/lib/modules/.
This was introduced in version 6.19~rc4-1~exp1.
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
This package depends on the corresponding
linux-base-abiname[-featureset]-flavour,
linux-binary-abiname[-featureset]-flavour,
and
linux-modules-abiname[-featureset]-flavour
packages. Before version 6.19~rc4-1~exp1 it included all of the
same files directly.
On installation it triggers creation of an initramfs image,
/boot/initrd.img-.
This file is not shipped as a
part of the package. See Chapter 7, Managing the initial ramfs (initramfs) archive for
more details.
abiname[-featureset]-flavour
featureset]-flavourfeatureset]-flavourfeatureset]-flavourThese meta-packages provide (via dependencies) the latest base package, binary image, and matching set of header files (respectively) for a particular flavour. Example: linux-image-rt-amd64
abiname[-featureset]-flavourOn architectures where the kernel image is signed, this package contains the unsigned kernel image for use in later build steps. There is normally no need to install these packages.