pve-kernel-thunderx/README.md

Proxmox Edge kernels

Custom Linux kernels for Proxmox VE 6.

Versions

1. Linux 5.12 (Stable)
2. Linux 5.11 (Stable) [EOL]
3. Linux 5.10 (Long-term)

Flavors

1. Proxmox
2. Navi Reset

Installation

First, set up our Debian repository on your Proxmox installation:

1. Add the repository's GPG key:

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/pve-edge/kernel/gpg.8EC01CCF309B98E7.key' | apt-key add -

2. Set up the pve-edge-kernel repository:

echo "deb https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/pve-edge/kernel/deb/debian bullseye main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-edge-kernel.list

3. Install a kernel package:

apt update
apt install pve-kernel-5.12-edge

Package repository hosting is graciously provided by Cloudsmith. Cloudsmith is the only fully hosted, cloud-native, universal package management solution, that enables your organization to create, store and share packages in any format, to any place, with total confidence.

Manual

Alternatively, you may manually install the kernels. Select from the Releases page the kernel version you want to install and download the appropriate Debian package. Then, you can install the package as follows:

apt install ./pve-kernel-VERSION_amd64.deb

AppArmor issues

When using these kernels, Proxmox's AppArmor profiles may fail to load since it uses an older AppArmor feature set which is not supported by these kernels anymore. This issue also appears when launching LXC containers. To fix this, tell AppArmor to use the stock features file as opposed to Proxmox's features file, which is done by updating /etc/apparmor/parser.conf as follows:

## Pin feature set (avoid regressions when policy is lagging behind
## the kernel)
# lxc-pve diverts to old feature file that is incompatible with kernel
# features-file=/usr/share/apparmor-features/features
features-file=/usr/share/apparmor-features/features.stock

Building manually

You may also choose to manually build one of these kernels yourself.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have at least 10 GB of free space available and have the following packages installed:

apt install devscripts debhelper equivs git

In case you are building a kernel version >= 5.8, make sure you have installed at least dwarves >= 1.16.0. This version is currently is not available in the main repository. To work around this issue, we describe two options:

1. You may add the Debian Buster Backports repository to your APT sources as described here and install the newer dwarves package as follows:

   apt install -t buster-backports dwarves
   

2. Alternatively, you may download the newer dwarves (>= 1.16) package from the Debian website and install the package manually, for example:

   wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/dwarves-dfsg/dwarves_1.17-1_amd64.deb
   apt install ./dwarves_1.17-1_amd64.deb
   

Obtaining the source

Obtain the source code as follows:

git clone https://github.com/fabianishere/pve-edge-kernel
cd pve-edge-kernel

Then, select the branch of your likings (e.g. v5.10.x) and update the submodules:

git checkout v5.10.x
git submodule update --init --depth=1 --recursive linux
git submodule update --init --recursive

Building

First, generate the Debian control file for your kernel by running the following in your command prompt:

debian/rules debian/control

Before we build, make sure you have installed the build dependencies:

sudo mk-build-deps -i

Invoking the following command will build the kernel and its associated packages:

debuild -ePVE* --jobs=auto -b -uc -us

The Makefile provides several environmental variables to control:

1. PVE_BUILD_FLAVOR
   The name of the kernel flavor which represents a selection of kernel functionality (e.g. hardened or zen). This name is part of the kernel version and package name, which means that you can have multiple flavors of the same kernel installed alongside each other. Note that the name itself does not control the selection of kernel functionality.
2. PVE_BUILD_PROFILE (default generic)
   The name of the kernel build type which represents the compilation options of the kernel (e.g. optimization level or micro architecture). This name is appended as suffix to the Debian package version in case it is not the default value.
3. PVE_KERNEL_CC
   The compiler to use for the kernel build.
4. PVE_KERNEL_CFLAGS
   The compilation options to use for the kernel build. Use this variable to specify the optimization level or micro architecture to build for.

Kernel options may be controlled from debian/config/config.pve. To build with additional patches, you may add them to the debian/patches/pve directory and update the series file accordingly.

Contributing

Questions, suggestions and contributions are welcome and appreciated! You can contribute in various meaningful ways:

• Report a bug through Github issues.
• Propose new patches and flavors for the project.
• Contribute improvements to the documentation.
• Provide feedback about how we can improve the project.