Installing your Kernel

This is the final step of this lengthy introduction. Once you have successfully compiled the kernel open up a terminal and navigate to /usr/src (remember this is where the compiled kernel is placed). Then you can install the kernel image with sudo dpkg -i linux-image-5.5.0-cmsc421project0-USERNAME+_5.5.0-cmsc421project0-USERNAME+-1_amd64.deb replacing your umbc username.

Remember the +-1 might have changed if you compiled multiple times. If the command is failing you probably didn’t change the version string correctly, or you are giving the command the wrong name, or you are in the wrong directory. Once that is finished you should restart your VM. The changes take effect ONLY after a restart.

After the restart you can select advanced options when in GRUB, and select the correct version of the kernel.

Testing your changes

Once the VM has restarted, open up a terminal and run uname -a. The output of the command should now include your changes. For example if I run the command on my VM I would get: Linux flux 5.5.0-cmsc421project0-iboutsi1+ #1 SMP Fri Jan 23 13:37:01 EST 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux where flux is the hostname of the VM.

This is the end of the setup for this course. You should move on to project0 now if it is available. You will need to repeat the compile > install > restart multiple, multiple, multiple times through the course. I would recommend going over the steps again a couple of times. Compilation should be way shorter now, assuming you don’t run make mrproper.