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(Modify,) Compile and Install the Kernel from Source on Asahi Linux

This is the first tutorial of building and installing the kernel from source on Asahi Linux since they moved to the Fedora kernel. This blog is not wriiten by me, but by Minghong Sun.

Preparation

  1. Install Asahi Linux (if not already installed):
curl https://alx.sh | sh
  1. Download the kernel source:

Download the appropriate version from the Fedora Asahi Repo and extract it:

tar -xf kernel-asahi-kernel-6.12.1-404.asahi.tar.gz
cd kernel-asahi-kernel-6.12.1-404.asahi/
  1. Install the building essentials:
sudo dnf install make automake gcc gcc-c++ openssl-devel ncurses-devel flex bison

Config and Complie

  1. Copy the current kernel configuration:

Copy your existing kernel configuration as a starting point and then open it with the menuconfig interface to adjust settings if needed.

sudo cp -v /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config
make menuconfig
  1. Compile the kernel:

Use the -j flag (adjust the number according to your CPU cores) for faster compilation:

make -j 24
  1. Install the modules, device trees, vdso, and kernel:
sudo make modules_install dtbs_install vdso_install install

But we are not done now, if you reboot immediatly, you'll **BRICK** the whole system.

Deal with DTB problems

  1. Move the DTB files to the correct location:

    The dtbs_install command installs dtbs in the wrong place, if you go to /boot and run ls -la, you'll see dtb is a symlink to /boot/dtb-$(uname -r), but it's invalid. That's because our dtb files are installed in /boot/dtbs/$(uname -r). So what you need to do is move it to the right place:

sudo mv /boot/dtbs/6.12.1/ /boot/dtb-6.12.1

Replace the `6.12.1` with the name of your newly installed kernel.

  1. (Optional) Sync DTB files into /lib/modules:

    We also found that in a fresh-installed system, the dtb files are also in /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/dtb/. But the Asahi Linux Docs said that it is "nonstandard" and they will "have better tooling for this in the future". So I have no idea whether these files are still necessary, but just in case, we do:

sudo mkdir /lib/modules/6.12.1/dtb
sudo cp -r /boot/dtb-6.12.1/* /lib/modules/6.12.1/dtb/

Update m1n1

Now we have one last thing to do, run:

sudo update-m1n1

The Asahi Linux Docs said this is necessary after every kernel upgrade.

Done and reboot

Before rebooting, double-check that you have completed every step. Skipping any part could result in an unbootable system or boot loops. A critical note: due to issues like the absence of USB keyboard support in GRUB (see this issue), recovering from such a scenario can be very challenging.

When you’re certain that everything is in place, you can safely reboot:

sudo grubby --info=ALL # Find the index of the new kernel
sudo vim /etc/default/grub # Change the default kernel to the new one
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
sudo reboot