Handbook:Parts/Installation/Kernel/Dist-Kernel

Distribution kernels

Distribution Kernels are ebuilds that cover the complete process of unpacking, configuring, compiling, and installing the kernel. The primary advantage of this method is that the kernels are updated to new versions by the package manager as part of @world upgrade. This requires no more involvement than running an emerge command. Distribution kernels default to a configuration supporting the majority of hardware, however two mechanisms are offered for customization: savedconfig and config snippets. See the project page for more details on configuration.

Installing the correct installkernel package

Before using the distribution kernels, please verify that the correct installkernel package for the system has been installed. When using systemd-boot (formerly gummiboot) as the bootloader, install:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/installkernel-systemd-boot

When using a traditional a /boot layout (e.g. GRUB, LILO, etc.), the gentoo variant should be installed by default. If in doubt:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/installkernel-gentoo

If using GRUB with installkernel-gentoo, users may want to enable USE=grub for it to automatically run grub-mkconfig for new kernels with dist kernels.

Installing a distribution kernel

To build a kernel with Gentoo patches from source, type:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel

System administrators who want to avoid compiling the kernel sources locally can instead use precompiled kernel images:

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin

Upgrading and cleaning up

Once the kernel is installed, the package manager will automatically update it to newer versions. The previous versions will be kept until the package manager is requested to clean up stale packages. To reclaim disk space, stale packages can be trimmed by periodically running emerge with the --depclean option:

root #emerge --depclean

Alternatively, to specifically clean up old kernel versions:

root #emerge --prune sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin

Post-install/upgrade tasks

Distribution kernels are capable of rebuilding kernel modules installed by other packages. linux-mod.eclass provides the dist-kernel USE flag which controls a subslot dependency on virtual/dist-kernel.

Enabling this USE flag on packages like sys-fs/zfs and sys-fs/zfs-kmod allows them to automatically be rebuilt against a newly updated kernel and, if applicable, will re-generate the initramfs accordingly.

Manually rebuilding the initramfs

If required, manually trigger such rebuilds by, after a kernel upgrade, executing:

root #emerge --ask @module-rebuild

If any kernel modules (e.g. ZFS) are needed at early boot, rebuild the initramfs afterward via:

root #emerge --config sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel

root #emerge --config sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin