Qemu Kernel Build

QEMU Kernel Build

Use this workflow when a QEMU task needs a Linux kernel artifact to boot or debug a modeled board.

Primitive Composition

1. Use qemu-flow-plan for scope, acceptance criteria, and artifact root.
2. Use qemu-source-provenance before building.
3. Build the kernel with the local tree's documented method.
4. Update source-provenance.md with produced Image, vmlinux, DTBs, modules, initramfs inputs, and hashes.
5. Hand off to qemu-direct-linux-boot, qemu-firmware-linux-boot, or qemu-image-packaging.

Build Flow

Record and verify:

• kernel source path, revision, and dirty state;
• architecture, cross compiler prefix, compiler path, and version;
• defconfig and any config fragment or manual .config change;
• output directory, build command, and parallelism;
• DTB names and destination paths;
• module install path if modules are needed;
• initramfs or rootfs source if the boot command depends on it.

Command Shape

Use the kernel tree's preferred commands. Typical Linux patterns are:

make ARCH= O= 
make ARCH= O= CROSS_COMPILE= -j$(nproc) Image modules dtbs

If Docker is used, record image, mounts, user, working directory, and the command run inside the container.

Output Rules

• Do not mix outputs from different kernel revisions without recording it.
• Hash the exact files passed to QEMU or packed into an image.
• Keep build logs under build/agent//logs/.
• If the kernel boots but modules fail to load, verify kernel release and module tree before changing QEMU.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: processmission
• Source: processmission/oh-my-qemu
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://processmission.github.io/oh-my-qemu/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.