Kernel.org Kernels for Debian 10

Motivation

For me, Debian is the obvious choice for a server. But sometimes I need a more recent kernel. As I am lazy, I do not want to build the kernel and shuffle around the deb-files on my machines, so this is where this repo comes in.

Kernel Configuration

I used the Debian kernel configuration found in /boot/config-* and imported it using make oldconfig and used the default values offered.

A linux kernel also knows make deb-pkg as a target, so packaging is done in a breeze.

Attention: This kernel is NOT signed.

FAQs

see https://toeirei.github.io/kernel-deb/faq/

Debian Kernel from vanilla sources

Kernel.org recent kernel sources with the trusty old debian config.

Changes:

• enabled virtio RNG as a hardware RNG for me to be used on KVM guests

VM Kernel from vanilla sources

Kernel.org recent kernel sources with debian config as a base, most of the drivers stripped and tuned to run on a VM

Changes:

• stripped drivers except for VirtIO, Xen, etc
• set ‘MQ Deadline’ as the default IO Scheduler
• set default TCP congestion control to be BBR

Gameserver ready kernel

Kernel.org recent kernel sources with Gentoo Patches tuned for Gameservers running as KVM Guest

Changes:

• stripped drivers except for VirtIO/KVM/Qemu
• set ‘MQ Deadline’ as the default IO Scheduler
• set default TCP congestion control to be Westwood+ for better networking over WAN/WLAN
• CONFIG_HZ set to 1000Hz for better responses
• Preemption Model set to Desktop for better respones
• Maximum number of CPUs set to 8

Installation

1. Add the repository:

   curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/debian-kernels/buster/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
   

2. Install the kernel

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install <kernel-flavor>
   

   kernel-flavor can be any of vanilla-kernel, vm-kernel or gameserver-kernel

A big thank you to https://packagecloud.io/ for providing me with repository hosting for those packages as it wouldn’t be possible for me to host the repository on my line here.