Run one command, get a QEMU Buildroot BusyBox virtual machine built from source with several minimal Linux kernel 4.9 module development example tutorials with GDB and KGDB debug and minimal QEMU devices models. Tested in x86, ARM and MIPS guests, Ubuntu 14.04 - 17.04 hosts.

cd kernel_module
./make-host.sh

If the compilation of any of the C files fails (because of kernel or toolchain differences that we don't control on the host), just rename it to remove the .c extension and try again:

mv broken.c broken.c~
./build_host

Once you manage to compile, try it out with:

sudo insmod hello.ko

# Our module is there.
sudo lsmod | grep hello

# Last message should be: hello init
dmest -T

sudo rmmod hello

# Last message should be: hello exit
dmesg -T

# Not present anymore
sudo lsmod | grep hello

Why this is very bad and you should be ashamed:

• bugs can easily break you system. E.g.:
  • segfaults can trivially lead to a kernel crash, and require a reboot
  • your disk could get erased. Yes, this can also happen with sudo from userland. But you should not use sudo when developing newbie programs. And for the kernel you don't have the choice not to use sudo
  • even more subtle system corruption such as not being able to rmmod
• can't control which kernel version and build options to use. So some of the modules may simply not compile because of kernel API changes, since the Linux kernel does not have a stable kernel module API.
• can't control which hardware is used, notably the CPU architecture
• can't step debug it with GDB easily

The only advantage of using your host machine, is that you don't have to wait 2 hours and use up 8 Gigs for the build. But you will soon find out that this is a very reasonable price to pay.

sudo apt-get build-dep qemu
./run

First build will take a while (GCC, Linux kernel).

QEMU opens up, and you can run:

root
insmod /hello.ko
insmod /hello2.ko
rmmod hello
rmmod hello2

This should print to the screen:

hello init
hello2 init
hello cleanup
hello2 cleanup

which are printk messages from init and cleanup methods of those modules.

Each module comes from a C file under kernel_module/. For module usage see:

head kernel_module/modulename.c

Good bets inside guest are:

/modulename.sh
/modulename.out

After the first build, you can also run just:

./runqemu

to save a few seconds. ./run wouldn't rebuild everything, but checking timestamps takes a few moments.

If you make changes to the kernel modules or most configurations, you can just use again:

./run

and they will updated.

But if you change any package besides kernel_module, you must also request those packages to be reconfigured or rebuilt with extra targets, e.g.:

./run -t linux-reconfigure -t host-qemu-rebuild

Those aren't turned on by default because they take quite a few seconds.

If you are feeling fancy, you can also insert modules with:

modprobe hello

This method also deals with module dependencies, which we almost don't use to make examples simpler:

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/20070/whats-the-difference-between-insmod-and-modprobe
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22891705/whats-the-difference-between-insmod-and-modprobe

modprobe searches for modules under:

ls /lib/modules/*/extra/

Kernel modules built from the Linux mainline tree with CONFIG_SOME_MOD=m, are automatically available with modprobe, e.g.:

modprobe dummy-irq

If you are feeling raw, you can use our own minimal:

/myinsmod.out /hello.ko

which demonstrates the C module API: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5947286/how-can-linux-kernel-modules-be-loaded-from-c-code/38606527#38606527

We use printk a lot, and it shows on the QEMU terminal by default. If that annoys you (e.g. you want to see stdout separately), do:

dmesg -n 1

See also: https://superuser.com/questions/351387/how-to-stop-kernel-messages-from-flooding-my-console

You can scroll up a bit on the default TTY with:

Shift + PgUp

but I never managed to increase that buffer:

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/709697/how-to-increase-scrollback-lines-in-ubuntu14-04-2-server-edition
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/346018/how-to-increase-the-scrollback-buffer-size-for-tty

We use Buildroot's default kernel version with small educational patches on top, you can confirm it after build with:

grep BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_VERSION buildroot/output.*~/.config

or in QEMU:

cat /proc/version

or in the source:

cd linux
git log | grep -E '    Linux [0-9]+\.' | head

Sometimes in Ubuntu 14.04, after the QEMU SDL GUI starts, it does not get updated after keyboard strokes, and there are artifacts like disappearing text.

We have not managed to track this problem down yet, but the following workaround always works:

Ctrl + Shift + U
Ctrl + C
root

This started happening when we switched to building QEMU through Buildroot, and has not been observed on later Ubuntu.

Using text mode is another workaround if you don't need GUI features.

The root filesystem is persistent across:

./runqemu
date >f
sync

then:

./runqemu
cat f

This is particularly useful to re-run shell commands from the history of a previous session with Ctrl + R.

When you do:

./run

the disk image gets overwritten by a fresh filesystem and you lose all changes.

Remember that if you forcibly turn QEMU off without sync or poweroff from inside the VM, disk changes may not be saved.

Show serial output of QEMU directly on the current terminal, without opening a QEMU window:

./runqemu -n

To exit, just do a regular:

poweroff

This mode is very useful to:

• get full panic traces when you start making the kernel crash :-) See also: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/208260/how-to-scroll-up-after-a-kernel-panic
• copy and paste commands and stdout output to / from host
• have a large scroll buffer, and be able to search it, e.g. by using GNU screen on host

If the system crashes, you can't can quit QEMU with poweroff, but you can use either:

Ctrl-C X

or:

Ctrl-C A
quit

or:

./qemumonitor
quit

or:

echo quit | ./qemumonitor

See also:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14165158/how-to-switch-to-qemu-monitor-console-when-running-with-curses
• https://superuser.com/questions/1087859/how-to-quit-qemu-monitor
• https://superuser.com/questions/488263/problems-switching-to-qemu-control-panel-with-nographics
• https://superuser.com/questions/1087859/how-to-quit-the-qemu-monitor-when-not-using-a-gui/1211516#1211516

TODO: Ctrl + C kills the emulator, it is not sent to guest processes. See:

• cloudius-systems/osv#49
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/167165/how-to-pass-ctrl-c-in-qemu

This is however fortunate when running QEMU with GDB, as the Ctrl + C reaches GDB and breaks.

When debugging a module, it becomes tedious to wait for build and re-type:

root
/mymod.sh

Instead, you can add your test commands to:

cd rootfs_overlay/etc/init.d
cp S98 S99
vim S99

and they will be run automatically before the login prompt.

S99 is already gitignored for you.

For convenience, we also setup a symlink from S99 to rootfs_overlay/etc/init.d/S99.

To GDB the Linux kernel, first run:

./runqemu -d

If you want to break immediately at a symbol, e.g. start_kernel of the boot sequence, run on another shell:

./rungdb start_kernel

Now QEMU will stop there, and you can use the normal GDB commands:

l
n
c

To skip the boot, run just:

./rungdb

and when you want to break, do Ctrl + C from GDB.

To have some fun, you can first run inside QEMU:

/count.sh

which counts to infinity to stdout, and then in GDB:

Ctrl + C
break sys_write
continue
continue
continue

And you now control the counting from GDB.

See also: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11408041/how-to-debug-the-linux-kernel-with-gdb-and-qemu

If you are using text mode:

./runqemu -d -n

QEMU cannot be put on the background of the current shell, so you will need to open a separate terminal and run:

./rungdb

O=0 is however an impossible dream, O=2 being the default: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29151235/how-to-de-optimize-the-linux-kernel-to-and-compile-it-with-o0 So get ready for some weird jumps, and <value optimized out> fun. Why, Linux, why.

Loadable kernel modules are a bit trickier since the kernel can place them at different memory locations depending on load other.

So we cannot set the breakpoints before insmod.

However, the Linux kernel GDB scripts offer the lx-symbols command, which takes care of that beautifully for us:

./runqemu -d
./rungdb

In QEMU:

insmod /fops.ko

In GDB, hit Ctrl + C, and note how it says:

scanning for modules in ../kernel_module-1.0/
loading @0xffffffffa0000000: ../kernel_module-1.0//fops.ko

That's lx-symbols working! Now simply:

b fop_write
c

In QEMU:

printf a >/sys/kernel/debug/lkmc_fops/f

and GDB now breaks at our fop_write function!

Just don't forget to remove your breakpoints after rmmod, or they will point to stale memory locations.

TODO: why does break work_func for insmod kthread.ko not break the first time I insmod, but breaks the second time?

Useless, but a good way to show how hardcore you are. From inside QEMU:

insmod /fops.ko
cat /proc/modules

This will give a line of form:

fops 2327 0 - Live 0xfffffffa00000000

And then tell GDB where the module was loaded with:

Ctrl + C
add-symbol-file ../kernel_module-1.0/fops.ko 0xfffffffa00000000

The portability of the kernel and toolchains is amazing: change an option and most things magically work on completely different hardware.

First build:

./run -a arm

Run without build:

./runqemu -a arm

Debug:

./runqemu -a arm -d
# On another terminal.
./rungdb -a arm

TODOs:

• only managed to run in the terminal interface (but weirdly a blank QEMU window is still opened)
• GDB not connecting to KGDB. Possibly linked to -serial stdio. See also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14155577/how-to-use-kgdb-on-arm

./run -a aarch64

TODOs:

• GDB gives a ton of messages:

  no module object found for ''
  

  when you connect. Ctrl + C then c works though.

• How to add devices to -M virt as we did for -M versatilepb

./run -a mips64

KGDB is kernel dark magic that allows you to GDB the kernel on real hardware without any extra hardware support.

It is useless with QEMU since we already have full system visibility with -gdb, but this is a good way to learn it.

Cheaper than JTAG (free) and easier to setup (all you need is serial), but with less visibility as it depends on the kernel working, so e.g.: dies on panic, does not see boot sequence.

Usage:

./runqemu -k
./rungdb -k

In GDB:

c

In QEMU:

/count.sh &
/kgdb.sh

In GDB:

b sys_write
c
c
c
c

And now you can count from GDB!

If you do: b sys_write immediately after ./rungdb -k, it fails with KGDB: BP remove failed: <address>. I think this is because it would break too early on the boot sequence, and KGDB is not yet ready.

See also:

• https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/v4.9/Documentation/DocBook/kgdb.tmpl
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22004616/qemu-kernel-debugging-with-kgdb/44197715#44197715

In QEMU:

/kgdb-mod.sh

In GDB:

lx-symbols ../kernel_module-1.0/
b fop_write
c
c
c

and you now control the count.

TODO: if I -ex lx-symbols to the gdb command, just like done for QEMU -gdb, the kernel oops. How to automate this step?

If you modify runqemu to use:

-append kgdboc=kbd

instead of kgdboc=ttyS0,115200, you enter a different debugging mode called KDB.

Usage: in QEMU:

[0]kdb> go

Boot finishes, then:

/kgdb.sh

And you are back in KDB. Now you can:

[0]kdb> help
[0]kdb> bp sys_write
[0]kdb> go

And you will break whenever sys_write is hit.

The other KDB commands allow you to instruction steps, view memory, registers and some higher level kernel runtime data.

But TODO I don't think you can see where you are in the kernel source code and line step as from GDB, since the kernel source is not available on guest (ah, if only debugging information supported full source).

When you start interacting with QEMU hardware, it is useful to see what is going on inside of QEMU itself.

This is of course trivial since QEMU is just an userland program on the host, but we make it a bit easier with:

./runqemu -q

Then you could:

b edu_mmio_read
c

And in QEMU:

/pci.sh

Just make sure that you never click inside the QEMU window when doing that, otherwise you mouse gets captured forever, and the only solution I can find is to go to a TTY with Ctrl + Alt + F1 and kill QEMU.

You can still send key presses to QEMU however even without the mouse capture, just either click on the title bar, or alt tab to give it focus.

Step debug userland processes to understand how they are talking to the kernel.

In guest:

/gdbserver.sh /myinsmod.out /hello.ko

In host:

./rungdbserver kernel_module-1.0/user/myinsmod.out

You can find the executable with:

find buildroot/output.x86_64~/build -name myinsmod.out

Using the one under buildroot/output.x86_64~/target would be easier as the path is the same as in guest, but unfortunately those executables are stripped to make the guest smaller. TODO: there is an option to disable that, but I wonder if it won't slow things down a lot.

Also remember that BusyBox executables are all symlinks, so if you do on guest:

/gdbserver.sh ls

on host you need:

./rungdbserver busybox-1.26.2/busybox

As usual, different archs work with:

./rungdbserver -a arm kernel_module-1.0/user/myinsmod.out

An implementation overview can be found at: https://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/8829/cross-debugging-for-mips-elf-with-qemu-toolchain/16214#16214

Only tested successfully in x86_64:

startx

More details: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/70931/how-to-install-x11-on-my-own-linux-buildroot-system/306116#306116

Not sure how well that graphics stack represents real systems, but if it does it would be a good way to understand how it works.

On ARM, startx hangs at a message:

vgaarb: this pci device is not a vga device

and nothing shows on the screen, and:

grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log

says:

(EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist, 0)

1. Introduction
2. Build
3. kmod
4. vermagic
5. ftrace
6. Device tree
7. Bibliography
8. Examples
   1. Host
   2. QEMU Buildroot