Raspberry Pi/Mainline Kernel

This guide is intended as a supplement to Install Guide and an alternative to Raspberry Pi Kernel.

Important
This guide is accurate as of kernel 4.13 and newer, and tested on the Raspberry Pi 2 and newer.

root #emerge --ask sys-apps/dtc

root #emerge --ask sys-kernel/vanilla-sources

For the rest of this example, I will be assuming vanilla-sources-4.14.21.

root #

cd /usr/src/linux-4.14.21

root #

make multi_v7_defconfig

Note: multi_v7_defconfig will enable more than you need, but it is currently the most appropriate included defconfig to choose from.

root #

make multi_v7_defconfig

Note: multi_v7_defconfig will enable more than you need, but it is currently the most appropriate included defconfig to choose from.

Important
If you're not building this on an armv7 machine / VM see cross build environment and adjust the instructions as necessary.

Important
Ensure you've mounted your /boot partition before running the install phase.

root #

make

root #

make zinstall modules_install dtbs_install

Contrary to popular belief, you don't need u-boot to boot the mainline kernel, just populate the appropriate required files:

FILE /boot/config.txt

kernel=vmlinuz-4.14.21
device_tree=dtbs/4.14.21/bcm2836-rpi-2-b.dtb
avoid_warnings=2

FILE /boot/cmdline.txt

root=/dev/mmcblk0p3 rw rootwait elevator=noop cma=256M@512M

You can specify the root as a device or via PARTUUID, just ensure it's accurate for your system.

FILE /boot/config.txt

kernel=vmlinuz-4.14.21
device_tree=dtbs/4.14.21/bcm2837-rpi-3-b.dtb
avoid_warnings=2

FILE /boot/cmdline.txt

root=/dev/mmcblk0p3 rw rootwait elevator=noop cma=256M@512M

You can specify the root as a device or via PARTUUID, just ensure it's accurate for your system.

Finally, until rpi-open-firmware is ready, you'll need to copy the following binary blobs from raspberrypi-firmware to your /boot partition.