kernel-dev-setup: A Python repository from problame

The scripts in this directory will help you to stand up a development environment:

Develop on the host system, using your text editor of choice.
Build & run kernel modules inside a qemu/KVM-based VM (mounted via local NFS share)
- Easy PCIe & NVDIMM/PMEM passthrough

Development Workflow

(Once) Prepare Disk Image (Part 1)

The script prepare-image.sh automates these steps.

Download a Debian Bullseye VM cloud image (qcow2, generic cloud image)
- https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/
Resize the image using qemu-img resize
Mount the image using losetup, or nbd
Repair GPT & resize root partition (e.g. using parted)
Make root user passwdless by removing the * in /mnt/etc/shadow
Unmount image / nbd

For the next sections, we assume the disk image to be ./devvm.qcow2

Prepare Kernel Tree

for booting a kernel built on the host system

Enable kernel options for virtio and 9p (no modules)
- CONFIG_VIRTIO_BLK=y
- CONFIG_9P_FS=y
- CONFIG_NET_9P=y
- CONFIG_NET_9P_VIRTIO=y
- Make sure your root file system is not built as a module (e.g., CONFIG_EXT4_FS=y)
Build bzImage and modules
After launching the VM with --kernel-tree
- Mount the kernel tree (e.g., via /etc/fstab)
  - kernelfs /usr/src/linux-host 9p nofail 0 0
- Link the kernel tree to the modules directory
  - ln -s /usr/src/linux-host /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
- Run depmod
After a reboot, the VM should successfully load kernel modules

(Every Boot Of The Host)

Start docker daemon
Configure the bridge interface & iptables using Ansible
- sudo ansible-playbook setup-vm-network.ansible.yml
Fedora / firewalld: add the bridge interface to the trusted zone
- sudo firewall-cmd --add-interface=devbr0 --zone=trusted --permanent
- again without --permanent
- Re-run the ansible playbook to fixup our iptables NAT rules
Run dnsmasq in foreground (use tmux or similar)
- Maybe kill other dnsmasqs (think before copy-pasting) sudo killall dnsmask
- sudo mkdir -p dnsmasq-hostsdir && sudo dnsmasq -C dnsmasq.conf

Start NFS server (runs in foreground, use tmux or similar)

modprobe nfsd
modprobe nfs

sudo ./docker_nfs_server.bash 192.168.124.1 192.168.124.50 /directory/to/share ...
                              ^             ^              ^ 
                              HOST_IP       GUEST_IP       PATHS that land in container's /etc/exports

Launch VM

Start the VM in a tmux pane like so:

sudo ./launch-vm.py \
    --hdd-qcow2-image devvm.qcow2 \
    --bridge devbr0 \
    --name i30pc62-vm1 \
    -m 4096 \
    --smp 8,sockets=1,cores=8,threads=1 \
    --nvdimm /dev/dax0.0,size=1G,pmem=off \
    --vfio-passthrough 0000:00:04.0

The VM starts in the foreground (qemu -nographic mode) with the VM's console/serial (?) on stdout. The devbr0 was created by the Ansible playbook.

(./launch-vm.py uses argparse, so try --help to see options. Feel encouraged to hack around in the file.)

(Once) Prepare Disk Image (Part 2)

On first launch, use the serial console to log in as root (passwordless, see above). Then

disable unattended upgrades (systemctl disable unattended-upgrades.service)
create a user account with the same user ID as on the host
grant that user passwdless sudo for convenience
you will use that user account to log into the VM via SSH, so setup authorized_keys appropriately
generate ssh server keys (dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server)
enable & start ssh server
poweroff VM

Workflow

SSH login into the VM

Mount the NFS share

sudo mount -t nfs -o vers=4 192.168.124.1:/host/directory/to/share /wrk
                                          ^!!!!! 'host' prefix, as indicated by ./docker_nfs_server.bash

On the host system: open a text editor, start hacking
In the VM: change into /wrk directory, compile & test there

Debugging Using kgdb

Set up host kernel tree (see above)
Launch with --kgdb
Copy gdb command from output (near top) to connect

problame/kernel-dev-setup