This repository provides scripts to automatically download, patch and compile the Linux Kernel from the official Linux git repository, with a selection of patches aiming for better desktop/gaming experience. The provided patches can be enabled/disabled by editing the customization.cfg
file and/or by following the interactive install script. You can also use your own patches (more information in customization.cfg
file).
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Non-pacman distros support can be considered experimental. You're invited to report issues you might encounter with it.
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In
intel_pstate
driver, frequency scaling aggressiveness has been changed with kernel 5.5 which results in stutters and poor performance in low/medium load scenarios (for higher power savings). As a workaround for our gaming needs, we are setting it to passive mode to make use of theacpi_cpufreq
governor passthrough, keeping full support for turbo frequencies. It's combined with our aggressive ondemand governor by default for good performance on most CPUs while keeping frequency scaling for power savings. In a typical low/medium load scenario (Core i7 9700k, playing Mario Galaxy on Dolphin emulator) intel_pstate in performance mode gives a stuttery 45-50 fps experience, while passive mode + aggressive ondemand offers a locked 60 fps. -
Nvidia's proprietary drivers might need to be patched if they don't support your chosen kernel OOTB: Frogging-Family nvidia-all can do that automatically for you.
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Note regarding kernels older than 5.9 on Arch Linux: since the switch to
zstd
compressedinitramfs
by default, you will face aninvalid magic at start of compress
error by default. You can workaround the issue by editing/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
to uncomment theCOMPRESSION="lz4"
(for example, since that's the best option after zstd) line and regeneratinginitramfs
for all kernels withsudo mkinitpcio -P
CFS is the only CPU scheduler available in the "vanilla" kernel sources. Its current implementation doesn't allow for injecting additional schedulers, and requires replacing it. Only one scheduler can be patched in at a time.
Alternative schedulers are available to you in linux-tkg:
- Project C / PDS & BMQ by Alfred Chen: blog, code repository
- MuQSS by Con Kolivas : blog, code repository
- CacULE by Hamad Marri: code repository
- Undead PDS: TkG's port of the pre-Project C "PDS-mq" scheduler by Alfred Chen. While PDS-mq got dropped with kernel 5.1 in favor of its BMQ evolution/rework, it wasn't on par with PDS-mq in gaming. "U" PDS still performs better in some cases than other schedulers, so it's been kept undead.
These alternative schedulers can offer a better performance/latency ratio for gaming and desktop use. The availability of each scheduler depends on the chosen Kernel version: the script will display what's available on a per-version basis.
- Memory management and swapping tweaks
- Scheduling tweaks
CFS
tweaks- Using the "Cake" network queue management system
- Using
vm.max_map_count=524288
by default - Cherry-picked patches from Clear Linux's patchset
The customization.cfg
file offers many toggles for extra tweaks:
Fsync
,Futex2
andFastsync+winesync
support: can improve the performance in games, needs a patched wine like wine-tkg- Graysky's per-CPU-arch native optimizations: tunes the compiled code to to a specified CPU
- Compile with GCC or Clang with optional
O2
/O3
andLTO
(Clang only) optimizations.- Warning regarding DKMS modules and Clang:
DKMS
will default to using GCC, which will fail to build modules against a Clang-built kernel. This will - for example - break Nvidia drivers. ForcingDKMS
to use Clang can be done but isn't recommended.
- Warning regarding DKMS modules and Clang:
- Using Modprobed-db's database can reduce the compilation time and produce a smaller kernel which will only contain the modules listed in it. NOT recommended
- Warning: make sure to read thoroughly about it first since it comes with caveats that can lead to an unbootable kernel.
- "Zenify" patchset using core blk, mm and scheduler tweaks from Zen
- Anbox support (See Anbox usage)
ZFS
FPU symbols (<5.9)- Overrides for missing ACS capabilities
- Provide own kernel
.config
file - ...
To apply your own patch files using the provided scripts, you will need to put them in a linux5y-tkg-userpatches
folder -- y
needs to be changed with the kernel version the patch works on, e.g linux510-tkg-userpatches
-- at the same level as the PKGBUILD
file, with the .mypatch
extension. The script will by default ask if you want to apply them, one by one. The option _user_patches
should be set to true
in the customization.cfg
file for this to work.
When enabling the anbox support option, the binder
and ashmem
modules are built-in. You don't have to load them. However you'll need to mount binderfs :
sudo mkdir /dev/binderfs
sudo mount -t binder binder /dev/binderfs
To make this persistent, you can create /etc/tmpfiles.d/anbox.conf
with the following content :
d! /dev/binderfs 0755 root root
After which you can add the following to your /etc/fstab
:
binder /dev/binderfs binder nofail 0 0
Then, if needed, start the anbox service :
systemctl start anbox-container-manager.service
You can also enable the service for it to be auto-started on boot :
systemctl enable anbox-container-manager.service
You're set to run Anbox.
If you prefer automatic setup you can install anbox-support
from AUR which will take care of everything by itself.
git clone https://github.com/Frogging-Family/linux-tkg.git
cd linux-tkg
# Optional: edit the "customization.cfg" file
makepkg -si
The script will use a slightly modified Arch config from the linux-tkg-config
folder, it can be changed through the _configfile
variable in customization.cfg
. The options selected at build-time are installed to /usr/share/doc/$pkgbase/customization.cfg
, where $pkgbase
is the package name.
The interactive install.sh
script will create, depending on the selected distro, .deb
or .rpm
packages, move them in the the subfolder DEBS
or RPMS
then prompts to install them with the distro's package manager.
git clone https://github.com/Frogging-Family/linux-tkg.git
cd linux-tkg
# Optional: edit the "customization.cfg" file
./install.sh install
Uninstalling custom kernels installed through the script has to be done
manually. install.sh
can can help out with some useful information:
cd path/to/linux-tkg
./install.sh uninstall-help
The script will use a slightly modified Arch config from the linux-tkg-config
folder, it can be changed through the _configfile
variable in customization.cfg
.
git clone -b tkg https://github.com/Hyper-KVM/void-packages/
cd void-packages
./xbps-src binary-bootstrap
# Optional: edit customization.cfg located in srcpkgs/linux-tkg/files
# Optional: add custom userpatches with the ".mypatch" extension to srcpkgs/linux-tkg/files/mypatches
./xbps-src pkg -j$(nproc) linux-tkg
If you have to restart the build for any reason, run ./xbps-src clean linux-tkg
first.
The interactive install.sh
script can be used to perform a "Generic" install by choosing Generic
when prompted. It git clones the kernel tree in the linux-src-git
folder, patches the code and edits a .config
file in it. The commands to do are the following:
git clone https://github.com/Frogging-Family/linux-tkg.git
cd linux-tkg
# Optional: edit the "customization.cfg" file
./install.sh install
The script will compile the kernel then prompt before doing the following:
sudo cp -R . /usr/src/linux-tkg-${kernel_flavor}
cd /usr/src/linux-tkg-${kernel_flavor}
sudo make modules_install
sudo make install
sudo dracut --force --hostonly --kver $_kernelname $_dracut_options
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Notes:
- All the needed dependencies to patch, configure, compile or install the kernel are expected to be installed by the user beforehand.
- If you only want the script to patch the sources in
linux-src-git
, you can use./install.sh config
${kernel_flavor}
is a default naming scheme but can be customized with the variable_kernel_localversion
incustomization.cfg
._dracut_options
is a variable that can be changed incustomization.cfg
.- The script uses Arch's
.config
file as a base. A custom one can be provided through_configfile
incustomization.cfg
. - The installed files will not be tracked by your package manager and uninstalling requires manual intervention.
./install.sh uninstall-help
can help with useful information if your install procedure follows theGeneric
approach.
The interactive install.sh
script supports Gentoo by following the same procedure as Generic
, symlinks the sources folder in /usr/src/
to /usr/src/linux
, then offers to do an emerge @module-rebuild
for convenience
git clone https://github.com/Frogging-Family/linux-tkg.git
cd linux-tkg
# Optional: edit the "customization.cfg" file
./install.sh install
Notes:
- The script will prompt for using
llvm-libunwind
, it can only work with thellvm-libunwind
USE
flag insys-devel/clang
but it is experimental:- Manual intervention is needed on the
net-fs/samba
EBUILD, see here - The
-unwind
USE
flag is needed inapp-emulation/wine*
EBUILDs
- Manual intervention is needed on the