Building the linux-jarvisos Kernel

Requirement: Arch-based host for installation. The --host-install step uses pacman -U, so installing the kernel onto the host requires an Arch-based system (Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, CachyOS). Building the packages requires makepkg on PATH; the build script also documents a Debian/Ubuntu toolchain (build-essential bc flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev dwarves) for compile-only use.

Prerequisites

sudo pacman -S base-devel bc flex bison openssl libelf pahole ccache

ccache is optional but strongly recommended — it makes incremental rebuilds ~5–10× faster.

Initialize the kernel submodule

git clone --recursive https://github.com/JarvisOSLinux/jarvisos.git
cd jarvisos

# If already cloned without --recursive:
git submodule update --init linux-jarvisos

Note: the submodule URLs in .gitmodules use SSH (git@github.com:...), so the commands above fail with a Permission denied (publickey) error unless you have GitHub SSH keys configured. If you cloned anonymously over HTTPS, rewrite the URLs first:
git config url."https://github.com/".insteadOf git@github.com:
git submodule update --init linux-jarvisos
Alternatively, skip the submodule entirely and use pre-built packages (Option C below).

The linux-jarvisos/ submodule tracks the stable branch — the upstream kernel tree (currently 7.1.1) plus the JARVIS driver tree under drivers/jarvis/.

Build modes

Run every command below from the jarvisos repo root — the build script sources build.config from the current directory, and build.config lives at the repo root (copy iso-build-scripts/build.config.example to build.config if it doesn’t exist yet). There is also a Makefile entry point for this step, also run from the repo root: make -f iso-build-scripts/Makefile step3b.

Option A — Build and install on your running system

The fastest way to run the JARVIS kernel on your own machine. Builds the packages on the host and installs them with pacman:

# from the jarvisos repo root
bash iso-build-scripts/03b-build-kernel.sh --host-install

The linux-jarvisos.install hook runs depmod and regenerates the initramfs (mkinitcpio -p linux-jarvisos) automatically. It does not update your bootloader — after install, regenerate the GRUB config or add a systemd-boot entry, then reboot and select linux-jarvisos:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
# or, for systemd-boot: add an entry pointing at
#   vmlinuz-linux-jarvisos + initramfs-linux-jarvisos.img

Build time: 20–60 min on first run. Subsequent runs with ccache take 2–5 min.

Option B — Build packages only

For the ISO pipeline or manual inspection:

# from the jarvisos repo root
bash iso-build-scripts/03b-build-kernel.sh
# Packages land in build/kernel-pkg/
# linux-jarvisos-*.pkg.tar.zst
# linux-jarvisos-headers-*.pkg.tar.zst

Option C — Use pre-built packages from GitHub Releases

bash iso-build-scripts/03b-build-kernel.sh --download-release --host-install

Downloads the latest linux-jarvisos-*.pkg.tar.zst packages from the linux-jarvisos Releases page (requires an authenticated gh CLI) and skips compilation entirely. This also works when the kernel submodule is not initialized. DOWNLOAD_KERNEL_RELEASE=1 is the equivalent environment variable.

Skip recompilation when packages are already built

SKIP_KERNEL_BUILD=1 bash iso-build-scripts/03b-build-kernel.sh --host-install

Verifying the kernel is active

uname -r
# Should output something like: 7.1.1-jarvisos

ls -l /dev/jarvis                                  # Kernel character device
cat /sys/class/misc/jarvis/sysmon/cpu_load          # Live hardware metrics
cat /sys/class/misc/jarvis/sysmon/mem_avail
cat /sys/class/misc/jarvis/sysmon/thermal
cat /sys/class/misc/jarvis/policy/policy_table      # Loaded AI security policy table

Kernel config options

The packages/linux-jarvisos/PKGBUILD applies these config symbols on top of the host kernel config:

Symbol	Purpose
`CONFIG_JARVIS=m`	Main JARVIS driver module
`CONFIG_JARVIS_SYSMON=y`	CPU/memory/thermal sysfs metrics
`CONFIG_JARVIS_POLICY=y`	AI action security policy engine
`CONFIG_JARVIS_KEYS=y`	Kernel keyring for API key storage
`CONFIG_JARVIS_SYSFS_METRICS=y`	Expose state/model/pending via sysfs
`CONFIG_JARVIS_DIBS=y`	Zero-copy DIBS buffer integration (if DIBS present)
`CONFIG_EFI_STUB=y`	Required for UEFI boot (PE/COFF image)
`CONFIG_SQUASHFS=y`	Required for archiso live boot
`CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS=y`	Required for archiso overlay mount

Build issues? See Troubleshooting.

Changelog — corrected claims

2026-07-22:

Build commands corrected from a nonexistent scripts/ directory to iso-build-scripts/03b-build-kernel.sh, run from the repo root where the script sources build.config (added make step3b and build.config.example notes).
Submodule branch/version fixed: stable at kernel 7.1.1, not jarvisos-7.0-stable at 7.0.2; uname -r example updated to 7.1.1-jarvisos (PKGBUILD disables CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO, so no -g<hash> suffix).
Removed false claim that the install hook adds a GRUB entry — linux-jarvisos.install only runs depmod + mkinitcpio; added manual grub-mkconfig/systemd-boot instructions (code: packages/linux-jarvisos/linux-jarvisos.install).
Documented the --download-release / DOWNLOAD_KERNEL_RELEASE=1 pre-built-package path as Option C (code: iso-build-scripts/03b-build-kernel.sh).
Host requirement softened: pacman is required only for --host-install; the script documents a Debian/Ubuntu toolchain for compile-only use.
Added SSH-vs-HTTPS submodule note: .gitmodules uses git@github.com: URLs, so anonymous HTTPS clones need a URL rewrite or Option C.