The Linux kernel source code can be downloaded from various sources, and here we will talk about the methods used to download from these sources:
- We can find the Linux source code as a complete tarball and also as an incremental patch at the official webpage of the Linux kernel:
It is always recommended you use the latest version, unless you have a specific reason to work with an older version.
- Ubuntu's kernel source can be found under Git. Each release code of the kernel is separately maintained on kernel.ubuntu.com in its own Git repository, which is located at:
git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-<release>.git
It's located here:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git-repos/ubuntu/
- You can clone the repository, using Git, to get a local copy. The command will get modified as per the Ubuntu release you are interested in.
- To obtain the precise tree, insert the following command:
To download any other tree, the syntax of the command will be as follows:
git clone git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-<release>.git
- The downloaded file will be in either GNU ZIP (gzip) format or bzip2 format. After downloading the source file, you need to uncompress it. If the tarball is in bzip2, use the following command:
tar xvjf linux-x.y.z.tar.bz2
If it is compressed GNU ZIP format, use this command:
tar xvzf linux-x.y.z.tar.gz