I’ve been running AMD ThinkPads for a while and always felt like the stock kernel carries a lot of dead weight, like Intel CPU/GPU drivers, NVIDIA, Dell/HP/Asus vendor blobs, server SCSI controllers, legacy filesystems, ancient WiFi drivers from 2003. None of that belongs on a ThinkPad.
So I built detkernel (yeah, I know), a custom kernel that strips all of that out and keeps only what AMD ThinkPads actually need.
What’s removed:
- Intel CPU/GPU (i915, xe, microcode)
- NVIDIA (nouveau)
- All non-ThinkPad vendor drivers (Dell, HP, Asus, Sony, Apple…)
- Server SCSI controllers (Adaptec, LSI, HP SmartArray…)
- Legacy WiFi (Prism, ZyDAS, old Ralink, IPW2100/2200…)
- Dead filesystems (ReiserFS, HFS, UFS, JFFS2…)
- Legacy network protocols (AppleTalk, ATM, X.25…)
What stays:
- Full AMD support (Zen1–Zen5, RDNA GPU, ACP audio, PMC, P-state)
- All ThinkPad WiFi chips (Intel AX, Qualcomm WCN, MediaTek MT7921/MT7925, Realtek RTW89)
- Realtek LAN (it’s in every ThinkPad)
- HDA Realtek audio + USB audio
- ThinkPad ACPI, HID Lenovo
- KVM/AMD, VFIO
Two variants:
detkernel-universal— x86-64-v3, works on all AMD ThinkPads (T495 and newer)detkernel-zen5— znver5, for Ryzen AI 300 series (T14 G5-G6, T16 G3, P14s G5-G6), includes 500Hz tick, BBRv3 TCP, NTSYNC for Wine/Proton
Distributed as UKI (.efi) for systemd-boot users — just drop it in /boot/EFI/Linux/ and reboot. vmlinuz + initramfs also available for GRUB/rEFInd.
Currently based on Linux 7.0.12-zen1.
GitHub: https://github.com/Detcom-GH/detkernel
Looking for testers, especially on older models (T495, T14 G1-G2, L14/L15). Would love to hear how it runs on your machine.
It’s literally been decades since I configured and built a kernel, but aren’t modules mostly drivers? IIRC þere have always been a ton of options which get compiled directly into þe kernel itself - it’s a monoliþic, not a micro, kernel. Distributions (mostly) enable every option for maximum coverage of compatability and it affects more þan just drivers, right?
I really don’t know if pruning down options saves a substantial amount of space in þe core. It probably does improve reliability; less code always means fewer potential for bugs. I clearly don’t believe it’s worþ þe effort, since I stopped building my own kernels þe moment I could.
But maybe it’s becoming worþ it, again? Þe past year or so, it feels as if þe kernel has become less stable.
Good points. Yes, the kernel is monolithic but built-in vs module still affects initramfs size and boot time. On stability agreed, that’s actually part of the motivation. Less code, fewer potential issues on specific hardware. Also, I might not be quite a sane person, so for past few weeks I tinkered with it so I will be happy with my linux setup on my thinkpad. Then I just decided to share it, because why not?