up-to-date: kernel 3.2.54. (Always read current kernel sources!) This topic has maintainer rfree

The binary image of kernel vmlinux contains ELF-section named ".notes".

In it there are short data, binary and text, that can be easily read and may contain some hints about kernel version, Xen compatibility, etc.

The purpose is to have very easy to read (from bootloader???) data (probably Xen loader uses that???).

Downside of this notes could be that if they are random like --build-id then they might block SameKernel (reproducible, deterministic, verifiable) property of kernel, and overall they can stop certain embbed architectures from working (but this is by default handled and this section is removed).

Source of notes

What part of source code generates the notes?

• grep sources for "ELFNOTE"

• --build-id see dedicated page BuildId

• btw see include/linux/elfnote.h to see that macros

Removing notes

• certain Makefile in arch/ do remove the flag and entire ,notes section using objcopy, grep for $OBJCOPY to see how it works

• just for the BuildId bit (which tends to be non-deterministic) simply set --build-id=none as described in BuildId

Reading notes

To decode meaning of the flags:

* see list of information, e.g. in include/xen/interface/elfnote.h and other places that Generate the info

* view the data content:

To see the value of fields use "-n" and "-x .notes" and "-p .notes"

readelf -n vmlinux
readelf -p .notes vmlinux
readelf -x .notes vmlinux

readelf -n vmlinux.1

Notes at offset 0x0061c000 with length 0x0000017c:
  Owner                 Data size       Description
  Xen                  0x00000006       Unknown note type: (0x00000006)
  Xen                  0x00000004       Unknown note type: (0x00000007)
  Xen                  0x00000008       Unknown note type: (0x00000005)
  Xen                  0x00000008       Unknown note type: (0x00000003)
  Xen                  0x00000008       NT_VERSION (version)
  Xen                  0x00000008       NT_ARCH (architecture)
  Xen                  0x0000002a       Unknown note type: (0x0000000a)
  Xen                  0x00000004       Unknown note type: (0x00000009)
  Xen                  0x00000008       Unknown note type: (0x00000008)
  Xen                  0x00000010       Unknown note type: (0x0000000d)
  Xen                  0x00000004       Unknown note type: (0x0000000e)
  Xen                  0x00000008       Unknown note type: (0x0000000c)
  Xen                  0x00000008       Unknown note type: (0x00000004)
  GNU                  0x00000014       NT_GNU_BUILD_ID (unique build ID bitstring)
    Build ID: 64cefe0d9cac80f64493500978a3722c0246d506

readelf -p .notes vmlinux.1

String dump of section '.notes':
  [     c]  Xen
  [    10]  linux
  [    24]  Xen
...
  [    98]  Xen
  [    9c]  !writable_page_tables|pae_pgdir_above_4gb