Installing the Rust Toolchain the Kernel Requires
Building Rust code for the kernel needs more than a plain Rust install: it needs a specific compiler version, the Rust standard library source, and a tool called bindgen that turns the kernel's C headers into something Rust can call. The rustup tool installs and pins all of these per project. Get one piece wrong and the build stops with an error that has nothing to do with your code. Setting it up once is what makes every later build just work.
Questions this Concept answers
- Why does a kernel build need the source of the Rust standard library rather than a prebuilt one?
Quick Start — The Linux Kernel documentation
Before you can build the Linux kernel's Rust code, your machine needs a specific set of tools, and this page lists them in order. You need a particular version of the Rust compiler, an extra piece ca…