Debugging Ubuntu 6.8 x86_64 Kernel with GDB & QEMU — Disable KASLR Without Rebuild

Build and debug the Ubuntu 6.8 x86_64 kernel from source with debug symbols, then attach GDB via QEMU. Includes the trick for disabling KASLR without rebuilding.

August 2, 2025
Harrison Guo
Video by: HarrisonSecurityLab
Published on YouTube: 2025-08-02
Linux Kernel Ubuntu x86_64 GDB QEMU KASLR Debugging

The x86_64 counterpart to the ARM64 walkthrough. Build Ubuntu 6.8 kernel from source with debug symbols, boot under QEMU, attach GDB. The interesting part: disabling KASLR via boot parameter so your symbol addresses actually match the running kernel — without recompiling.

If you’ve ever had GDB show wildly wrong line numbers in kernel debugging, KASLR is almost certainly why.

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