GKI Introduction

What is GKI? GKI (Generic Kernel Image) is a key requirement for Android 14 GMS and EDLA certification. One of the challenges is that Google mandates support for it. GKI was designed by Google to solve the problem of kernel fragmentation by providing a unified core kernel and moving SoC and board-level drivers from the core kernel into loadable modules. The core kernel provides a stable kernel module interface for driver modules, and the drivers and the kernel can be updated independently. Kernel interfaces can be extended by the upstream kernel community. SoC and board-level vendors need to use the kernel interfaces defined during development. If they want to add new core kernel interfaces, they need to submit them to Google, which can take a long time, so they should prepare in advance.