Vendor hooks in the Android kernel and the divergence from mainline

What happened and what to do

According to LWN, a 2026 Linux Plumbers Conference session led by Todd Kjos in the Android track discussed vendor hooks and how they are used in the Android kernel. The article notes that Android kernels have long diverged from the mainline kernel. Many of those differences have been resolved, and the move to the generic kernel image has helped bring them closer, but current devices still include many changes outside the mainline tree, which are preferably implemented through vendor hooks.

For a company that makes or maintains Android devices, the practical implication is to map which out-of-tree changes still exist, classify them, and assess which ones can move to vendor hooks, reducing the cost of rebasing on each new kernel version. Wendelmaques can implement a pipeline that compares the vendor tree with the upstream tree, records divergences in a dashboard, and alerts when a kernel change affects locally maintained changes, all on the client's own infrastructure.

How the consultancy can help

Diagnosis of the kernel changes maintained outside the mainline tree in your Android devices, with a proposal to migrate them to vendor hooks, and implementation of continuous divergence monitoring on the client's infrastructure.

Next step

If your company maintains an Android kernel with many local changes, send a short description of your case and receive a scoped proposal for diagnosis and monitoring.