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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T18:17:51+00:00

I have taken android linux kernel split it from the gzip header and decompressed

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I have taken android linux kernel split it from the gzip header and decompressed it. However when I try to do an objdump from the android ndk to dump the file I am getting a File format not recognized error.

Anyone know how get a symbol table from the binary image.

On my android device I can do the following to get a symbol table:
cat /proc/kallsyms

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This is not unique to Android – it happens on most (all?) Linux systems. The bootable image of the Linux kernel (on which Android is based) is not a proper ELF binary:

    # file /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2 
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2: Linux kernel x86 boot executable bzImage, version 2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2 (thomas@celeste.mandriva.com) #1 SMP Sun, RO-rootFS, root_dev 0x902, swap_dev 0x3, Normal VGA
# nm /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2 
nm: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.7-desktop-1mnb2: File format not recognized

    The bootable image is created by wrapping the vmlinux kernel ELF binary in a compressed container and adding a set of boot and decompression utilities. If you need a kernel image for debugging. the vmlinux file is what you need – I don’t know if/where it exists in the Android NDK though.

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