Virtual environment for Linux Kernel hacking [closed]

Different people use different set ups, I don't think there is one true answer.

I currently use VirtualBox as Hypervisor with a file system created with Buildroot.

Apart from other VMs (kvm, qemu, vmware etc.) you could also use User Mode Linux to much the same effect if your hacking is in the more "logical" layers of the kernel.

I'm currently using a Fedora14 VM running in QEMU/KVM on a Fedora14 host for my network driver development. I use a fairly standard install with the Software Development packages, plus whatever web or networking tools (e.g. wireshark) might be useful for the task. I typically set up a serial console on the VM and monitor it with minicom on the host - this helps me catch stack traces when I'm chasing a bug. I usually have my source and editing environment on the host machine with the files on an NFS file system that the VM mounts - this way I don't have to keep copying files to and from the VM. With the host running the same version kernel, I can compile the driver quickly on the multicore host and test it in the VM.