diff --git a/meta/classes/linux-kernel-base.bbclass b/meta/classes/linux-kernel-base.bbclass
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89ce716
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta/classes/linux-kernel-base.bbclass
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# parse kernel ABI version out of <linux/version.h>
+def get_kernelversion_headers(p):
+    import re
+
+    fn = p + '/include/linux/utsrelease.h'
+    if not os.path.isfile(fn):
+        # after 2.6.33-rc1
+        fn = p + '/include/generated/utsrelease.h'
+    if not os.path.isfile(fn):
+        fn = p + '/include/linux/version.h'
+
+    try:
+        f = open(fn, 'r')
+    except IOError:
+        return None
+
+    l = f.readlines()
+    f.close()
+    r = re.compile("#define UTS_RELEASE \"(.*)\"")
+    for s in l:
+        m = r.match(s)
+        if m:
+            return m.group(1)
+    return None
+
+
+def get_kernelversion_file(p):
+    fn = p + '/kernel-abiversion'
+
+    try:
+        with open(fn, 'r') as f:
+            return f.readlines()[0].strip()
+    except IOError:
+        return None
+
+def linux_module_packages(s, d):
+	suffix = ""
+	return " ".join(map(lambda s: "kernel-module-%s%s" % (s.lower().replace('_', '-').replace('@', '+'), suffix), s.split()))
+
+# that's all
+