BakaSU picks its hook mode by kernel version, and most devices only get two of the three

A downstream, and that word does most of the work

BakaSU describes itself as a downstream of tiann/KernelSU with personal changes added, and it was formerly known as ReSukiSU. The fork source is SukiSU-Ultra, and the underlying idea is credited to Kernel-Assisted Superuser, with Magisk listed as the reference root tool.

Understanding the lineage matters because the interesting decisions in this project are mostly about which upstream behaviour to keep. The root mechanism itself is kernel-based: su and root access are managed by the kernel. That is why the repository is laid out with a kernel directory, userspace with a Rust ksud component, a manager written in Kotlin, and uapi.

The build is driven by a justfile with two aliases, bk for build_ksud and bm for build_manager. The Rust binary is cross-compiled first and then copied into the manager as a native library before Gradle assembles the app:

build_ksud:
    cross build --target aarch64-linux-android --release --manifest-path ./userspace/ksud/Cargo.toml

build_manager: build_ksud
    cp userspace/ksud/target/aarch64-linux-android/release/ksud manager/app/src/main/jniLibs/arm64-v8a/libksud.so
    cd manager && ./gradlew aDebug

Note that this recipe produces an arm64-v8a debug build only, which is narrower than the ABI list the project claims to support.

Three hook modes and a table of what actually supports what

This is the part of the project with real technical substance, and the compatibility notes below the feature list deserve to be read alongside it.

The Tracepoint Syscall Redirect hook is the default and comes from upstream KernelSU. The README states it only supports GKI2 kernels with the arm64-v8a or x86_64 ABI.

Manual Hook is described as the most compatible mode, supporting Linux kernel 3.4 through 6.18. It is the fallback when the tracepoint path is unavailable.

SUSFS Inline Hook comes from the SuSFS project rather than from BakaSU. The README is explicit that it is provided by that project, not this one, and that SUSFS here only supports a backport to kernel 4.3 and newer.

Read those three statements together and the coverage is narrower than the feature list suggests. The default mode excludes pre-5.10 kernels and excludes arm64-v8a-unrelated ABIs such as armeabi-v7a. SUSFS needs 4.3 or newer. Manual Hook covers the widest version range but is manual, which means the out-of-tree patching work lands on whoever builds the kernel.

There is a repack-config.example.json and repack_apk.py plus repack_apk_multi.py at the repository root for the APK repack path, which is what you use when you did not build the kernel yourself.

Metamodules and app profiles: what root management looks like here

Two features come straight from KernelSU documentation and define the model. The module system is metamodule based, a pluggable infrastructure for systemless modifications rather than the classic overlay or Magisk module format. App Profile is the mechanism for granting or denying root per application, described in the README as caging the root power.

On top of that, BakaSU adds tweaks to the manager theme and to the built-in susfs management tool. BakaSU includes management for its built-in susfs tool.

Multi manager support is the fourth addition worth naming. The default arrangement uses BakaSU's kernel with BakaSU's manager, but the README states that Official KernelSU and KOWSU managers also work as managers against BakaSU's kernel. That flexibility is useful when you want one kernel with a different interface, though it also means a kernel and manager version mismatch is a support question this README does not address.

Split licensing: GPL-2.0-only kernel, GPL-3.0 elsewhere, layered artwork

The licence arrangement is unusually explicit and has three parts.

Files in the kernel directory are under GPL-2.0-only. Everything except the listed exceptions is under GPL-3.0 or later. The exceptions are artwork and visual files, specifically docs/BakaSU_Clean.svg, docs/BakaSU_Full.svg and the launcher foreground drawable, which were created by OukaroMF under a layered licence arrangement documented separately in ASSETS_LICENSE.md and its Simplified Chinese counterpart.

If you repackage the manager APK or redistribute artwork, the artwork terms are the ones to read first, and they are not the same terms as the code. This is a note on where the licences differ, not legal advice.

Translations are handled on Weblate, and the repository is not archived.

Release cadence is currently three release candidates deep

The recent tags are v4.2.0-rc1 on 2026-08-13, v4.2.0-rc2 on 2026-09-14 and v4.2.0-rc3 on 2026-09-22. There is no stable 4.2.0 tag among them, so anyone pinning this project today is pinning a release candidate.

That interacts with the hook mode table above. A release candidate is exactly where ABI coverage and kernel version boundaries tend to still move, and the README's compatibility notes are written in a way that suggests ongoing adjustment, particularly around susfs backports.

Nightly builds are published through nightly.link off the build-manager workflow, which is the pragmatic way to track upstream between tags if you tolerate rebuilds.

When BakaSU is the wrong choice

On an old device it is a build project, not an install project. The README states that older kernels from 3.4 upward are compatible but the kernel has to be built manually, and the only ABI support listed is arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a and X86_64. Anything outside that set is outside the project.

If you cannot compile a kernel for your device, this is not the tool. The alternative approaches differ in kind.

SukiSU-Ultra is the closer comparison since BakaSU forked from it, and the difference is the set of downstream changes rather than the architecture.

One more caveat: the credit list names Diamorphine for rootkit skills, which tells you where to look if you are evaluating the security posture of a kernel-based root implementation.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt BakaSU if you run a GKI 2.0 device on kernel 5.10 or newer with arm64-v8a or x86_64 and want KernelSU's kernel-based su model. Do not adopt it if your device needs a pre-5.10 kernel unless you are prepared to build one yourself, since the README states older kernels require manual compilation. First check your ABI and kernel version against the hook mode table, because the default mode silently narrows support to a subset of what the project claims to cover.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Baka-SU/BakaSU on GitHub
2. License: GPL-3.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases