as a school project I have to add a syscall to the latest stable linux kernel. I did and recompiled the kernel using make defconfig and make.

After going through several tutorials to boot the kernel (none of which worked), I finally found something here (adapting it to x86_64 version of the kernel). This tutorial makes me create a initramfs using mkinitramfs -o file.

The problem is, I need to test my syscall on this new kernel but once I boot it I get redirected to a (initramfs) prompt, and I have no idea how to install packages, or if it is even the right solution.

My question -> how would I get gcc on this virtual machine so I can compile a simple C test program, run it and make sure my syscall works ?