diff --git a/meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc b/meta/classes/linux-kernel.bbclass
similarity index 99%
copy from meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc
copy to meta/classes/linux-kernel.bbclass
index f2892921..458c1e80 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc
+++ b/meta/classes/linux-kernel.bbclass
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ KERNEL_DEFCONFIG ??= ""
 HEADERS_INSTALL_EXTRA ??= ""
 
 # Add our template meta-data to the sources
-FILESPATH:append := ":${FILE_DIRNAME}/files"
+FILESPATH:append = ":${LAYERDIR_core}/recipes-kernel/linux/files"
 SRC_URI += "file://debian"
 
 # Variables and files that make our templates
diff --git a/meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc b/meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc
index f2892921..c372ec56 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc
@@ -1,318 +1,13 @@
-# Custom kernel build
+# Transitional include for linux-kernel.bbclass
 #
 # This software is a part of ISAR.
-# Copyright (c) Siemens AG, 2022
-# Copyright (c) Mentor Graphics, a Siemens business, 2022
+# Copyright (c) Siemens AG, 2025
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
 
-# Settings that would typically be done from the custom kernel recipe
-# -------------------------------------------------------------------
+inherit linux-kernel
 
-CHANGELOG_V = "${PV}+${PR}"
-DESCRIPTION ?= "Custom kernel"
-MAINTAINER ?= "isar-users <isar-users@googlegroups.com>"
-DISTRIBUTOR ?= "ISAR"
-
-# pinned due to known or possible issues with compat 12
-DEBIAN_COMPAT:buster = "10"
-
-KBUILD_DEPENDS ?= "build-essential:native, \
-                   libelf-dev:native, \
-                   libncurses-dev:native, \
-                   libssl-dev:native, \
-                   bc, \
-                   bison, \
-                   cpio, \
-                   dwarves, \
-                   flex, \
-                   git, \
-                   kmod, \
-                   linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}:${DISTRO_ARCH} <kbuild !kernel>, \
-                   rsync,"
-
-KERNEL_DEBIAN_DEPENDS ?= "initramfs-tools | linux-initramfs-tool, \
-                          kmod, \
-                          linux-base (>= 4.3~),"
-
-KERNEL_HEADERS_DEBIAN_DEPENDS ?= ""
-
-KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_ARCH_ALL = "0"
-KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_ARCH_ALL:trixie = "1"
-KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_DEPLOY ?= "0"
-
-# Settings that may be changed on a per distro, machine or layer basis
-# --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-LINUX_VERSION_EXTENSION ?= ""
-
-KERNEL_DEFCONFIG ??= ""
-
-HEADERS_INSTALL_EXTRA ??= ""
-
-# Add our template meta-data to the sources
-FILESPATH:append := ":${FILE_DIRNAME}/files"
-SRC_URI += "file://debian"
-
-# Variables and files that make our templates
-# -------------------------------------------
-
-TEMPLATE_FILES += "                  \
-    debian/control.tmpl              \
-    debian/isar/build.tmpl           \
-    debian/isar/clean.tmpl           \
-    debian/isar/common.tmpl          \
-    debian/isar/configure.tmpl       \
-    debian/isar/install.tmpl         \
-    debian/isar/version.cfg.tmpl     \
-    debian/linux-image.postinst.tmpl \
-    debian/linux-image.postrm.tmpl   \
-    debian/linux-image.preinst.tmpl  \
-    debian/linux-image.prerm.tmpl    \
-    debian/rules.tmpl                \
-"
-
-TEMPLATE_VARS += "                \
-    KBUILD_DEPENDS                \
-    KERNEL_ARCH                   \
-    KERNEL_DEBIAN_DEPENDS         \
-    KERNEL_BUILD_DIR              \
-    KERNEL_FILE                   \
-    KERNEL_HEADERS_DEBIAN_DEPENDS \
-    KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_ARCH          \
-    LINUX_VERSION_EXTENSION       \
-    KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED          \
-    KERNEL_CONFIG_FRAGMENTS       \
-    KCFLAGS                       \
-    KAFLAGS                       \
-    DISTRIBUTOR                   \
-    KERNEL_EXTRA_BUILDARGS        \
-    HEADERS_INSTALL_EXTRA         \
-    ISAR_ENABLE_COMPAT_ARCH       \
-    COMPAT_DISTRO_ARCH            \
-    DEBIAN_COMPAT                 \
-"
-
-inherit dpkg
-inherit template
-inherit kbuildtarget
-
-# Add custom cflags to the kernel build
-KCFLAGS ?= "-fdebug-prefix-map=${CURDIR}=."
-KAFLAGS ?= "-fdebug-prefix-map=${CURDIR}=."
-
-# Add extra arguments to the kernel build
-KERNEL_EXTRA_BUILDARGS ??= ""
-
-# Derive name of the kernel packages from the name of this recipe
-KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED ?= "${@ d.getVar('BPN').partition('linux-')[2]}"
-
-# Determine cross-profile override
-python() {
-    if d.getVar("DISTRO_ARCH") != d.getVar("HOST_ARCH") and bb.utils.to_boolean(d.getVar("ISAR_CROSS_COMPILE")) and "class-native" not in d.getVar("OVERRIDES").split(":"):
-        d.appendVar("OVERRIDES", ":cross-profile")
-}
-
-# Default profiles and provides
-BUILD_PROFILES = "kernel kbuild"
-
-# We only offer the -kbuildtarget variant when actually cross compiling
-BBCLASSEXTEND:append:cross-profile = " kbuildtarget"
-
-# When cross-profile is active:
-# build only kernel (including config) with the default variant of the recipe
-BUILD_PROFILES:cross-profile = "kernel"
-
-# -native: kbuild package for host
-BUILD_PROFILES:class-native = "kbuild"
-RECIPE_PROVIDES:class-native = " \
-    linux-headers-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} \
-    linux-kbuild-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}"
-# Use pseudo target to pull in the base variant of the recipe.
-# Will be auto-extended with -native by multiarch.bbclass.
-# Using DEPENDS instead of RDEPENDS to ensure creation of kernel including
-# pregenerated kernel config before host specific linux-kbuild package build
-DEPENDS:class-native += "${BPN}-pseudo"
-
-# -kbuildtarget: kbuild package for target, enforcing non-cross-build
-BUILD_PROFILES:class-kbuildtarget = "kbuild"
-RECIPE_PROVIDES:class-kbuildtarget = " \
-    linux-headers-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} \
-    linux-kbuild-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}"
-# Using DEPENDS instead of RDEPENDS to ensure creation of kernel including
-# pregenerated kernel config before target specific linux-kbuild package build
-DEPENDS:class-kbuildtarget = "${BPN}"
-ISAR_CROSS_COMPILE:class-kbuildtarget = "0"
-
-# Make bitbake know we will be producing linux-image and linux-headers packages
-# Also make it know about other packages from control
-RECIPE_PROVIDES = " \
-    linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} \
-    linux-headers-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} \
-    linux-libc-dev \
-    linux-libc-dev-${DISTRO_ARCH}-cross \
-    linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}-dbg \
-    linux-kbuild-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} \
-    ${BPN}-pseudo-native \
-"
-# When cross-profile is active:
-# kbuild package is provided by -native or -kbuildtarget variant. Also headers
-# provisioning moves over to ensure those variants are pulled, although the
-# package itself is still built by the base recipe.
-RECIPE_PROVIDES:remove:cross-profile = " \
-    linux-headers-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} \
-    linux-kbuild-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}"
-
-# As the multiarch class will not append -compat to -pseudo-native, we end up
-# with two providers of it. Remove the wrong one.
-RECIPE_PROVIDES:remove:class-compat = "${BPN}-pseudo-native"
-
-# Append headers depends
-HEADERS_DEPENDS = ", linux-kbuild-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED} | linux-kbuild-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}-${DISTRO_ARCH}-cross"
-KERNEL_HEADERS_DEBIAN_DEPENDS:append = "${HEADERS_DEPENDS}"
-
-# Append provides
-PROVIDES += "${RECIPE_PROVIDES}"
-
-# Append build profiles
-DEB_BUILD_PROFILES += "${BUILD_PROFILES}"
-
-def get_kernel_arch(d):
-    distro_arch = d.getVar("DISTRO_ARCH")
-    if distro_arch in ["amd64", "i386"]:
-        kernel_arch = "x86"
-    elif distro_arch == "arm64":
-        kernel_arch = "arm64"
-    elif distro_arch == "armhf":
-        kernel_arch = "arm"
-    elif distro_arch == "mipsel":
-        kernel_arch = "mips"
-    elif distro_arch == "riscv64":
-        kernel_arch = "riscv"
-    else:
-        kernel_arch = ""
-    return kernel_arch
-
-KERNEL_ARCH ??= "${@get_kernel_arch(d)}"
-
-# set KERNEL_FILE without depending on package arch used in bitbake.conf
-KERNEL_FILE:forcevariable = "${@ 'vmlinux' if d.getVar('KERNEL_ARCH') in ['mipsel', 'riscv', 'arm64'] else 'vmlinuz'}"
-
-def config_fragments(d):
-    fragments = []
-    sources = d.getVar("SRC_URI").split()
-    for s in sources:
-        _, _, local, _, _, parm = bb.fetch.decodeurl(s)
-        apply = parm.get("apply")
-        if apply == "no":
-            continue
-        base, ext = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(local))
-        if ext and ext in (".cfg"):
-            fragments.append(local)
-    return fragments
-
-def get_additional_build_profiles(d):
-    profiles = d.getVar('BASE_DISTRO')
-    if not bb.utils.to_boolean(d.getVar('KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_DEPLOY')):
-        profiles += ' nolibcdev'
-    elif bb.utils.to_boolean(d.getVar('KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_ARCH_ALL')):
-        profiles += ' libcdev-arch-all'
-    return profiles
-
-KERNEL_LIBC_DEV_ARCH = "${@ bb.utils.contains('DEB_BUILD_PROFILES', 'libcdev-arch-all', 'all\nMulti-Arch: foreign', 'any', d) }"
-DEB_BUILD_PROFILES += "${@get_additional_build_profiles(d)}"
-
-do_prepare_build:prepend() {
-	# copy meta-data over to source tree
-	rm -rf ${S}/debian
-	cp -r ${WORKDIR}/debian ${S}/
-
-	# remove templates from the source tree
-	find ${S}/debian -name *.tmpl | xargs rm -f
-
-	# rename install/remove hooks to match user-specified name for our linux-image package
-	mv ${S}/debian/linux-image.postinst ${S}/debian/linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}.postinst
-	mv ${S}/debian/linux-image.postrm ${S}/debian/linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}.postrm
-	mv ${S}/debian/linux-image.preinst ${S}/debian/linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}.preinst
-	mv ${S}/debian/linux-image.prerm ${S}/debian/linux-image-${KERNEL_NAME_PROVIDED}.prerm
-
-	# produce a changelog for our kernel build
-	deb_add_changelog
-
-	# make sure user-specified directories do exist in ${S}
-	if [ -n "${HEADERS_INSTALL_EXTRA}" ]; then
-		for d in ${HEADERS_INSTALL_EXTRA}; do
-			[ -d ${S}/${d} ] || {
-				bbfatal "HEADERS_INSTALL_EXTRA: '${d}' not found in \${S}!"
-			}
-		done
-	fi
-}
-
-# build directory for our "full" kernel build
-KERNEL_BUILD_DIR = "build-full"
-
-def get_kernel_config_target(d):
-    kernel_defconfig = d.getVar('KERNEL_DEFCONFIG')
-
-    config_target = kernel_defconfig
-
-    if kernel_defconfig:
-        workdir=d.getVar('WORKDIR')
-        if os.path.isfile(workdir + "/" + kernel_defconfig):
-            config_target = "olddefconfig"
-        else:
-            config_target = "defconfig KBUILD_DEFCONFIG=" + kernel_defconfig
-    else:
-        config_target = "defconfig"
-
-    return config_target
-
-def get_kernel_config_fragments(d):
-    src_frags = " ".join(config_fragments(d))
-    out_frags = " ".join(map(lambda frag: 'debian/fragments/' + frag, config_fragments(d)))
-
-    linux_version_extension = d.getVar('LINUX_VERSION_EXTENSION')
-    if linux_version_extension:
-        out_frags += " debian/isar/version.cfg"
-
-    return out_frags
-
-KERNEL_CONFIG_FRAGMENTS = "${@get_kernel_config_fragments(d)}"
-
-dpkg_configure_kernel() {
-	grep -q "KERNEL_CONFIG_TARGET=" ${S}/debian/isar/configure ||
-		cat << EOF | sed -i '/^do_configure() {/ r /dev/stdin' ${S}/debian/isar/configure
-    KERNEL_CONFIG_TARGET="${@get_kernel_config_target(d)}"
-EOF
-
-	rm -rf ${S}/${KERNEL_BUILD_DIR} && mkdir -p ${S}/${KERNEL_BUILD_DIR}
-	if [ -n "${KERNEL_DEFCONFIG}" ]; then
-		if [ -e "${WORKDIR}/${KERNEL_DEFCONFIG}" ]; then
-			cp ${WORKDIR}/${KERNEL_DEFCONFIG} ${S}/${KERNEL_BUILD_DIR}/.config
-		fi
-	fi
-
-	# copy config fragments over to the kernel tree
-	src_frags="${@ " ".join(config_fragments(d)) }"
-	rm -rf ${S}/debian/fragments
-	for frag in ${src_frags}; do
-		basedir=$(dirname ${frag})
-		mkdir -p ${S}/debian/fragments/${basedir}
-		cp ${WORKDIR}/${frag} ${S}/debian/fragments/${basedir}/
-	done
-}
-
-get_localversion_auto() {
-	if grep -q "^CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=y" ${S}/${KERNEL_BUILD_DIR}/.config; then
-		cd ${S}
-		if head=$(git rev-parse --verify --short HEAD 2>/dev/null); then
-			echo "-g${head}" >${S}/.scmversion
-		fi
-	fi
-}
-
-do_dpkg_source:prepend() {
-	dpkg_configure_kernel
-	get_localversion_auto
+do_warn_custom_inc() {
+    bbwarn "Please migrate from \"require recipes-kernel/linux/linux-custom.inc\" to \"inherit linux-kernel\""
 }
+addtask warn_custom_inc before do_unpack
