| .. _changes: | |
| Minimal requirements to compile the Kernel | |
| ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ | |
| Intro | |
| ===== | |
| This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of | |
| software necessary to run the 4.x kernels. | |
| This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels | |
| and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch, | |
| Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the | |
| 'net). | |
| Current Minimal Requirements | |
| **************************** | |
| Upgrade to at **least** these software revisions before thinking you've | |
| encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently | |
| running, the suggested command should tell you. | |
| Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally | |
| running a Linux kernel. Also, not all tools are necessary on all | |
| systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example, | |
| you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils. | |
| ====================== =============== ======================================== | |
| Program Minimal version Command to check the version | |
| ====================== =============== ======================================== | |
| GNU C 3.2 gcc --version | |
| GNU make 3.80 make --version | |
| binutils 2.12 ld -v | |
| util-linux 2.10o fdformat --version | |
| module-init-tools 0.9.10 depmod -V | |
| e2fsprogs 1.41.4 e2fsck -V | |
| jfsutils 1.1.3 fsck.jfs -V | |
| reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 reiserfsck -V | |
| xfsprogs 2.6.0 xfs_db -V | |
| squashfs-tools 4.0 mksquashfs -version | |
| btrfs-progs 0.18 btrfsck | |
| pcmciautils 004 pccardctl -V | |
| quota-tools 3.09 quota -V | |
| PPP 2.4.0 pppd --version | |
| isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version | |
| nfs-utils 1.0.5 showmount --version | |
| procps 3.2.0 ps --version | |
| oprofile 0.9 oprofiled --version | |
| udev 081 udevd --version | |
| grub 0.93 grub --version || grub-install --version | |
| mcelog 0.6 mcelog --version | |
| iptables 1.4.2 iptables -V | |
| openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 openssl version | |
| bc 1.06.95 bc --version | |
| Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 1.2 sphinx-build --version | |
| ====================== =============== ======================================== | |
| .. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation | |
| Kernel compilation | |
| ****************** | |
| GCC | |
| --- | |
| The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your | |
| computer. | |
| Make | |
| ---- | |
| You will need GNU make 3.80 or later to build the kernel. | |
| Binutils | |
| -------- | |
| Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using ``as86`` to using ``gas`` for | |
| assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for ``as86`` to compile | |
| your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent | |
| release of binutils. | |
| Perl | |
| ---- | |
| You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``, | |
| ``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel. | |
| BC | |
| -- | |
| You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher | |
| OpenSSL | |
| ------- | |
| Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and | |
| crypto library to do key creation and signature generation. | |
| You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is | |
| enabled. You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3 | |
| and higher. | |
| System utilities | |
| **************** | |
| Architectural changes | |
| --------------------- | |
| DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev | |
| (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/) | |
| 32-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun! | |
| Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline | |
| documentation via specially-formatted comments near their | |
| definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the | |
| SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook | |
| files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript, | |
| HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from | |
| DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as | |
| well as the desired DocBook stylesheets. | |
| Util-linux | |
| ---------- | |
| New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks, | |
| support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition | |
| types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies. | |
| You'll probably want to upgrade. | |
| Ksymoops | |
| -------- | |
| If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the | |
| ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't. | |
| It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so | |
| that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also | |
| produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel | |
| is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and | |
| reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops | |
| with ksymoops. | |
| Module-Init-Tools | |
| ----------------- | |
| A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires ``module-init-tools`` | |
| to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels. | |
| Mkinitrd | |
| -------- | |
| These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that | |
| mkinitrd be upgraded. | |
| E2fsprogs | |
| --------- | |
| The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and | |
| debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade. | |
| JFSutils | |
| -------- | |
| The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system. | |
| The following utilities are available: | |
| - ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check | |
| and repair a JFS formatted partition. | |
| - ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition. | |
| - other file system utilities are also available in this package. | |
| Reiserfsprogs | |
| ------------- | |
| The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x | |
| (Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working | |
| versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and | |
| ``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms. | |
| Xfsprogs | |
| -------- | |
| The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the | |
| ``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is | |
| architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should | |
| work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or | |
| later is recommended, due to some significant improvements). | |
| PCMCIAutils | |
| ----------- | |
| PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up | |
| PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules | |
| for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug | |
| subsystem is used. | |
| Quota-tools | |
| ----------- | |
| Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use | |
| the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and | |
| newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer | |
| from the table above. | |
| Intel IA32 microcode | |
| -------------------- | |
| A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode, | |
| accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using | |
| udev you may need to:: | |
| mkdir /dev/cpu | |
| mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184 | |
| chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode | |
| as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to | |
| get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this. | |
| udev | |
| ---- | |
| ``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with | |
| only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic | |
| functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for | |
| devices. | |
| FUSE | |
| ---- | |
| Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount | |
| options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work. | |
| Networking | |
| ********** | |
| General changes | |
| --------------- | |
| If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably | |
| consider using the network tools from ip-route2. | |
| Packet Filter / NAT | |
| ------------------- | |
| The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x | |
| kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules | |
| for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm. | |
| PPP | |
| --- | |
| The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to | |
| enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP, | |
| upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0. | |
| If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp | |
| which can be made by:: | |
| mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0 | |
| as root. | |
| Isdn4k-utils | |
| ------------ | |
| Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils | |
| needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded. | |
| NFS-utils | |
| --------- | |
| In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know | |
| about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This | |
| information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client | |
| mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup. exportfs | |
| would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``. | |
| This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct | |
| which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement | |
| fail-over. Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from | |
| getting lots of old entries that never get removed. | |
| With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd | |
| when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give | |
| appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the | |
| dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about | |
| currently active clients. | |
| To enable this new functionality, you need to:: | |
| mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd | |
| before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS | |
| services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where | |
| that is possible. | |
| mcelog | |
| ------ | |
| On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check | |
| events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors | |
| reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged. | |
| Kernel documentation | |
| ******************** | |
| Sphinx | |
| ------ | |
| The ReST markups currently used by the Documentation/ files are meant to be | |
| built with ``Sphinx`` version 1.2 or upper. If you're desiring to build | |
| PDF outputs, it is recommended to use version 1.4.6. | |
| .. note:: | |
| Please notice that, for PDF and LaTeX output, you'll also need ``XeLaTeX`` | |
| version 3.14159265. Depending on the distribution, you may also need | |
| to install a series of ``texlive`` packages that provide the minimal | |
| set of functionalities required for ``XeLaTex`` to work. | |
| Other tools | |
| ----------- | |
| In order to produce documentation from DocBook, you'll also need ``xmlto``. | |
| Please notice, however, that we're currently migrating all documents to use | |
| ``Sphinx``. | |
| Getting updated software | |
| ======================== | |
| Kernel compilation | |
| ****************** | |
| gcc | |
| --- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/> | |
| Make | |
| ---- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/> | |
| Binutils | |
| -------- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/> | |
| OpenSSL | |
| ------- | |
| - <https://www.openssl.org/> | |
| System utilities | |
| **************** | |
| Util-linux | |
| ---------- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/> | |
| Ksymoops | |
| -------- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/> | |
| Module-Init-Tools | |
| ----------------- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/> | |
| Mkinitrd | |
| -------- | |
| - <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main> | |
| E2fsprogs | |
| --------- | |
| - <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz> | |
| JFSutils | |
| -------- | |
| - <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/> | |
| Reiserfsprogs | |
| ------------- | |
| - <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/> | |
| Xfsprogs | |
| -------- | |
| - <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/> | |
| Pcmciautils | |
| ----------- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/> | |
| Quota-tools | |
| ----------- | |
| - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/> | |
| DocBook Stylesheets | |
| ------------------- | |
| - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/files/docbook-dsssl/> | |
| XMLTO XSLT Frontend | |
| ------------------- | |
| - <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/> | |
| Intel P6 microcode | |
| ------------------ | |
| - <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/> | |
| udev | |
| ---- | |
| - <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html> | |
| FUSE | |
| ---- | |
| - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse> | |
| mcelog | |
| ------ | |
| - <http://www.mcelog.org/> | |
| Networking | |
| ********** | |
| PPP | |
| --- | |
| - <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/> | |
| Isdn4k-utils | |
| ------------ | |
| - <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/> | |
| NFS-utils | |
| --------- | |
| - <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14> | |
| Iptables | |
| -------- | |
| - <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html> | |
| Ip-route2 | |
| --------- | |
| - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/> | |
| OProfile | |
| -------- | |
| - <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/> | |
| NFS-Utils | |
| --------- | |
| - <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/> | |
| Kernel documentation | |
| ******************** | |
| Sphinx | |
| ------ | |
| - <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/> |