|  | .. _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               3.81             make --version | 
|  | binutils               2.20             ld -v | 
|  | flex                   2.5.35           flex --version | 
|  | bison                  2.0              bison --version | 
|  | 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]_	       1.3		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 3.81 or later to build the kernel. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Binutils | 
|  | -------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | The build system has, as of 4.13, switched to using thin archives (`ar T`) | 
|  | rather than incremental linking (`ld -r`) for built-in.o intermediate steps. | 
|  | This requires binutils 2.20 or newer. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Flex | 
|  | ---- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates lexical analyzers | 
|  | during build.  This requires flex 2.5.35 or later. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Bison | 
|  | ----- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates parsers | 
|  | during build.  This requires bison 2.0 or later. | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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 ReST | 
|  | files the Documentation/ directory to make enriched documentation, which can | 
|  | then be converted to PostScript, HTML, LaTex, ePUB and PDF files. | 
|  | In order to convert from ReST format to a format of your choice, you'll need | 
|  | Sphinx. | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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 | 
|  | ------ | 
|  |  | 
|  | Please see :ref:`sphinx_install` in ``Documentation/doc-guide/sphinx.rst`` | 
|  | for details about Sphinx requirements. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Getting updated software | 
|  | ======================== | 
|  |  | 
|  | Kernel compilation | 
|  | ****************** | 
|  |  | 
|  | gcc | 
|  | --- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Make | 
|  | ---- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Binutils | 
|  | -------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Flex | 
|  | ---- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://github.com/westes/flex/releases> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Bison | 
|  | ----- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | OpenSSL | 
|  | ------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://www.openssl.org/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | System utilities | 
|  | **************** | 
|  |  | 
|  | Util-linux | 
|  | ---------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Ksymoops | 
|  | -------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Module-Init-Tools | 
|  | ----------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/module-init-tools/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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 | 
|  | ----------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/> | 
|  |  | 
|  | Quota-tools | 
|  | ----------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/> | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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/> |