1Intro 2===== 3 4This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of 5software necessary to run the 2.6 kernels, as well as provide brief 6instructions regarding any other "Gotchas" users may encounter when 7trying life on the Bleeding Edge. If upgrading from a pre-2.4.x 8kernel, please consult the Changes file included with 2.4.x kernels for 9additional information; most of that information will not be repeated 10here. Basically, this document assumes that your system is already 11functional and running at least 2.4.x kernels. 12 13This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels 14and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch, 15Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the 16'net). 17 18The latest revision of this document, in various formats, can always 19be found at <http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/kaboom/linux/Changes-2.4/>. 20 21Feel free to translate this document. If you do so, please send me a 22URL to your translation for inclusion in future revisions of this 23document. 24 25Smotrite file <http://oblom.rnc.ru/linux/kernel/Changes.ru>, yavlyaushisya 26russkim perevodom dannogo documenta. 27 28Visite <http://www2.adi.uam.es/~ender/tecnico/> para obtener la traducci\xF3n 29al espa\xF1ol de este documento en varios formatos. 30 31Eine deutsche Version dieser Datei finden Sie unter 32<http://www.stefan-winter.de/Changes-2.4.0.txt>. 33 34Last updated: October 29th, 2002 35 36Chris Ricker (kaboom@gatech.edu or chris.ricker@genetics.utah.edu). 37 38Current Minimal Requirements 39============================ 40 41Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've 42encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently 43running, the suggested command should tell you. 44 45Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already 46functionally running a Linux 2.4 kernel. Also, not all tools are 47necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any PCMCIA (PC 48Card) hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself 49with pcmcia-cs. 50 51o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version 52o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version 53o binutils 2.12 # ld -v 54o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version 55o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V 56o e2fsprogs 1.29 # tune2fs 57o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V 58o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep reiserfsprogs 59o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V 60o pcmcia-cs 3.1.21 # cardmgr -V 61o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V 62o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version 63o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version 64o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version 65o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version 66o oprofile 0.5.3 # oprofiled --version 67 68Kernel compilation 69================== 70 71GCC 72--- 73 74The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your 75computer. The next paragraph applies to users of x86 CPUs, but not 76necessarily to users of other CPUs. Users of other CPUs should obtain 77information about their gcc version requirements from another source. 78 79The recommended compiler for the kernel is gcc 2.95.x (x >= 3), and it 80should be used when you need absolute stability. You may use gcc 3.0.x 81instead if you wish, although it may cause problems. Later versions of gcc 82have not received much testing for Linux kernel compilation, and there are 83almost certainly bugs (mainly, but not exclusively, in the kernel) that 84will need to be fixed in order to use these compilers. In any case, using 85pgcc instead of plain gcc is just asking for trouble. 86 87The Red Hat gcc 2.96 compiler subtree can also be used to build this tree. 88You should ensure you use gcc-2.96-74 or later. gcc-2.96-54 will not build 89the kernel correctly. 90 91In addition, please pay attention to compiler optimization. Anything 92greater than -O2 may not be wise. Similarly, if you choose to use gcc-2.95.x 93or derivatives, be sure not to use -fstrict-aliasing (which, depending on 94your version of gcc 2.95.x, may necessitate using -fno-strict-aliasing). 95 96Make 97---- 98 99You will need Gnu make 3.79.1 or later to build the kernel. 100 101Binutils 102-------- 103 104Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for 105assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile 106your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent 107release of binutils. 108 109System utilities 110================ 111 112Architectural changes 113--------------------- 114 115DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev 116(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/) 117 11832-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun! 119 120Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline 121documentation via specially-formatted comments near their 122definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the 123SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook 124files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript, 125HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from 126DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as 127well as the desired DocBook stylesheets. 128 129Util-linux 130---------- 131 132New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks, 133support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition 134types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies. 135You'll probably want to upgrade. 136 137Ksymoops 138-------- 139 140If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you'll need a 2.4 141version of ksymoops to decode the report; see REPORTING-BUGS in the 142root of the Linux source for more information. 143 144Module-Init-Tools 145----------------- 146 147A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools 148to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels. 149 150Mkinitrd 151-------- 152 153These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that 154mkinitrd be upgraded. 155 156E2fsprogs 157--------- 158 159The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and 160debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade. 161 162JFSutils 163-------- 164 165The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system. 166The following utilities are available: 167o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check 168 and repair a JFS formatted partition. 169o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition. 170o other file system utilities are also available in this package. 171 172Reiserfsprogs 173------------- 174 175The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x 176(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working 177versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and 178reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms. 179 180Xfsprogs 181-------- 182 183The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the 184xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is 185architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should 186work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or 187later is recommended, due to some significant improvements). 188 189 190Pcmcia-cs 191--------- 192 193PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main 194kernel source. Pay attention when you recompile your kernel ;-). 195Also, be sure to upgrade to the latest pcmcia-cs release. 196 197Quota-tools 198----------- 199 200Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use 201the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and 202newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer 203from the table above. 204 205Intel IA32 microcode 206-------------------- 207 208A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode, 209accessible as both a devfs regular file and as a normal (misc) 210character device. If you are not using devfs you may need to: 211 212mkdir /dev/cpu 213mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184 214chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode 215 216as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to 217get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this. 218 219Powertweak 220---------- 221 222If you are running v0.1.17 or earlier, you should upgrade to 223version v0.99.0 or higher. Running old versions may cause problems 224with programs using shared memory. 225 226Networking 227========== 228 229General changes 230--------------- 231 232If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably 233consider using the network tools from ip-route2. 234 235Packet Filter / NAT 236------------------- 237The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x 238kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules 239for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm. 240 241PPP 242--- 243 244The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to 245enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP, 246upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0. 247 248If you are not using devfs, you must have the device file /dev/ppp 249which can be made by: 250 251mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0 252 253as root. 254 255If you use devfsd and build ppp support as modules, you will need 256the following in your /etc/devfsd.conf file: 257 258LOOKUP PPP MODLOAD 259 260Isdn4k-utils 261------------ 262 263Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils 264needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded. 265 266NFS-utils 267--------- 268 269In 2.4 and earlier kernels, the nfs server needed to know about any 270client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This 271information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client 272mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs 273would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab. 274 275This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct 276which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement 277fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from 278getting lots of old entries that never get removed. 279 280With 2.6 we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd when it 281gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give appropriate 282export information to the kernel. This removes the dependency on 283rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about currently 284active clients. 285 286To enable this new functionality, you need to: 287 288 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfs 289 290before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS 291services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where 292that is possible. 293 294Getting updated software 295======================== 296 297Kernel compilation 298****************** 299 300gcc 2.95.3 301---------- 302o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-2.95.3.tar.gz> 303 304Make 305---- 306o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/> 307 308Binutils 309-------- 310o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/> 311 312System utilities 313**************** 314 315Util-linux 316---------- 317o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/> 318 319Ksymoops 320-------- 321o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/> 322 323Module-Init-Tools 324----------------- 325o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/> 326 327Mkinitrd 328-------- 329o <ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/rawhide/SRPMS/SRPMS/> 330 331E2fsprogs 332--------- 333o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz> 334 335JFSutils 336-------- 337o <http://oss.software.ibm.com/jfs> 338 339Reiserfsprogs 340------------- 341o <http://www.namesys.com/pub/reiserfsprogs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.3.tar.gz> 342 343Xfsprogs 344-------- 345o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/> 346 347Pcmcia-cs 348--------- 349o <ftp://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/pcmcia-cs-3.1.21.tar.gz> 350 351Quota-tools 352---------- 353o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/> 354 355Jade 356---- 357o <ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/jade/jade-1.2.1.tar.gz> 358 359DocBook Stylesheets 360------------------- 361o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/> 362 363Intel P6 microcode 364------------------ 365o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/> 366 367Powertweak 368---------- 369o <http://powertweak.sourceforge.net/> 370 371Networking 372********** 373 374PPP 375--- 376o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz> 377 378Isdn4k-utils 379------------ 380o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.1pre1.tar.gz> 381 382NFS-utils 383--------- 384o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14> 385 386Iptables 387-------- 388o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html> 389 390Ip-route2 391--------- 392o <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz> 393 394OProfile 395-------- 396o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/> 397 398NFS-Utils 399--------- 400o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/> 401 402 403