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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001Intro
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
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070018Current Minimal Requirements
19============================
20
21Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
22encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
23running, the suggested command should tell you.
24
25Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already
26functionally running a Linux 2.4 kernel. Also, not all tools are
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -070027necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN
28hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself with
29isdn4k-utils.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070030
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -080031o Gnu C 3.2 # gcc --version
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070032o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
33o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
34o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
35o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
36o e2fsprogs 1.29 # tune2fs
37o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
38o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep reiserfsprogs
39o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -040040o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070041o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
42o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
43o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
44o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
45o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version
John Levon0c0a4002005-06-23 22:02:47 -070046o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -040047o udev 081 # udevinfo -V
H. Peter Anvinc3887cd2007-08-02 13:50:43 -040048o grub 0.93 # grub --version
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070049
50Kernel compilation
51==================
52
53GCC
54---
55
56The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -080057computer.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070058
59Make
60----
61
62You will need Gnu make 3.79.1 or later to build the kernel.
63
64Binutils
65--------
66
67Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
68assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
69your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
70release of binutils.
71
72System utilities
73================
74
75Architectural changes
76---------------------
77
78DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
79(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
80
8132-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
82
83Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
84documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
85definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the
86SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook
87files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript,
88HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from
89DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as
90well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
91
92Util-linux
93----------
94
95New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
96support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
97types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
98You'll probably want to upgrade.
99
100Ksymoops
101--------
102
Jesper Juhl62a07e62005-11-07 01:01:03 -0800103If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
104ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
105In the 2.6 kernel it is generally preferred to build the kernel with
106CONFIG_KALLSYMS so that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is
107(this also produces better output than ksymoops).
108If for some reason your kernel is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and
109you have no way to rebuild and reproduce the Oops with that option, then
110you can still decode that Oops with ksymoops.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700111
112Module-Init-Tools
113-----------------
114
115A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
116to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
117
118Mkinitrd
119--------
120
121These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
122mkinitrd be upgraded.
123
124E2fsprogs
125---------
126
127The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
128debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
129
130JFSutils
131--------
132
133The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
134The following utilities are available:
135o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
136 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
137o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
138o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
139
140Reiserfsprogs
141-------------
142
143The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
144(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
145versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
146reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
147
148Xfsprogs
149--------
150
151The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
152xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
153architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
154work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
155later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
156
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700157PCMCIAutils
158-----------
159
160PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs (see below). It properly sets up
161PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
162for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
163subsystem is used.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700164
165Pcmcia-cs
166---------
167
168PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700169kernel source. The "pcmciautils" package (see above) replaces pcmcia-cs
170for newest kernels.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700171
172Quota-tools
173-----------
174
175Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
176the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
177newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
178from the table above.
179
180Intel IA32 microcode
181--------------------
182
183A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700184accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
185udev you may need to:
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700186
187mkdir /dev/cpu
188mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
189chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
190
191as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
192get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
193
194Powertweak
195----------
196
197If you are running v0.1.17 or earlier, you should upgrade to
198version v0.99.0 or higher. Running old versions may cause problems
199with programs using shared memory.
200
201udev
202----
203udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700204only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic
Jan Engelhardt03a67a42006-11-30 05:32:19 +0100205functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700206devices.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700207
Miklos Szeredi909021e2005-09-27 21:45:20 -0700208FUSE
209----
210
211Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
212options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
213
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700214Networking
215==========
216
217General changes
218---------------
219
220If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
221consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
222
223Packet Filter / NAT
224-------------------
225The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
226kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
227for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
228
229PPP
230---
231
232The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
233enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
234upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
235
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700236If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700237which can be made by:
238
239mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
240
241as root.
242
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700243Isdn4k-utils
244------------
245
246Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
247needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
248
249NFS-utils
250---------
251
252In 2.4 and earlier kernels, the nfs server needed to know about any
253client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
254information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
255mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs
256would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
257
258This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
259which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
260fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
261getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
262
263With 2.6 we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd when it
264gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give appropriate
265export information to the kernel. This removes the dependency on
266rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about currently
267active clients.
268
269To enable this new functionality, you need to:
270
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -0400271 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700272
273before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
274services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
275that is possible.
276
277Getting updated software
278========================
279
280Kernel compilation
281******************
282
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -0800283gcc
284---
285o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700286
287Make
288----
289o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
290
291Binutils
292--------
293o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
294
295System utilities
296****************
297
298Util-linux
299----------
300o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
301
302Ksymoops
303--------
304o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
305
306Module-Init-Tools
307-----------------
308o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
309
310Mkinitrd
311--------
312o <ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/rawhide/SRPMS/SRPMS/>
313
314E2fsprogs
315---------
316o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
317
318JFSutils
319--------
320o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
321
322Reiserfsprogs
323-------------
324o <http://www.namesys.com/pub/reiserfsprogs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.3.tar.gz>
325
326Xfsprogs
327--------
328o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/>
329
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700330Pcmciautils
331-----------
332o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
333
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700334Pcmcia-cs
335---------
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700336o <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700337
338Quota-tools
339----------
340o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
341
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700342DocBook Stylesheets
343-------------------
344o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/>
345
Martin Waitz8b0c2d92005-05-01 08:59:27 -0700346XMLTO XSLT Frontend
347-------------------
348o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
349
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700350Intel P6 microcode
351------------------
352o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/>
353
354Powertweak
355----------
356o <http://powertweak.sourceforge.net/>
357
358udev
359----
360o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html>
361
Miklos Szeredi909021e2005-09-27 21:45:20 -0700362FUSE
363----
364o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
365
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700366Networking
367**********
368
369PPP
370---
371o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz>
372
373Isdn4k-utils
374------------
375o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.1pre1.tar.gz>
376
377NFS-utils
378---------
379o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
380
381Iptables
382--------
383o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
384
385Ip-route2
386---------
387o <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz>
388
389OProfile
390--------
391o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
392
393NFS-Utils
394---------
395o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
396