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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
Linus Torvalds5adaf852011-07-11 16:48:38 -07005software necessary to run the 3.0 kernels.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07006
7This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
8and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
9Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
10'net).
11
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070012Current Minimal Requirements
13============================
14
15Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
16encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
17running, the suggested command should tell you.
18
Linus Torvalds5adaf852011-07-11 16:48:38 -070019Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally
20running a Linux kernel. Also, not all tools are necessary on all
21systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example,
22you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070023
Kevinbf5777bcd2014-12-22 20:00:36 -050024o GNU C 3.2 # gcc --version
25o GNU make 3.80 # make --version
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070026o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
27o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
28o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
Bill Nottingham242f45d2009-01-29 16:28:40 -080029o e2fsprogs 1.41.4 # e2fsck -V
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070030o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
Christian Kujaue06c3742011-03-22 16:35:02 -070031o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070032o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V
Bill Nottingham242f45d2009-01-29 16:28:40 -080033o squashfs-tools 4.0 # mksquashfs -version
34o btrfs-progs 0.18 # btrfsck
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -040035o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070036o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
37o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
38o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
39o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
40o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version
John Levon0c0a4002005-06-23 22:02:47 -070041o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
Christian Kujaue06c3742011-03-22 16:35:02 -070042o udev 081 # udevd --version
43o grub 0.93 # grub --version || grub-install --version
44o mcelog 0.6 # mcelog --version
Jan Engelhardtd879e192010-03-22 19:39:04 +010045o iptables 1.4.2 # iptables -V
David Howells283e8ba2015-09-25 16:31:46 +010046o openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 # openssl version
Jan Engelhardt7a922632009-12-14 14:52:10 +010047
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070048
49Kernel compilation
50==================
51
52GCC
53---
54
55The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -080056computer.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070057
58Make
59----
60
Kevinbf5777bcd2014-12-22 20:00:36 -050061You will need GNU make 3.80 or later to build the kernel.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070062
63Binutils
64--------
65
66Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
67assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
68your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
69release of binutils.
70
Jose Luis Perez Diez08219622009-06-17 16:26:30 -070071Perl
72----
73
74You will need perl 5 and the following modules: Getopt::Long, Getopt::Std,
75File::Basename, and File::Find to build the kernel.
76
Alan221069b2014-05-19 14:02:17 +010077BC
78--
79
80You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
81
Jose Luis Perez Diez08219622009-06-17 16:26:30 -070082
David Howells3f1d44a2015-08-27 11:13:36 +010083OpenSSL
84-------
85
86Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and
87crypto library to do key creation and signature generation.
88
89You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is
90enabled. You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3
91and higher.
92
93
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070094System utilities
95================
96
97Architectural changes
98---------------------
99
100DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
101(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
102
10332-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
104
105Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
106documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
107definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the
108SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook
109files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript,
110HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from
111DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as
112well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
113
114Util-linux
115----------
116
117New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
118support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
119types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
120You'll probably want to upgrade.
121
122Ksymoops
123--------
124
Jesper Juhl62a07e62005-11-07 01:01:03 -0800125If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
126ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
Linus Torvalds5adaf852011-07-11 16:48:38 -0700127It is generally preferred to build the kernel with CONFIG_KALLSYMS so
128that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
129produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
130is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and you have no way to rebuild and
131reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
132with ksymoops.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700133
134Module-Init-Tools
135-----------------
136
137A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
138to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
139
140Mkinitrd
141--------
142
143These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
144mkinitrd be upgraded.
145
146E2fsprogs
147---------
148
149The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
150debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
151
152JFSutils
153--------
154
155The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
156The following utilities are available:
157o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
158 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
159o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
160o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
161
162Reiserfsprogs
163-------------
164
165The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
166(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
167versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
168reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
169
170Xfsprogs
171--------
172
173The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
174xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
175architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
176work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
177later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
178
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700179PCMCIAutils
180-----------
181
Simon Danner00703e02014-09-06 15:44:06 +0200182PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs. It properly sets up
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700183PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
184for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
185subsystem is used.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700186
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700187Quota-tools
188-----------
189
190Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
191the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
192newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
193from the table above.
194
195Intel IA32 microcode
196--------------------
197
198A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700199accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
200udev you may need to:
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700201
202mkdir /dev/cpu
203mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
204chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
205
206as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
207get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
208
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700209udev
210----
211udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700212only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic
Jan Engelhardt03a67a42006-11-30 05:32:19 +0100213functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700214devices.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700215
Miklos Szeredi909021e2005-09-27 21:45:20 -0700216FUSE
217----
218
219Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
220options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
221
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700222Networking
223==========
224
225General changes
226---------------
227
228If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
229consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
230
231Packet Filter / NAT
232-------------------
233The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
234kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
235for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
236
237PPP
238---
239
240The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
241enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
242upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
243
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700244If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700245which can be made by:
246
247mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
248
249as root.
250
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700251Isdn4k-utils
252------------
253
254Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
255needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
256
257NFS-utils
258---------
259
Linus Torvalds5adaf852011-07-11 16:48:38 -0700260In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
261about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700262information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
263mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs
264would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
265
266This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
267which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
268fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
269getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
270
Linus Torvalds5adaf852011-07-11 16:48:38 -0700271With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
272when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
273appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
274dependency on rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about
275currently active clients.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700276
277To enable this new functionality, you need to:
278
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -0400279 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700280
281before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
282services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
283that is possible.
284
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +0200285mcelog
286------
287
Paul Bollec8c3f7d2014-07-12 09:54:52 -0700288On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
289events when CONFIG_X86_MCE is enabled. Machine check events are errors reported
290by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +0200291
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700292Getting updated software
293========================
294
295Kernel compilation
296******************
297
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -0800298gcc
299---
300o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700301
302Make
303----
304o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
305
306Binutils
307--------
308o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
309
David Howells3f1d44a2015-08-27 11:13:36 +0100310OpenSSL
311-------
312o <https://www.openssl.org/>
313
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700314System utilities
315****************
316
317Util-linux
318----------
319o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
320
321Ksymoops
322--------
323o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
324
325Module-Init-Tools
326-----------------
327o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
328
329Mkinitrd
330--------
Justin P. Mattocka6557732010-07-03 15:46:13 -0700331o <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700332
333E2fsprogs
334---------
335o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
336
337JFSutils
338--------
339o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
340
341Reiserfsprogs
342-------------
Justin P. Mattocka6557732010-07-03 15:46:13 -0700343o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700344
345Xfsprogs
346--------
Justin P. Mattocka6557732010-07-03 15:46:13 -0700347o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700348
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700349Pcmciautils
350-----------
351o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
352
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700353Quota-tools
354----------
355o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
356
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700357DocBook Stylesheets
358-------------------
Simon Danner03ebb7d2014-09-06 15:42:48 +0200359o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/files/docbook-dsssl/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700360
Martin Waitz8b0c2d92005-05-01 08:59:27 -0700361XMLTO XSLT Frontend
362-------------------
363o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
364
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700365Intel P6 microcode
366------------------
Simon Danner03ebb7d2014-09-06 15:42:48 +0200367o <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700368
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700369udev
370----
Simon Danner03ebb7d2014-09-06 15:42:48 +0200371o <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700372
Miklos Szeredi909021e2005-09-27 21:45:20 -0700373FUSE
374----
375o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
376
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +0200377mcelog
378------
Simon Danner03ebb7d2014-09-06 15:42:48 +0200379o <http://www.mcelog.org/>
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +0200380
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700381Networking
382**********
383
384PPP
385---
Justin P. Mattocka6557732010-07-03 15:46:13 -0700386o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700387
388Isdn4k-utils
389------------
Justin P. Mattocka6557732010-07-03 15:46:13 -0700390o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700391
392NFS-utils
393---------
394o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
395
396Iptables
397--------
398o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
399
400Ip-route2
401---------
Andrew Shewmaker5d330cd2014-12-03 14:07:31 -0800402o <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700403
404OProfile
405--------
406o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
407
408NFS-Utils
409---------
410o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>