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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
Bill Nottingham242f45d2009-01-29 16:28:40 -080036o e2fsprogs 1.41.4 # e2fsck -V
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070037o 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
Bill Nottingham242f45d2009-01-29 16:28:40 -080040o squashfs-tools 4.0 # mksquashfs -version
41o btrfs-progs 0.18 # btrfsck
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -040042o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070043o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
44o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
45o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
46o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
47o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version
John Levon0c0a4002005-06-23 22:02:47 -070048o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -040049o udev 081 # udevinfo -V
H. Peter Anvinc3887cd2007-08-02 13:50:43 -040050o grub 0.93 # grub --version
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +020051o mcelog 0.6
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070052
53Kernel compilation
54==================
55
56GCC
57---
58
59The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -080060computer.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -070061
62Make
63----
64
65You will need Gnu make 3.79.1 or later to build the kernel.
66
67Binutils
68--------
69
70Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
71assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
72your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
73release of binutils.
74
75System utilities
76================
77
78Architectural changes
79---------------------
80
81DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
82(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
83
8432-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
85
86Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
87documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
88definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the
89SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook
90files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript,
91HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from
92DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as
93well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
94
95Util-linux
96----------
97
98New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
99support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
100types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
101You'll probably want to upgrade.
102
103Ksymoops
104--------
105
Jesper Juhl62a07e62005-11-07 01:01:03 -0800106If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
107ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
108In the 2.6 kernel it is generally preferred to build the kernel with
109CONFIG_KALLSYMS so that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is
110(this also produces better output than ksymoops).
111If for some reason your kernel is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and
112you have no way to rebuild and reproduce the Oops with that option, then
113you can still decode that Oops with ksymoops.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700114
115Module-Init-Tools
116-----------------
117
118A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
119to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
120
121Mkinitrd
122--------
123
124These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
125mkinitrd be upgraded.
126
127E2fsprogs
128---------
129
130The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
131debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
132
133JFSutils
134--------
135
136The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
137The following utilities are available:
138o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
139 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
140o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
141o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
142
143Reiserfsprogs
144-------------
145
146The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
147(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
148versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
149reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
150
151Xfsprogs
152--------
153
154The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
155xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
156architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
157work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
158later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
159
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700160PCMCIAutils
161-----------
162
163PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs (see below). It properly sets up
164PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
165for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
166subsystem is used.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700167
168Pcmcia-cs
169---------
170
171PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700172kernel source. The "pcmciautils" package (see above) replaces pcmcia-cs
173for newest kernels.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700174
175Quota-tools
176-----------
177
178Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
179the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
180newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
181from the table above.
182
183Intel IA32 microcode
184--------------------
185
186A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700187accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
188udev you may need to:
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700189
190mkdir /dev/cpu
191mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
192chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
193
194as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
195get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
196
197Powertweak
198----------
199
200If you are running v0.1.17 or earlier, you should upgrade to
201version v0.99.0 or higher. Running old versions may cause problems
202with programs using shared memory.
203
204udev
205----
206udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700207only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic
Jan Engelhardt03a67a42006-11-30 05:32:19 +0100208functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700209devices.
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700210
Miklos Szeredi909021e2005-09-27 21:45:20 -0700211FUSE
212----
213
214Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
215options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
216
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700217Networking
218==========
219
220General changes
221---------------
222
223If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
224consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
225
226Packet Filter / NAT
227-------------------
228The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
229kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
230for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
231
232PPP
233---
234
235The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
236enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
237upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
238
Greg Kroah-Hartman890fbae2005-06-20 21:15:16 -0700239If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700240which can be made by:
241
242mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
243
244as root.
245
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700246Isdn4k-utils
247------------
248
249Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
250needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
251
252NFS-utils
253---------
254
255In 2.4 and earlier kernels, the nfs server needed to know about any
256client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
257information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
258mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs
259would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
260
261This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
262which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
263fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
264getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
265
266With 2.6 we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd when it
267gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give appropriate
268export information to the kernel. This removes the dependency on
269rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about currently
270active clients.
271
272To enable this new functionality, you need to:
273
Robert P. J. Daye4121712006-09-11 12:39:19 -0400274 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700275
276before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
277services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
278that is possible.
279
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +0200280mcelog
281------
282
283In Linux 2.6.31+ the i386 kernel needs to run the mcelog utility
284as a regular cronjob similar to the x86-64 kernel to process and log
285machine check events when CONFIG_X86_NEW_MCE is enabled. Machine check
286events are errors reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
287All x86-64 kernels since 2.6.4 require the mcelog utility to
288process machine checks.
289
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700290Getting updated software
291========================
292
293Kernel compilation
294******************
295
Andrew Mortona1365642006-01-08 01:04:09 -0800296gcc
297---
298o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700299
300Make
301----
302o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
303
304Binutils
305--------
306o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
307
308System utilities
309****************
310
311Util-linux
312----------
313o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
314
315Ksymoops
316--------
317o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
318
319Module-Init-Tools
320-----------------
321o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
322
323Mkinitrd
324--------
325o <ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/rawhide/SRPMS/SRPMS/>
326
327E2fsprogs
328---------
329o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
330
331JFSutils
332--------
333o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
334
335Reiserfsprogs
336-------------
337o <http://www.namesys.com/pub/reiserfsprogs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.3.tar.gz>
338
339Xfsprogs
340--------
341o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/>
342
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700343Pcmciautils
344-----------
345o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
346
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700347Pcmcia-cs
348---------
Dominik Brodowski5085cb22005-06-27 16:28:45 -0700349o <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/>
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700350
351Quota-tools
352----------
353o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
354
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700355DocBook Stylesheets
356-------------------
357o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/>
358
Martin Waitz8b0c2d92005-05-01 08:59:27 -0700359XMLTO XSLT Frontend
360-------------------
361o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
362
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700363Intel P6 microcode
364------------------
365o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/>
366
367Powertweak
368----------
369o <http://powertweak.sourceforge.net/>
370
371udev
372----
373o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html>
374
Miklos Szeredi909021e2005-09-27 21:45:20 -0700375FUSE
376----
377o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
378
Andi Kleen172d8992009-04-28 23:37:02 +0200379mcelog
380------
381o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/cpu/mce/mcelog/>
382
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700383Networking
384**********
385
386PPP
387---
388o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz>
389
390Isdn4k-utils
391------------
392o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.1pre1.tar.gz>
393
394NFS-utils
395---------
396o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
397
398Iptables
399--------
400o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
401
402Ip-route2
403---------
404o <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz>
405
406OProfile
407--------
408o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
409
410NFS-Utils
411---------
412o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
413