4 This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
5 software necessary to run the 2.6 kernels, as well as provide brief
6 instructions regarding any other "Gotchas" users may encounter when
7 trying life on the Bleeding Edge. If upgrading from a pre-2.4.x
8 kernel, please consult the Changes file included with 2.4.x kernels for
9 additional information; most of that information will not be repeated
10 here. Basically, this document assumes that your system is already
11 functional and running at least 2.4.x kernels.
13 This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
14 and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
15 Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
18 Current Minimal Requirements
19 ============================
21 Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
22 encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
23 running, the suggested command should tell you.
25 Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already
26 functionally running a Linux 2.4 kernel. Also, not all tools are
27 necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN
28 hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself with
31 o Gnu C 3.2 # gcc --version
32 o Gnu make 3.80 # make --version
33 o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
34 o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
35 o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
36 o e2fsprogs 1.41.4 # e2fsck -V
37 o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
38 o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep reiserfsprogs
39 o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V
40 o squashfs-tools 4.0 # mksquashfs -version
41 o btrfs-progs 0.18 # btrfsck
42 o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
43 o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V
44 o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
45 o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
46 o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version
47 o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version
48 o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
49 o udev 081 # udevinfo -V
50 o grub 0.93 # grub --version
58 The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
64 You will need Gnu make 3.80 or later to build the kernel.
69 Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
70 assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
71 your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
80 DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
81 (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
83 32-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
85 Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
86 documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
87 definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the
88 SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook
89 files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript,
90 HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from
91 DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as
92 well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
97 New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
98 support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
99 types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
100 You'll probably want to upgrade.
105 If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
106 ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
107 In the 2.6 kernel it is generally preferred to build the kernel with
108 CONFIG_KALLSYMS so that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is
109 (this also produces better output than ksymoops).
110 If for some reason your kernel is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and
111 you have no way to rebuild and reproduce the Oops with that option, then
112 you can still decode that Oops with ksymoops.
117 A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
118 to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
123 These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
124 mkinitrd be upgraded.
129 The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
130 debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
135 The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
136 The following utilities are available:
137 o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
138 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
139 o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
140 o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
145 The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
146 (Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
147 versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
148 reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
153 The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
154 xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
155 architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
156 work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
157 later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
162 PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs (see below). It properly sets up
163 PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
164 for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
170 PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main
171 kernel source. The "pcmciautils" package (see above) replaces pcmcia-cs
177 Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
178 the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
179 newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
180 from the table above.
185 A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
186 accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
187 udev you may need to:
190 mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
191 chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
193 as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
194 get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
199 If you are running v0.1.17 or earlier, you should upgrade to
200 version v0.99.0 or higher. Running old versions may cause problems
201 with programs using shared memory.
205 udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
206 only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic
207 functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
213 Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
214 options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
222 If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
223 consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
227 The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
228 kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
229 for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
234 The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
235 enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
236 upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
238 If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
239 which can be made by:
241 mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
248 Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
249 needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
254 In 2.4 and earlier kernels, the nfs server needed to know about any
255 client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
256 information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
257 mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs
258 would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
260 This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
261 which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
262 fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
263 getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
265 With 2.6 we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd when it
266 gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give appropriate
267 export information to the kernel. This removes the dependency on
268 rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about currently
271 To enable this new functionality, you need to:
273 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
275 before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
276 services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
279 Getting updated software
280 ========================
287 o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
291 o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
295 o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
302 o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
306 o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
310 o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
314 o <ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/rawhide/SRPMS/SRPMS/>
318 o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
322 o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
326 o <http://www.namesys.com/pub/reiserfsprogs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.3.tar.gz>
330 o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/>
334 o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
338 o <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/>
342 o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
346 o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/>
350 o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
354 o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/>
358 o <http://powertweak.sourceforge.net/>
362 o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html>
366 o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
373 o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz>
377 o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.1pre1.tar.gz>
381 o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
385 o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
389 o <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz>
393 o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
397 o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
projects / linux-2.6 / blob