Root/Documentation/Changes

1Intro
2=====
3
4This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
5software necessary to run the 3.0 kernels.
6
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
12Current 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
19Again, 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.
23
24o Gnu C 3.2 # gcc --version
25o Gnu make 3.80 # make --version
26o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
27o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
28o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
29o e2fsprogs 1.41.4 # e2fsck -V
30o jfsutils 1.1.3 # fsck.jfs -V
31o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V
32o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V
33o squashfs-tools 4.0 # mksquashfs -version
34o btrfs-progs 0.18 # btrfsck
35o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V
36o 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
41o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version
42o udev 081 # udevd --version
43o grub 0.93 # grub --version || grub-install --version
44o mcelog 0.6 # mcelog --version
45o iptables 1.4.2 # iptables -V
46
47
48Kernel compilation
49==================
50
51GCC
52---
53
54The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
55computer.
56
57Make
58----
59
60You will need Gnu make 3.80 or later to build the kernel.
61
62Binutils
63--------
64
65Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
66assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
67your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
68release of binutils.
69
70Perl
71----
72
73You will need perl 5 and the following modules: Getopt::Long, Getopt::Std,
74File::Basename, and File::Find to build the kernel.
75
76
77System utilities
78================
79
80Architectural changes
81---------------------
82
83DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
84(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
85
8632-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
87
88Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
89documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
90definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the
91SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook
92files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript,
93HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from
94DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as
95well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
96
97Util-linux
98----------
99
100New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
101support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
102types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
103You'll probably want to upgrade.
104
105Ksymoops
106--------
107
108If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
109ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
110It is generally preferred to build the kernel with CONFIG_KALLSYMS so
111that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
112produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
113is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and you have no way to rebuild and
114reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
115with ksymoops.
116
117Module-Init-Tools
118-----------------
119
120A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
121to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
122
123Mkinitrd
124--------
125
126These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
127mkinitrd be upgraded.
128
129E2fsprogs
130---------
131
132The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
133debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
134
135JFSutils
136--------
137
138The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
139The following utilities are available:
140o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
141  and repair a JFS formatted partition.
142o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
143o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
144
145Reiserfsprogs
146-------------
147
148The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
149(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
150versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
151reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
152
153Xfsprogs
154--------
155
156The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
157xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
158architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
159work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
160later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
161
162PCMCIAutils
163-----------
164
165PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs (see below). It properly sets up
166PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
167for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
168subsystem is used.
169
170Pcmcia-cs
171---------
172
173PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main
174kernel source. The "pcmciautils" package (see above) replaces pcmcia-cs
175for newest kernels.
176
177Quota-tools
178-----------
179
180Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
181the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
182newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
183from the table above.
184
185Intel IA32 microcode
186--------------------
187
188A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
189accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
190udev you may need to:
191
192mkdir /dev/cpu
193mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
194chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
195
196as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
197get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
198
199udev
200----
201udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
202only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic
203functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
204devices.
205
206FUSE
207----
208
209Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
210options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
211
212Networking
213==========
214
215General changes
216---------------
217
218If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
219consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
220
221Packet Filter / NAT
222-------------------
223The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
224kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
225for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
226
227PPP
228---
229
230The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
231enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
232upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
233
234If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
235which can be made by:
236
237mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
238
239as root.
240
241Isdn4k-utils
242------------
243
244Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
245needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
246
247NFS-utils
248---------
249
250In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
251about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
252information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
253mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs
254would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
255
256This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
257which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
258fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
259getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
260
261With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
262when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
263appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
264dependency on rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about
265currently active clients.
266
267To enable this new functionality, you need to:
268
269  mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
270
271before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
272services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
273that is possible.
274
275mcelog
276------
277
278In Linux 2.6.31+ the i386 kernel needs to run the mcelog utility
279as a regular cronjob similar to the x86-64 kernel to process and log
280machine check events when CONFIG_X86_NEW_MCE is enabled. Machine check
281events are errors reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
282All x86-64 kernels since 2.6.4 require the mcelog utility to
283process machine checks.
284
285Getting updated software
286========================
287
288Kernel compilation
289******************
290
291gcc
292---
293o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
294
295Make
296----
297o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
298
299Binutils
300--------
301o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
302
303System utilities
304****************
305
306Util-linux
307----------
308o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
309
310Ksymoops
311--------
312o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
313
314Module-Init-Tools
315-----------------
316o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
317
318Mkinitrd
319--------
320o <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
321
322E2fsprogs
323---------
324o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
325
326JFSutils
327--------
328o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
329
330Reiserfsprogs
331-------------
332o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
333
334Xfsprogs
335--------
336o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
337
338Pcmciautils
339-----------
340o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
341
342Pcmcia-cs
343---------
344o <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/>
345
346Quota-tools
347----------
348o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
349
350DocBook Stylesheets
351-------------------
352o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/>
353
354XMLTO XSLT Frontend
355-------------------
356o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
357
358Intel P6 microcode
359------------------
360o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/>
361
362udev
363----
364o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html>
365
366FUSE
367----
368o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
369
370mcelog
371------
372o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/cpu/mce/>
373
374Networking
375**********
376
377PPP
378---
379o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
380
381Isdn4k-utils
382------------
383o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
384
385NFS-utils
386---------
387o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
388
389Iptables
390--------
391o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
392
393Ip-route2
394---------
395o <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz>
396
397OProfile
398--------
399o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
400
401NFS-Utils
402---------
403o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
404
405

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