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4f4e2dc3 | 1 | Linux kernel release 2.6.xx <http://kernel.org> |
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2 | |
3 | These are the release notes for Linux version 2.6. Read them carefully, | |
4 | as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the | |
5 | kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong. | |
6 | ||
7 | WHAT IS LINUX? | |
8 | ||
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9 | Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by |
10 | Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across | |
11 | the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance. | |
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13 | It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, |
14 | including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand | |
15 | loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, | |
16 | and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6. | |
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17 | |
18 | It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the | |
19 | accompanying COPYING file for more details. | |
20 | ||
21 | ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN? | |
22 | ||
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23 | Although originally developed first for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher), |
24 | today Linux also runs on (at least) the Compaq Alpha AXP, Sun SPARC and | |
25 | UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, | |
26 | IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64, AXIS CRIS, | |
27 | and Renesas M32R architectures. | |
28 | ||
29 | Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures | |
30 | as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the | |
31 | GNU C compiler (gcc) (part of The GNU Compiler Collection, GCC). Linux has | |
32 | also been ported to a number of architectures without a PMMU, although | |
33 | functionality is then obviously somewhat limited. | |
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34 | |
35 | DOCUMENTATION: | |
36 | ||
37 | - There is a lot of documentation available both in electronic form on | |
38 | the Internet and in books, both Linux-specific and pertaining to | |
39 | general UNIX questions. I'd recommend looking into the documentation | |
40 | subdirectories on any Linux FTP site for the LDP (Linux Documentation | |
41 | Project) books. This README is not meant to be documentation on the | |
42 | system: there are much better sources available. | |
43 | ||
44 | - There are various README files in the Documentation/ subdirectory: | |
45 | these typically contain kernel-specific installation notes for some | |
46 | drivers for example. See Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what | |
47 | is contained in each file. Please read the Changes file, as it | |
48 | contains information about the problems, which may result by upgrading | |
49 | your kernel. | |
50 | ||
51 | - The Documentation/DocBook/ subdirectory contains several guides for | |
52 | kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a | |
53 | number of formats: PostScript (.ps), PDF, and HTML, among others. | |
54 | After installation, "make psdocs", "make pdfdocs", or "make htmldocs" | |
55 | will render the documentation in the requested format. | |
56 | ||
57 | INSTALLING the kernel: | |
58 | ||
59 | - If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a | |
60 | directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and | |
61 | unpack it: | |
62 | ||
63 | gzip -cd linux-2.6.XX.tar.gz | tar xvf - | |
64 | ||
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65 | or |
66 | bzip2 -dc linux-2.6.XX.tar.bz2 | tar xvf - | |
67 | ||
68 | ||
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69 | Replace "XX" with the version number of the latest kernel. |
70 | ||
71 | Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually | |
72 | incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header | |
73 | files. They should match the library, and not get messed up by | |
74 | whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be. | |
75 | ||
76 | - You can also upgrade between 2.6.xx releases by patching. Patches are | |