Documentation/Changes

   1 Intro
   2 =====
   3
   4 This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
   5 software necessary to run the 3.0 kernels.
   6
   7 This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
   8 and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
   9 Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
  10 'net).
  11
  12 Current Minimal Requirements
  13 ============================
  14
  15 Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
  16 encountered a bug!  If you're unsure what version you're currently
  17 running, the suggested command should tell you.
  18
  19 Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally
  20 running a Linux kernel.  Also, not all tools are necessary on all
  21 systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example,
  22 you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils.
  23
  24 o  Gnu C                  3.2                     # gcc --version
  25 o  Gnu make               3.80                    # make --version
  26 o  binutils               2.12                    # ld -v
  27 o  util-linux             2.10o                   # fdformat --version
  28 o  module-init-tools      0.9.10                  # depmod -V
  29 o  e2fsprogs              1.41.4                  # e2fsck -V
  30 o  jfsutils               1.1.3                   # fsck.jfs -V
  31 o  reiserfsprogs          3.6.3                   # reiserfsck -V
  32 o  xfsprogs               2.6.0                   # xfs_db -V
  33 o  squashfs-tools         4.0                     # mksquashfs -version
  34 o  btrfs-progs            0.18                    # btrfsck
  35 o  pcmciautils            004                     # pccardctl -V
  36 o  quota-tools            3.09                    # quota -V
  37 o  PPP                    2.4.0                   # pppd --version
  38 o  isdn4k-utils           3.1pre1                 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
  39 o  nfs-utils              1.0.5                   # showmount --version
  40 o  procps                 3.2.0                   # ps --version
  41 o  oprofile               0.9                     # oprofiled --version
  42 o  udev                   081                     # udevd --version
  43 o  grub                   0.93                    # grub --version || grub-install --version
  44 o  mcelog                 0.6                     # mcelog --version
  45 o  iptables               1.4.2                   # iptables -V
  46
  47
  48 Kernel compilation
  49 ==================
  50
  51 GCC
  52 ---
  53
  54 The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
  55 computer.
  56
  57 Make
  58 ----
  59
  60 You will need Gnu make 3.80 or later to build the kernel.
  61
  62 Binutils
  63 --------
  64
  65 Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for
  66 assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile
  67 your kernel.  This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
  68 release of binutils.
  69
  70 Perl
  71 ----
  72
  73 You will need perl 5 and the following modules: Getopt::Long, Getopt::Std,
  74 File::Basename, and File::Find to build the kernel.
  75
  76 BC
  77 --
  78
  79 You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
  80
  81
  82 System utilities
  83 ================
  84
  85 Architectural changes
  86 ---------------------
  87
  88 DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
  89 (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
  90
  91 32-bit UID support is now in place.  Have fun!
  92
  93 Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
  94 documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
  95 definitions in the source.  These comments can be combined with the
  96 SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook
  97 files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript,
  98 HTML, PDF files, and several other formats.  In order to convert from
  99 DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as
 100 well as the desired DocBook stylesheets.
 101
 102 Util-linux
 103 ----------
 104
 105 New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks,
 106 support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
 107 types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
 108 You'll probably want to upgrade.
 109
 110 Ksymoops
 111 --------
 112
 113 If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
 114 ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
 115 It is generally preferred to build the kernel with CONFIG_KALLSYMS so
 116 that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
 117 produces better output than ksymoops).  If for some reason your kernel
 118 is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and you have no way to rebuild and
 119 reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
 120 with ksymoops.
 121
 122 Module-Init-Tools
 123 -----------------
 124
 125 A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools
 126 to use.  It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
 127
 128 Mkinitrd
 129 --------
 130
 131 These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that
 132 mkinitrd be upgraded.
 133
 134 E2fsprogs
 135 ---------
 136
 137 The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and
 138 debugfs.  Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
 139
 140 JFSutils
 141 --------
 142
 143 The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system.
 144 The following utilities are available:
 145 o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
 146   and repair a JFS formatted partition.
 147 o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition.
 148 o other file system utilities are also available in this package.
 149
 150 Reiserfsprogs
 151 -------------
 152
 153 The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
 154 (Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
 155 versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and
 156 reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
 157
 158 Xfsprogs
 159 --------
 160
 161 The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the
 162 xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem.  It is
 163 architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
 164 work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
 165 later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
 166
 167 PCMCIAutils
 168 -----------
 169
 170 PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs. It properly sets up
 171 PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
 172 for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
 173 subsystem is used.
 174
 175 Quota-tools
 176 -----------
 177
 178 Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
 179 the newer version 2 quota format.  Quota-tools version 3.07 and
 180 newer has this support.  Use the recommended version or newer
 181 from the table above.
 182
 183 Intel IA32 microcode
 184 --------------------
 185
 186 A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
 187 accessible as a normal (misc) character device.  If you are not using
 188 udev you may need to:
 189
 190 mkdir /dev/cpu
 191 mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
 192 chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
 193
 194 as root before you can use this.  You'll probably also want to
 195 get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
 196
 197 udev
 198 ----
 199 udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with
 200 only entries for devices actually present.  udev replaces the basic
 201 functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
 202 devices.
 203
 204 FUSE
 205 ----
 206
 207 Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later.  Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
 208 options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work.
 209
 210 Networking
 211 ==========
 212
 213 General changes
 214 ---------------
 215
 216 If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
 217 consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
 218
 219 Packet Filter / NAT
 220 -------------------
 221 The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
 222 kernel series (iptables).  It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
 223 for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
 224
 225 PPP
 226 ---
 227
 228 The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
 229 enable it to operate over diverse media layers.  If you use PPP,
 230 upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
 231
 232 If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
 233 which can be made by:
 234
 235 mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
 236
 237 as root.
 238
 239 Isdn4k-utils
 240 ------------
 241
 242 Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
 243 needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
 244
 245 NFS-utils
 246 ---------
 247
 248 In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
 249 about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS.  This
 250 information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client
 251 mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup.  exportfs
 252 would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab.
 253
 254 This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
 255 which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
 256 fail-over.  Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from
 257 getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
 258
 259 With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
 260 when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
 261 appropriate export information to the kernel.  This removes the
 262 dependency on rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about
 263 currently active clients.
 264
 265 To enable this new functionality, you need to:
 266
 267   mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
 268
 269 before running exportfs or mountd.  It is recommended that all NFS
 270 services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
 271 that is possible.
 272
 273 mcelog
 274 ------
 275
 276 On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
 277 events when CONFIG_X86_MCE is enabled. Machine check events are errors reported
 278 by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
 279
 280 Getting updated software
 281 ========================
 282
 283 Kernel compilation
 284 ******************
 285
 286 gcc
 287 ---
 288 o  <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
 289
 290 Make
 291 ----
 292 o  <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
 293
 294 Binutils
 295 --------
 296 o  <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
 297
 298 System utilities
 299 ****************
 300
 301 Util-linux
 302 ----------
 303 o  <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
 304
 305 Ksymoops
 306 --------
 307 o  <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
 308
 309 Module-Init-Tools
 310 -----------------
 311 o  <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/>
 312
 313 Mkinitrd
 314 --------
 315 o  <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
 316
 317 E2fsprogs
 318 ---------
 319 o  <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
 320
 321 JFSutils
 322 --------
 323 o  <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
 324
 325 Reiserfsprogs
 326 -------------
 327 o  <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
 328
 329 Xfsprogs
 330 --------
 331 o  <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
 332
 333 Pcmciautils
 334 -----------
 335 o  <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
 336
 337 Quota-tools
 338 ----------
 339 o  <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
 340
 341 DocBook Stylesheets
 342 -------------------
 343 o  <http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/files/docbook-dsssl/>
 344
 345 XMLTO XSLT Frontend
 346 -------------------
 347 o  <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/>
 348
 349 Intel P6 microcode
 350 ------------------
 351 o  <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
 352
 353 udev
 354 ----
 355 o <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
 356
 357 FUSE
 358 ----
 359 o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
 360
 361 mcelog
 362 ------
 363 o <http://www.mcelog.org/>
 364
 365 Networking
 366 **********
 367
 368 PPP
 369 ---
 370 o  <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
 371
 372 Isdn4k-utils
 373 ------------
 374 o  <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
 375
 376 NFS-utils
 377 ---------
 378 o  <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
 379
 380 Iptables
 381 --------
 382 o  <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
 383
 384 Ip-route2
 385 ---------
 386 o  <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz>
 387
 388 OProfile
 389 --------
 390 o  <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
 391
 392 NFS-Utils
 393 ---------
 394 o  <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
 395