1Intro 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 18Current 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 27necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN 28hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself with 29isdn4k-utils. 30 31o Gnu C 3.2 # gcc --version 32o 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 36o e2fsprogs 1.29 # tune2fs 37o 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 40o pcmciautils 004 # pccardctl -V 41o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V 42o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version 43o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version 44o nfs-utils 1.0.5 # showmount --version 45o procps 3.2.0 # ps --version 46o oprofile 0.9 # oprofiled --version 47o udev 081 # udevinfo -V 48o grub 0.93 # grub --version 49 50Kernel compilation 51================== 52 53GCC 54--- 55 56The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your 57computer. 58 59Make 60---- 61 62You will need Gnu make 3.79.1 or later to build the kernel. 63 64Binutils 65-------- 66 67Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for 68assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile 69your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent 70release of binutils. 71 72System utilities 73================ 74 75Architectural changes 76--------------------- 77 78DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev 79(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/) 80 8132-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun! 82 83Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline 84documentation via specially-formatted comments near their 85definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the 86SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook 87files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript, 88HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from 89DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as 90well as the desired DocBook stylesheets. 91 92Util-linux 93---------- 94 95New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks, 96support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition 97types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies. 98You'll probably want to upgrade. 99 100Ksymoops 101-------- 102 103If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the 104ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't. 105In the 2.6 kernel it is generally preferred to build the kernel with 106CONFIG_KALLSYMS so that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is 107(this also produces better output than ksymoops). 108If for some reason your kernel is not build with CONFIG_KALLSYMS and 109you have no way to rebuild and reproduce the Oops with that option, then 110you can still decode that Oops with ksymoops. 111 112Module-Init-Tools 113----------------- 114 115A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires module-init-tools 116to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels. 117 118Mkinitrd 119-------- 120 121These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that 122mkinitrd be upgraded. 123 124E2fsprogs 125--------- 126 127The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and 128debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade. 129 130JFSutils 131-------- 132 133The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system. 134The following utilities are available: 135o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check 136 and repair a JFS formatted partition. 137o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition. 138o other file system utilities are also available in this package. 139 140Reiserfsprogs 141------------- 142 143The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x 144(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working 145versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and 146reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms. 147 148Xfsprogs 149-------- 150 151The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the 152xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is 153architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should 154work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or 155later is recommended, due to some significant improvements). 156 157PCMCIAutils 158----------- 159 160PCMCIAutils replaces pcmcia-cs (see below). It properly sets up 161PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules 162for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug 163subsystem is used. 164 165Pcmcia-cs 166--------- 167 168PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main 169kernel source. The "pcmciautils" package (see above) replaces pcmcia-cs 170for newest kernels. 171 172Quota-tools 173----------- 174 175Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use 176the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and 177newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer 178from the table above. 179 180Intel IA32 microcode 181-------------------- 182 183A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode, 184accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using 185udev you may need to: 186 187mkdir /dev/cpu 188mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184 189chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode 190 191as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to 192get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this. 193 194Powertweak 195---------- 196 197If you are running v0.1.17 or earlier, you should upgrade to 198version v0.99.0 or higher. Running old versions may cause problems 199with programs using shared memory. 200 201udev 202---- 203udev is a userspace application for populating /dev dynamically with 204only entries for devices actually present. udev replaces the basic 205functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for 206devices. 207 208FUSE 209---- 210 211Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount 212options 'direct_io' and 'kernel_cache' won't work. 213 214Networking 215========== 216 217General changes 218--------------- 219 220If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably 221consider using the network tools from ip-route2. 222 223Packet Filter / NAT 224------------------- 225The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x 226kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules 227for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm. 228 229PPP 230--- 231 232The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to 233enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP, 234upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0. 235 236If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp 237which can be made by: 238 239mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0 240 241as root. 242 243Isdn4k-utils 244------------ 245 246Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils 247needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded. 248 249NFS-utils 250--------- 251 252In 2.4 and earlier kernels, the nfs server needed to know about any 253client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This 254information would be given to the kernel by "mountd" when the client 255mounted the filesystem, or by "exportfs" at system startup. exportfs 256would take information about active clients from /var/lib/nfs/rmtab. 257 258This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct 259which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement 260fail-over. Even when the system is working well, rmtab suffers from 261getting lots of old entries that never get removed. 262 263With 2.6 we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd when it 264gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give appropriate 265export information to the kernel. This removes the dependency on 266rmtab and means that the kernel only needs to know about currently 267active clients. 268 269To enable this new functionality, you need to: 270 271 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd 272 273before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS 274services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where 275that is possible. 276 277Getting updated software 278======================== 279 280Kernel compilation 281****************** 282 283gcc 284--- 285o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/> 286 287Make 288---- 289o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/> 290 291Binutils 292-------- 293o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/> 294 295System utilities 296**************** 297 298Util-linux 299---------- 300o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/> 301 302Ksymoops 303-------- 304o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/> 305 306Module-Init-Tools 307----------------- 308o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/> 309 310Mkinitrd 311-------- 312o <ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/rawhide/SRPMS/SRPMS/> 313 314E2fsprogs 315--------- 316o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz> 317 318JFSutils 319-------- 320o <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/> 321 322Reiserfsprogs 323------------- 324o <http://www.namesys.com/pub/reiserfsprogs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.3.tar.gz> 325 326Xfsprogs 327-------- 328o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/> 329 330Pcmciautils 331----------- 332o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/> 333 334Pcmcia-cs 335--------- 336o <http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/> 337 338Quota-tools 339---------- 340o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/> 341 342DocBook Stylesheets 343------------------- 344o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/> 345 346XMLTO XSLT Frontend 347------------------- 348o <http://cyberelk.net/tim/xmlto/> 349 350Intel P6 microcode 351------------------ 352o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/> 353 354Powertweak 355---------- 356o <http://powertweak.sourceforge.net/> 357 358udev 359---- 360o <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html> 361 362FUSE 363---- 364o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse> 365 366Networking 367********** 368 369PPP 370--- 371o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz> 372 373Isdn4k-utils 374------------ 375o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.1pre1.tar.gz> 376 377NFS-utils 378--------- 379o <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14> 380 381Iptables 382-------- 383o <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html> 384 385Ip-route2 386--------- 387o <ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz> 388 389OProfile 390-------- 391o <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/> 392 393NFS-Utils 394--------- 395o <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/> 396 397