3 Minimal requirements to compile the Kernel
4 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
9 This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
10 software necessary to run the 4.x kernels.
12 This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
13 and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
14 Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
17 Current Minimal Requirements
18 ****************************
20 Upgrade to at **least** these software revisions before thinking you've
21 encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
22 running, the suggested command should tell you.
24 Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally
25 running a Linux kernel. Also, not all tools are necessary on all
26 systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example,
27 you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils.
29 ====================== =============== ========================================
30 Program Minimal version Command to check the version
31 ====================== =============== ========================================
32 GNU C 3.2 gcc --version
33 GNU make 3.81 make --version
35 util-linux 2.10o fdformat --version
36 module-init-tools 0.9.10 depmod -V
37 e2fsprogs 1.41.4 e2fsck -V
38 jfsutils 1.1.3 fsck.jfs -V
39 reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 reiserfsck -V
40 xfsprogs 2.6.0 xfs_db -V
41 squashfs-tools 4.0 mksquashfs -version
42 btrfs-progs 0.18 btrfsck
43 pcmciautils 004 pccardctl -V
44 quota-tools 3.09 quota -V
45 PPP 2.4.0 pppd --version
46 isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
47 nfs-utils 1.0.5 showmount --version
48 procps 3.2.0 ps --version
49 oprofile 0.9 oprofiled --version
50 udev 081 udevd --version
51 grub 0.93 grub --version || grub-install --version
52 mcelog 0.6 mcelog --version
53 iptables 1.4.2 iptables -V
54 openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 openssl version
55 bc 1.06.95 bc --version
56 Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 1.2 sphinx-build --version
57 ====================== =============== ========================================
59 .. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation
67 The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
73 You will need GNU make 3.81 or later to build the kernel.
78 Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using ``as86`` to using ``gas`` for
79 assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for ``as86`` to compile
80 your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent
86 You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
87 ``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
92 You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
98 Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and
99 crypto library to do key creation and signature generation.
101 You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is
102 enabled. You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3
109 Architectural changes
110 ---------------------
112 DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
113 (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
115 32-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
117 Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
118 documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
119 definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with ReST
120 files the Documentation/ directory to make enriched documentation, which can
121 then be converted to PostScript, HTML, LaTex, ePUB and PDF files.
122 In order to convert from ReST format to a format of your choice, you'll need
128 New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks,
129 support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
130 types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
131 You'll probably want to upgrade.
136 If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
137 ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
138 It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so
139 that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
140 produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
141 is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and
142 reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
148 A new module loader is now in the kernel that requires ``module-init-tools``
149 to use. It is backward compatible with the 2.4.x series kernels.
154 These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that
155 mkinitrd be upgraded.
160 The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and
161 debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
166 The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system.
167 The following utilities are available:
169 - ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
170 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
172 - ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition.
174 - other file system utilities are also available in this package.
179 The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
180 (Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
181 versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and
182 ``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
187 The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the
188 ``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
189 architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
190 work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
191 later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
196 PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up
197 PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
198 for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
204 Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
205 the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
206 newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
207 from the table above.
212 A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
213 accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
214 udev you may need to::
217 mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
218 chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
220 as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
221 get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
226 ``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with
227 only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic
228 functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
234 Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
235 options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work.
243 If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
244 consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
248 The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
249 kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
250 for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
255 The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
256 enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
257 upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
259 If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
260 which can be made by::
262 mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
269 Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
270 needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
275 In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
276 about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
277 information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client
278 mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup. exportfs
279 would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``.
281 This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
282 which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
283 fail-over. Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from
284 getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
286 With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
287 when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
288 appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
289 dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about
290 currently active clients.
292 To enable this new functionality, you need to::
294 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
296 before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
297 services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
303 On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
304 events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors
305 reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
313 The ReST markups currently used by the Documentation/ files are meant to be
314 built with ``Sphinx`` version 1.2 or upper. If you're desiring to build
315 PDF outputs, it is recommended to use version 1.4.6.
319 Please notice that, for PDF and LaTeX output, you'll also need ``XeLaTeX``
320 version 3.14159265. Depending on the distribution, you may also need to
321 install a series of ``texlive`` packages that provide the minimal set of
322 functionalities required for ``XeLaTex`` to work. For PDF output you'll also
323 need ``convert(1)`` from ImageMagick (https://www.imagemagick.org).
326 Getting updated software
327 ========================
335 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
340 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
345 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
350 - <https://www.openssl.org/>
358 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
363 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
368 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/module-init-tools/>
373 - <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
378 - <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
383 - <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
388 - <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
393 - <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
398 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
403 - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
409 - <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
414 - <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
419 - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse>
424 - <http://www.mcelog.org/>
432 - <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
437 - <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
442 - <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
447 - <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
452 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
457 - <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
462 - <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
470 - <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>