1Intro 2===== 3 4This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of 5software necessary to run the 2.4 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-2.2.x 8kernel, please consult the Changes file included with 2.2.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 2.2.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 18The latest revision of this document, in various formats, can always 19be found at <http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/kaboom/linux/Changes-2.4/>. 20 21Feel free to translate this document. If you do so, please send me a 22URL to your translation for inclusion in future revisions of this 23document. 24 25Smotrite file <http://oblom.rnc.ru/linux/kernel/Changes.ru>, yavlyaushisya 26russkim perevodom dannogo documenta. 27 28Visite <http://www2.adi.uam.es/~ender/tecnico/> para obtener la traducción 29al español de este documento en varios formatos. 30 31Eine deutsche Version dieser Datei finden Sie unter 32<http://www.stefan-winter.de/Changes-2.4.0.txt>. 33 34Last updated: February 13, 2002 35 36Chris Ricker (kaboom@gatech.edu or chris.ricker@genetics.utah.edu). 37 38Current Minimal Requirements 39============================ 40 41Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've 42encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently 43running, the suggested command should tell you. 44 45Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already 46functionally running a Linux 2.2 kernel. Also, not all tools are 47necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any PCMCIA (PC 48Card) hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself 49with pcmcia-cs. 50 51o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version 52o Gnu make 3.77 # make --version 53o binutils 2.9.1.0.25 # ld -v 54o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version 55o modutils 2.4.2 # insmod -V 56o e2fsprogs 1.25 # tune2fs 57o jfsutils 1.0.12 # fsck.jfs -V 58o reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 # reiserfsck -V 2>&1|grep reiserfsprogs 59o xfsprogs 2.6.0 # xfs_db -V 60o pcmcia-cs 3.1.21 # cardmgr -V 61o quota-tools 3.09 # quota -V 62o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version 63o isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version 64 65Kernel compilation 66================== 67 68GCC 69--- 70 71The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your 72computer. The next paragraph applies to users of x86 CPUs, but not 73necessarily to users of other CPUs. Users of other CPUs should obtain 74information about their gcc version requirements from another source. 75 76The recommended compiler for the kernel is gcc 2.95.x (x >= 3), and it 77should be used when you need absolute stability. You may use gcc 3.0.x 78instead if you wish, although it may cause problems. Later versions of gcc 79have not received much testing for Linux kernel compilation, and there are 80almost certainly bugs (mainly, but not exclusively, in the kernel) that 81will need to be fixed in order to use these compilers. In any case, using 82pgcc instead of egcs or plain gcc is just asking for trouble. 83 84Note that gcc 2.7.2.3 is no longer a supported kernel compiler. The kernel 85no longer works around bugs in gcc 2.7.2.3 and, in fact, will refuse to 86be compiled with it. egcs-1.1.2 has register allocation problems in very 87obscure cases. We have ensured the kernel does not trip these in any known 88situation. The 2.5 tree is likely to drop egcs-1.1.2 workarounds. 89 90The Red Hat gcc 2.96 compiler subtree can also be used to build this tree. 91You should ensure you use gcc-2.96-74 or later. gcc-2.96-54 will not build 92the kernel correctly. 93 94In addition, please pay attention to compiler optimization. Anything 95greater than -O2 may not be wise. Similarly, if you choose to use gcc-2.95.x 96or derivatives, be sure not to use -fstrict-aliasing (which, depending on 97your version of gcc 2.95.x, may necessitate using -fno-strict-aliasing). 98 99Make 100---- 101 102You will need Gnu make 3.77 or later to build the kernel. 103 104Binutils 105-------- 106 107Linux on IA-32 has recently switched from using as86 to using gas for 108assembling the 16-bit boot code, removing the need for as86 to compile 109your kernel. This change does, however, mean that you need a recent 110release of binutils. 111 112If you can, upgrade to the latest 2.9.5 or 2.1x binutils release. Older 113releases such as 2.8, 2.8.xx, and the FSF's 2.9.1 should be avoided if 114at all possible. The later releases of 2.9.1.0.x (anything where x >= 22) 115can and do compile the kernel properly, but there are many benefits in 116upgrading to 2.9.5 or 2.1x if you're up to it. 117 118System utilities 119================ 120 121Architectural changes 122--------------------- 123 124DevFS is now in the kernel. See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/* in 125the kernel source tree for all the gory details. 126 127The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is now in the kernel. If you want to 128use this, you'll need to install the necessary LVM toolset. 129 13032-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun! 131 132Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline 133documentation via specially-formatted comments near their 134definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with the 135SGML templates in the Documentation/DocBook directory to make DocBook 136files, which can then be converted by DocBook stylesheets to PostScript, 137HTML, PDF files, and several other formats. In order to convert from 138DocBook format to a format of your choice, you'll need to install Jade as 139well as the desired DocBook stylesheets. 140 141Util-linux 142---------- 143 144New versions of util-linux provide *fdisk support for larger disks, 145support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition 146types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies. 147You'll probably want to upgrade. 148 149Ksymoops 150-------- 151 152If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you'll need a 2.4 153version of ksymoops to decode the report; see REPORTING-BUGS in the 154root of the Linux source for more information. 155 156Modutils 157-------- 158 159Upgrade to recent modutils to fix various outstanding bugs which are 160seen more frequently under 2.4.x, and to enable auto-loading of USB 161modules. In addition, the layout of modules under 162/lib/modules/`uname -r`/ has been made more sane. This change also 163requires that you upgrade to a recent modutils. 164 165Mkinitrd 166-------- 167 168These changes to the /lib/modules file tree layout also require that 169mkinitrd be upgraded. 170 171E2fsprogs 172--------- 173 174The latest version of e2fsprogs fixes several bugs in fsck and 175debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade. 176 177JFSutils 178-------- 179 180The jfsutils package contains the utilities for the file system. 181The following utilities are available: 182o fsck.jfs - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check 183 and repair a JFS formatted partition. 184o mkfs.jfs - create a JFS formatted partition. 185o other file system utilities are also available in this package. 186 187Reiserfsprogs 188------------- 189 190The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x 191(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working 192versions of mkreiserfs, resize_reiserfs, debugreiserfs and 193reiserfsck. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms. 194 195Xfsprogs 196-------- 197 198The latest version of xfsprogs contains mkfs.xfs, xfs_db, and the 199xfs_repair utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is 200architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should 201work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or 202later is recommended, due to some significant improvements). 203 204 205Pcmcia-cs 206--------- 207 208PCMCIA (PC Card) support is now partially implemented in the main 209kernel source. Pay attention when you recompile your kernel ;-). 210Also, be sure to upgrade to the latest pcmcia-cs release. 211 212Quota-tools 213----------- 214 215Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use 216the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and 217newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer 218from the table above. 219 220Intel IA32 microcode 221-------------------- 222 223A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode, 224accessible as both a devfs regular file and as a normal (misc) 225character device. If you are not using devfs you may need to: 226 227mkdir /dev/cpu 228mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184 229chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode 230 231as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to 232get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this. 233 234If you have compiled the driver as a module you may need to add 235the following line: 236 237alias char-major-10-184 microcode 238 239to your /etc/modules.conf file. 240 241Powertweak 242---------- 243 244If you are running v0.1.17 or earlier, you should upgrade to 245version v0.99.0 or higher. Running old versions may cause problems 246with programs using shared memory. 247 248Networking 249========== 250 251General changes 252--------------- 253 254The IP firewalling and NAT code has been replaced again. The new 255netfilter software (including ipfwadm and ipchains backwards- 256compatible modules) is currently distributed separately. 257 258If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably 259consider using the network tools from ip-route2. 260 261PPP 262--- 263 264The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to 265enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP, 266upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0. 267 268If you are not using devfs, you must have the device file /dev/ppp 269which can be made by: 270 271mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0 272 273as root. 274 275If you build ppp support as modules, you will need the following in 276your /etc/modules.conf file: 277 278alias char-major-108 ppp_generic 279alias /dev/ppp ppp_generic 280alias tty-ldisc-3 ppp_async 281alias tty-ldisc-14 ppp_synctty 282alias ppp-compress-21 bsd_comp 283alias ppp-compress-24 ppp_deflate 284alias ppp-compress-26 ppp_deflate 285 286If you use devfsd and build ppp support as modules, you will need 287the following in your /etc/devfsd.conf file: 288 289LOOKUP PPP MODLOAD 290 291Isdn4k-utils 292------------ 293 294Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils 295needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded. 296 297Getting updated software 298======================== 299 300Kernel compilation 301****************** 302 303egcs 1.1.2 (gcc 2.91.66) 304------------------------ 305o <ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/gcc/releases/egcs-1.1.2/egcs-1.1.2.tar.bz2> 306 307gcc 2.95.3 308---------- 309o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-2.95.3.tar.gz> 310 311Make 3.77 312--------- 313o <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-3.77.tar.gz> 314 315Binutils 316-------- 317o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/> 318 319System utilities 320**************** 321 322Util-linux 323---------- 324o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/> 325 326Ksymoops 327-------- 328o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/> 329 330Modutils 331-------- 332o <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/modutils/v2.4/> 333 334Mkinitrd 335-------- 336o <ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/rawhide/SRPMS/SRPMS/> 337 338E2fsprogs 339--------- 340o <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.25.tar.gz> 341 342JFSutils 343--------- 344o <http://oss.software.ibm.com/jfs/> 345 346Reiserfsprogs 347------------- 348o <http://www.namesys.com/pub/reiserfsprogs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.3.tar.gz> 349 350Xfsprogs 351-------- 352o <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/download/> 353 354LVM toolset 355----------- 356o <http://www.sistina.com/lvm/> 357 358Pcmcia-cs 359--------- 360o <ftp://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/pcmcia-cs-3.1.21.tar.gz> 361 362Quota-tools 363---------- 364o <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/> 365 366Jade 367---- 368o <ftp://ftp.jclark.com/pub/jade/jade-1.2.1.tar.gz> 369 370DocBook Stylesheets 371------------------- 372o <http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl/> 373 374Intel P6 microcode 375------------------ 376o <http://www.urbanmyth.org/microcode/> 377 378Powertweak 379---------- 380o <http://powertweak.sourceforge.net/> 381 382Networking 383********** 384 385PPP 386--- 387o <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.0.tar.gz> 388 389Isdn4k-utils 390------------ 391o <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/isdn4k-utils.v3.1pre1.tar.gz> 392 393Netfilter 394--------- 395o <http://netfilter.filewatcher.org/iptables-1.2.tar.bz2> 396o <http://netfilter.samba.org/iptables-1.2.tar.bz2> 397o <http://netfilter.kernelnotes.org/iptables-1.2.tar.bz2> 398 399Ip-route2 400--------- 401o <ftp://ftp.inr.ac.ru/ip-routing/iproute2-2.2.4-now-ss991023.tar.gz> 402 403Suggestions and corrections 404=========================== 405 406Please feel free to submit changes, corrections, gripes, flames, 407money, etc. to me <chris.ricker@genetics.utah.edu>. Happy Linuxing! 408
