xref: /linux/Documentation/process/changes.rst (revision 4e95bc268b915c3a19ec8b9110f61e4ea41a1ed0)
1.. _changes:
2
3Minimal requirements to compile the Kernel
4++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
5
6Intro
7=====
8
9This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
10software necessary to run the 4.x kernels.
11
12This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
13and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
14Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
15'net).
16
17Current Minimal Requirements
18****************************
19
20Upgrade to at **least** these software revisions before thinking you've
21encountered a bug!  If you're unsure what version you're currently
22running, the suggested command should tell you.
23
24Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally
25running a Linux kernel.  Also, not all tools are necessary on all
26systems; obviously, if you don't have any PC Card hardware, for example,
27you probably needn't concern yourself with pcmciautils.
28
29====================== ===============  ========================================
30        Program        Minimal version       Command to check the version
31====================== ===============  ========================================
32GNU C                  4.6              gcc --version
33GNU make               3.81             make --version
34binutils               2.20             ld -v
35flex                   2.5.35           flex --version
36bison                  2.0              bison --version
37util-linux             2.10o            fdformat --version
38kmod                   13               depmod -V
39e2fsprogs              1.41.4           e2fsck -V
40jfsutils               1.1.3            fsck.jfs -V
41reiserfsprogs          3.6.3            reiserfsck -V
42xfsprogs               2.6.0            xfs_db -V
43squashfs-tools         4.0              mksquashfs -version
44btrfs-progs            0.18             btrfsck
45pcmciautils            004              pccardctl -V
46quota-tools            3.09             quota -V
47PPP                    2.4.0            pppd --version
48nfs-utils              1.0.5            showmount --version
49procps                 3.2.0            ps --version
50oprofile               0.9              oprofiled --version
51udev                   081              udevd --version
52grub                   0.93             grub --version || grub-install --version
53mcelog                 0.6              mcelog --version
54iptables               1.4.2            iptables -V
55openssl & libcrypto    1.0.0            openssl version
56bc                     1.06.95          bc --version
57Sphinx\ [#f1]_	       1.3		sphinx-build --version
58====================== ===============  ========================================
59
60.. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation
61
62Kernel compilation
63******************
64
65GCC
66---
67
68The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
69computer.
70
71Make
72----
73
74You will need GNU make 3.81 or later to build the kernel.
75
76Binutils
77--------
78
79The build system has, as of 4.13, switched to using thin archives (`ar T`)
80rather than incremental linking (`ld -r`) for built-in.a intermediate steps.
81This requires binutils 2.20 or newer.
82
83pkg-config
84----------
85
86The build system, as of 4.18, requires pkg-config to check for installed
87kconfig tools and to determine flags settings for use in
88'make {g,x}config'.  Previously pkg-config was being used but not
89verified or documented.
90
91Flex
92----
93
94Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates lexical analyzers
95during build.  This requires flex 2.5.35 or later.
96
97
98Bison
99-----
100
101Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates parsers
102during build.  This requires bison 2.0 or later.
103
104Perl
105----
106
107You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
108``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
109
110BC
111--
112
113You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
114
115
116OpenSSL
117-------
118
119Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and
120crypto library to do key creation and signature generation.
121
122You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is
123enabled.  You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3
124and higher.
125
126
127System utilities
128****************
129
130Architectural changes
131---------------------
132
133DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
134(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
135
13632-bit UID support is now in place.  Have fun!
137
138Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
139documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
140definitions in the source.  These comments can be combined with ReST
141files the Documentation/ directory to make enriched documentation, which can
142then be converted to PostScript, HTML, LaTex, ePUB and PDF files.
143In order to convert from ReST format to a format of your choice, you'll need
144Sphinx.
145
146Util-linux
147----------
148
149New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks,
150support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
151types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
152You'll probably want to upgrade.
153
154Ksymoops
155--------
156
157If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
158ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
159It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so
160that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
161produces better output than ksymoops).  If for some reason your kernel
162is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and
163reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
164with ksymoops.
165
166Mkinitrd
167--------
168
169These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that
170mkinitrd be upgraded.
171
172E2fsprogs
173---------
174
175The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and
176debugfs.  Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
177
178JFSutils
179--------
180
181The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system.
182The following utilities are available:
183
184- ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
185  and repair a JFS formatted partition.
186
187- ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition.
188
189- other file system utilities are also available in this package.
190
191Reiserfsprogs
192-------------
193
194The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
195(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
196versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and
197``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
198
199Xfsprogs
200--------
201
202The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the
203``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem.  It is
204architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
205work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
206later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
207
208PCMCIAutils
209-----------
210
211PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up
212PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
213for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
214subsystem is used.
215
216Quota-tools
217-----------
218
219Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
220the newer version 2 quota format.  Quota-tools version 3.07 and
221newer has this support.  Use the recommended version or newer
222from the table above.
223
224Intel IA32 microcode
225--------------------
226
227A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
228accessible as a normal (misc) character device.  If you are not using
229udev you may need to::
230
231  mkdir /dev/cpu
232  mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
233  chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
234
235as root before you can use this.  You'll probably also want to
236get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
237
238udev
239----
240
241``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with
242only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic
243functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
244devices.
245
246FUSE
247----
248
249Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later.  Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
250options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work.
251
252Networking
253**********
254
255General changes
256---------------
257
258If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
259consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
260
261Packet Filter / NAT
262-------------------
263The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
264kernel series (iptables).  It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
265for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
266
267PPP
268---
269
270The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
271enable it to operate over diverse media layers.  If you use PPP,
272upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
273
274If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
275which can be made by::
276
277  mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
278
279as root.
280
281NFS-utils
282---------
283
284In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
285about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS.  This
286information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client
287mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup.  exportfs
288would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``.
289
290This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
291which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
292fail-over.  Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from
293getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
294
295With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
296when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
297appropriate export information to the kernel.  This removes the
298dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about
299currently active clients.
300
301To enable this new functionality, you need to::
302
303  mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
304
305before running exportfs or mountd.  It is recommended that all NFS
306services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
307that is possible.
308
309mcelog
310------
311
312On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
313events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors
314reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
315
316Kernel documentation
317********************
318
319Sphinx
320------
321
322Please see :ref:`sphinx_install` in :ref:`Documentation/doc-guide/sphinx.rst <sphinxdoc>`
323for details about Sphinx requirements.
324
325Getting updated software
326========================
327
328Kernel compilation
329******************
330
331gcc
332---
333
334- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
335
336Make
337----
338
339- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
340
341Binutils
342--------
343
344- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
345
346Flex
347----
348
349- <https://github.com/westes/flex/releases>
350
351Bison
352-----
353
354- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/>
355
356OpenSSL
357-------
358
359- <https://www.openssl.org/>
360
361System utilities
362****************
363
364Util-linux
365----------
366
367- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
368
369Kmod
370----
371
372- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/>
373- <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git>
374
375Ksymoops
376--------
377
378- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
379
380Mkinitrd
381--------
382
383- <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
384
385E2fsprogs
386---------
387
388- <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
389
390JFSutils
391--------
392
393- <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
394
395Reiserfsprogs
396-------------
397
398- <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
399
400Xfsprogs
401--------
402
403- <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
404
405Pcmciautils
406-----------
407
408- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
409
410Quota-tools
411-----------
412
413- <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
414
415
416Intel P6 microcode
417------------------
418
419- <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
420
421udev
422----
423
424- <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
425
426FUSE
427----
428
429- <https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse/releases>
430
431mcelog
432------
433
434- <http://www.mcelog.org/>
435
436Networking
437**********
438
439PPP
440---
441
442- <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
443
444NFS-utils
445---------
446
447- <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
448
449Iptables
450--------
451
452- <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
453
454Ip-route2
455---------
456
457- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
458
459OProfile
460--------
461
462- <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
463
464NFS-Utils
465---------
466
467- <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
468
469Kernel documentation
470********************
471
472Sphinx
473------
474
475- <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>
476