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 current kernel version.
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 PC Card hardware, for example,
27 you probably needn't concern yourself with pcmciautils.
29 ====================== =============== ========================================
30 Program Minimal version Command to check the version
31 ====================== =============== ========================================
32 GNU C 5.1 gcc --version
33 Clang/LLVM (optional) 11.0.0 clang --version
34 GNU make 3.81 make --version
36 flex 2.5.35 flex --version
37 bison 2.0 bison --version
38 pahole 1.16 pahole --version
39 util-linux 2.10o fdformat --version
41 e2fsprogs 1.41.4 e2fsck -V
42 jfsutils 1.1.3 fsck.jfs -V
43 reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 reiserfsck -V
44 xfsprogs 2.6.0 xfs_db -V
45 squashfs-tools 4.0 mksquashfs -version
46 btrfs-progs 0.18 btrfsck
47 pcmciautils 004 pccardctl -V
48 quota-tools 3.09 quota -V
49 PPP 2.4.0 pppd --version
50 nfs-utils 1.0.5 showmount --version
51 procps 3.2.0 ps --version
52 udev 081 udevd --version
53 grub 0.93 grub --version || grub-install --version
54 mcelog 0.6 mcelog --version
55 iptables 1.4.2 iptables -V
56 openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 openssl version
57 bc 1.06.95 bc --version
58 Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 1.7 sphinx-build --version
59 cpio any cpio --version
60 ====================== =============== ========================================
62 .. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation
70 The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
76 The latest formal release of clang and LLVM utils (according to
77 `releases.llvm.org <https://releases.llvm.org>`_) are supported for building
78 kernels. Older releases aren't guaranteed to work, and we may drop workarounds
79 from the kernel that were used to support older versions. Please see additional
80 docs on :ref:`Building Linux with Clang/LLVM <kbuild_llvm>`.
85 You will need GNU make 3.81 or later to build the kernel.
90 Binutils 2.23 or newer is needed to build the kernel.
95 The build system, as of 4.18, requires pkg-config to check for installed
96 kconfig tools and to determine flags settings for use in
97 'make {g,x}config'. Previously pkg-config was being used but not
98 verified or documented.
103 Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates lexical analyzers
104 during build. This requires flex 2.5.35 or later.
110 Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates parsers
111 during build. This requires bison 2.0 or later.
116 Since Linux 5.2, if CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF is selected, the build system
117 generates BTF (BPF Type Format) from DWARF in vmlinux, a bit later from kernel
118 modules as well. This requires pahole v1.16 or later.
120 It is found in the 'dwarves' or 'pahole' distro packages or from
121 https://fedorapeople.org/~acme/dwarves/.
126 You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
127 ``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
132 You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
138 Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and
139 crypto library to do key creation and signature generation.
141 You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is
142 enabled. You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3
149 Architectural changes
150 ---------------------
152 DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
153 (https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
155 32-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
157 Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
158 documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
159 definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with ReST
160 files the Documentation/ directory to make enriched documentation, which can
161 then be converted to PostScript, HTML, LaTex, ePUB and PDF files.
162 In order to convert from ReST format to a format of your choice, you'll need
168 New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks,
169 support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
170 types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
171 You'll probably want to upgrade.
176 If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
177 ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
178 It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so
179 that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
180 produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
181 is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and
182 reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
188 These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that
189 mkinitrd be upgraded.
194 The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and
195 debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
200 The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system.
201 The following utilities are available:
203 - ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
204 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
206 - ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition.
208 - other file system utilities are also available in this package.
213 The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
214 (Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
215 versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and
216 ``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
221 The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the
222 ``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
223 architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
224 work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
225 later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
230 PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up
231 PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
232 for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
238 Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
239 the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
240 newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
241 from the table above.
246 A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
247 accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
248 udev you may need to::
251 mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
252 chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
254 as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
255 get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
260 ``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with
261 only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic
262 functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
268 Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
269 options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work.
277 If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
278 consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
282 The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
283 kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
284 for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
289 The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
290 enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
291 upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
293 If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
294 which can be made by::
296 mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
303 In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
304 about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
305 information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client
306 mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup. exportfs
307 would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``.
309 This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
310 which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
311 fail-over. Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from
312 getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
314 With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
315 when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
316 appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
317 dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about
318 currently active clients.
320 To enable this new functionality, you need to::
322 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
324 before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
325 services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
331 On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
332 events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors
333 reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
341 Please see :ref:`sphinx_install` in :ref:`Documentation/doc-guide/sphinx.rst <sphinxdoc>`
342 for details about Sphinx requirements.
344 Getting updated software
345 ========================
353 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
358 - :ref:`Getting LLVM <getting_llvm>`.
363 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
368 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
373 - <https://github.com/westes/flex/releases>
378 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/>
383 - <https://www.openssl.org/>
391 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
396 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/>
397 - <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git>
402 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
407 - <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
412 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tytso/e2fsprogs/>
413 - <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/fs/ext2/e2fsprogs.git/>
418 - <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
423 - <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jeffm/reiserfsprogs.git/>
428 - <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/fs/xfs/xfsprogs-dev.git>
429 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/xfs/xfsprogs/>
434 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
439 - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
445 - <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
450 - <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
455 - <https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse/releases>
460 - <http://www.mcelog.org/>
465 - <https://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/>
473 - <https://download.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
474 - <https://git.ozlabs.org/?p=ppp.git>
475 - <https://github.com/paulusmack/ppp/>
480 - <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
485 - <https://netfilter.org/projects/iptables/index.html>
490 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
495 - <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
500 - <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
508 - <https://www.sphinx-doc.org/>