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 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 4.6 gcc --version
33 GNU make 3.81 make --version
35 flex 2.5.35 flex --version
36 bison 2.0 bison --version
37 util-linux 2.10o fdformat --version
39 e2fsprogs 1.41.4 e2fsck -V
40 jfsutils 1.1.3 fsck.jfs -V
41 reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 reiserfsck -V
42 xfsprogs 2.6.0 xfs_db -V
43 squashfs-tools 4.0 mksquashfs -version
44 btrfs-progs 0.18 btrfsck
45 pcmciautils 004 pccardctl -V
46 quota-tools 3.09 quota -V
47 PPP 2.4.0 pppd --version
48 nfs-utils 1.0.5 showmount --version
49 procps 3.2.0 ps --version
50 oprofile 0.9 oprofiled --version
51 udev 081 udevd --version
52 grub 0.93 grub --version || grub-install --version
53 mcelog 0.6 mcelog --version
54 iptables 1.4.2 iptables -V
55 openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 openssl version
56 bc 1.06.95 bc --version
57 Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 1.3 sphinx-build --version
58 ====================== =============== ========================================
60 .. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation
68 The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
74 You will need GNU make 3.81 or later to build the kernel.
79 The build system has, as of 4.13, switched to using thin archives (`ar T`)
80 rather than incremental linking (`ld -r`) for built-in.a intermediate steps.
81 This requires binutils 2.20 or newer.
86 The build system, as of 4.18, requires pkg-config to check for installed
87 kconfig tools and to determine flags settings for use in
88 'make {g,x}config'. Previously pkg-config was being used but not
89 verified or documented.
94 Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates lexical analyzers
95 during build. This requires flex 2.5.35 or later.
101 Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates parsers
102 during build. This requires bison 2.0 or later.
107 You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
108 ``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
113 You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
119 Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and
120 crypto library to do key creation and signature generation.
122 You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is
123 enabled. You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3
130 Architectural changes
131 ---------------------
133 DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
134 (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
136 32-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
138 Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
139 documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
140 definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with ReST
141 files the Documentation/ directory to make enriched documentation, which can
142 then be converted to PostScript, HTML, LaTex, ePUB and PDF files.
143 In order to convert from ReST format to a format of your choice, you'll need
149 New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks,
150 support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
151 types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
152 You'll probably want to upgrade.
157 If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
158 ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
159 It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so
160 that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
161 produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
162 is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and
163 reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
169 These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that
170 mkinitrd be upgraded.
175 The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and
176 debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
181 The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system.
182 The following utilities are available:
184 - ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
185 and repair a JFS formatted partition.
187 - ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition.
189 - other file system utilities are also available in this package.
194 The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
195 (Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
196 versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and
197 ``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
202 The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the
203 ``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
204 architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
205 work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
206 later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
211 PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up
212 PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
213 for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
219 Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
220 the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
221 newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
222 from the table above.
227 A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
228 accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
229 udev you may need to::
232 mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
233 chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
235 as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
236 get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
241 ``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with
242 only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic
243 functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
249 Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
250 options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work.
258 If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
259 consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
263 The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
264 kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
265 for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
270 The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
271 enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
272 upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
274 If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
275 which can be made by::
277 mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
284 In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
285 about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
286 information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client
287 mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup. exportfs
288 would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``.
290 This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
291 which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
292 fail-over. Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from
293 getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
295 With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
296 when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
297 appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
298 dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about
299 currently active clients.
301 To enable this new functionality, you need to::
303 mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
305 before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
306 services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
312 On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
313 events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors
314 reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
322 Please see :ref:`sphinx_install` in :ref:`Documentation/doc-guide/sphinx.rst <sphinxdoc>`
323 for details about Sphinx requirements.
325 Getting updated software
326 ========================
334 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
339 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
344 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
349 - <https://github.com/westes/flex/releases>
354 - <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/>
359 - <https://www.openssl.org/>
367 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
372 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/>
373 - <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git>
378 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
383 - <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
388 - <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
393 - <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
398 - <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
403 - <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
408 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
413 - <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
419 - <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
424 - <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
429 - <https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse/releases>
434 - <http://www.mcelog.org/>
442 - <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
447 - <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
452 - <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
457 - <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
462 - <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
467 - <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
475 - <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>