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+.. _changes:
+
+Minimal requirements to compile the Kernel
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Intro
+=====
+
+This document is designed to provide a list of the minimum levels of
+software necessary to run the 4.x kernels.
+
+This document is originally based on my "Changes" file for 2.0.x kernels
+and therefore owes credit to the same people as that file (Jared Mauch,
+Axel Boldt, Alessandro Sigala, and countless other users all over the
+'net).
+
+Current Minimal Requirements
+****************************
+
+Upgrade to at **least** these software revisions before thinking you've
+encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
+running, the suggested command should tell you.
+
+Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally
+running a Linux kernel. Also, not all tools are necessary on all
+systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example,
+you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils.
+
+====================== =============== ========================================
+ Program Minimal version Command to check the version
+====================== =============== ========================================
+GNU C 4.6 gcc --version
+GNU make 3.81 make --version
+binutils 2.20 ld -v
+flex 2.5.35 flex --version
+bison 2.0 bison --version
+util-linux 2.10o fdformat --version
+kmod 13 depmod -V
+e2fsprogs 1.41.4 e2fsck -V
+jfsutils 1.1.3 fsck.jfs -V
+reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 reiserfsck -V
+xfsprogs 2.6.0 xfs_db -V
+squashfs-tools 4.0 mksquashfs -version
+btrfs-progs 0.18 btrfsck
+pcmciautils 004 pccardctl -V
+quota-tools 3.09 quota -V
+PPP 2.4.0 pppd --version
+isdn4k-utils 3.1pre1 isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
+nfs-utils 1.0.5 showmount --version
+procps 3.2.0 ps --version
+oprofile 0.9 oprofiled --version
+udev 081 udevd --version
+grub 0.93 grub --version || grub-install --version
+mcelog 0.6 mcelog --version
+iptables 1.4.2 iptables -V
+openssl & libcrypto 1.0.0 openssl version
+bc 1.06.95 bc --version
+Sphinx\ [#f1]_ 1.3 sphinx-build --version
+====================== =============== ========================================
+
+.. [#f1] Sphinx is needed only to build the Kernel documentation
+
+Kernel compilation
+******************
+
+GCC
+---
+
+The gcc version requirements may vary depending on the type of CPU in your
+computer.
+
+Make
+----
+
+You will need GNU make 3.81 or later to build the kernel.
+
+Binutils
+--------
+
+The build system has, as of 4.13, switched to using thin archives (`ar T`)
+rather than incremental linking (`ld -r`) for built-in.a intermediate steps.
+This requires binutils 2.20 or newer.
+
+pkg-config
+----------
+
+The build system, as of 4.18, requires pkg-config to check for installed
+kconfig tools and to determine flags settings for use in
+'make {g,x}config'. Previously pkg-config was being used but not
+verified or documented.
+
+Flex
+----
+
+Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates lexical analyzers
+during build. This requires flex 2.5.35 or later.
+
+
+Bison
+-----
+
+Since Linux 4.16, the build system generates parsers
+during build. This requires bison 2.0 or later.
+
+Perl
+----
+
+You will need perl 5 and the following modules: ``Getopt::Long``,
+``Getopt::Std``, ``File::Basename``, and ``File::Find`` to build the kernel.
+
+BC
+--
+
+You will need bc to build kernels 3.10 and higher
+
+
+OpenSSL
+-------
+
+Module signing and external certificate handling use the OpenSSL program and
+crypto library to do key creation and signature generation.
+
+You will need openssl to build kernels 3.7 and higher if module signing is
+enabled. You will also need openssl development packages to build kernels 4.3
+and higher.
+
+
+System utilities
+****************
+
+Architectural changes
+---------------------
+
+DevFS has been obsoleted in favour of udev
+(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/)
+
+32-bit UID support is now in place. Have fun!
+
+Linux documentation for functions is transitioning to inline
+documentation via specially-formatted comments near their
+definitions in the source. These comments can be combined with ReST
+files the Documentation/ directory to make enriched documentation, which can
+then be converted to PostScript, HTML, LaTex, ePUB and PDF files.
+In order to convert from ReST format to a format of your choice, you'll need
+Sphinx.
+
+Util-linux
+----------
+
+New versions of util-linux provide ``fdisk`` support for larger disks,
+support new options to mount, recognize more supported partition
+types, have a fdformat which works with 2.4 kernels, and similar goodies.
+You'll probably want to upgrade.
+
+Ksymoops
+--------
+
+If the unthinkable happens and your kernel oopses, you may need the
+ksymoops tool to decode it, but in most cases you don't.
+It is generally preferred to build the kernel with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` so
+that it produces readable dumps that can be used as-is (this also
+produces better output than ksymoops). If for some reason your kernel
+is not build with ``CONFIG_KALLSYMS`` and you have no way to rebuild and
+reproduce the Oops with that option, then you can still decode that Oops
+with ksymoops.
+
+Mkinitrd
+--------
+
+These changes to the ``/lib/modules`` file tree layout also require that
+mkinitrd be upgraded.
+
+E2fsprogs
+---------
+
+The latest version of ``e2fsprogs`` fixes several bugs in fsck and
+debugfs. Obviously, it's a good idea to upgrade.
+
+JFSutils
+--------
+
+The ``jfsutils`` package contains the utilities for the file system.
+The following utilities are available:
+
+- ``fsck.jfs`` - initiate replay of the transaction log, and check
+ and repair a JFS formatted partition.
+
+- ``mkfs.jfs`` - create a JFS formatted partition.
+
+- other file system utilities are also available in this package.
+
+Reiserfsprogs
+-------------
+
+The reiserfsprogs package should be used for reiserfs-3.6.x
+(Linux kernels 2.4.x). It is a combined package and contains working
+versions of ``mkreiserfs``, ``resize_reiserfs``, ``debugreiserfs`` and
+``reiserfsck``. These utils work on both i386 and alpha platforms.
+
+Xfsprogs
+--------
+
+The latest version of ``xfsprogs`` contains ``mkfs.xfs``, ``xfs_db``, and the
+``xfs_repair`` utilities, among others, for the XFS filesystem. It is
+architecture independent and any version from 2.0.0 onward should
+work correctly with this version of the XFS kernel code (2.6.0 or
+later is recommended, due to some significant improvements).
+
+PCMCIAutils
+-----------
+
+PCMCIAutils replaces ``pcmcia-cs``. It properly sets up
+PCMCIA sockets at system startup and loads the appropriate modules
+for 16-bit PCMCIA devices if the kernel is modularized and the hotplug
+subsystem is used.
+
+Quota-tools
+-----------
+
+Support for 32 bit uid's and gid's is required if you want to use
+the newer version 2 quota format. Quota-tools version 3.07 and
+newer has this support. Use the recommended version or newer
+from the table above.
+
+Intel IA32 microcode
+--------------------
+
+A driver has been added to allow updating of Intel IA32 microcode,
+accessible as a normal (misc) character device. If you are not using
+udev you may need to::
+
+ mkdir /dev/cpu
+ mknod /dev/cpu/microcode c 10 184
+ chmod 0644 /dev/cpu/microcode
+
+as root before you can use this. You'll probably also want to
+get the user-space microcode_ctl utility to use with this.
+
+udev
+----
+
+``udev`` is a userspace application for populating ``/dev`` dynamically with
+only entries for devices actually present. ``udev`` replaces the basic
+functionality of devfs, while allowing persistent device naming for
+devices.
+
+FUSE
+----
+
+Needs libfuse 2.4.0 or later. Absolute minimum is 2.3.0 but mount
+options ``direct_io`` and ``kernel_cache`` won't work.
+
+Networking
+**********
+
+General changes
+---------------
+
+If you have advanced network configuration needs, you should probably
+consider using the network tools from ip-route2.
+
+Packet Filter / NAT
+-------------------
+The packet filtering and NAT code uses the same tools like the previous 2.4.x
+kernel series (iptables). It still includes backwards-compatibility modules
+for 2.2.x-style ipchains and 2.0.x-style ipfwadm.
+
+PPP
+---
+
+The PPP driver has been restructured to support multilink and to
+enable it to operate over diverse media layers. If you use PPP,
+upgrade pppd to at least 2.4.0.
+
+If you are not using udev, you must have the device file /dev/ppp
+which can be made by::
+
+ mknod /dev/ppp c 108 0
+
+as root.
+
+Isdn4k-utils
+------------
+
+Due to changes in the length of the phone number field, isdn4k-utils
+needs to be recompiled or (preferably) upgraded.
+
+NFS-utils
+---------
+
+In ancient (2.4 and earlier) kernels, the nfs server needed to know
+about any client that expected to be able to access files via NFS. This
+information would be given to the kernel by ``mountd`` when the client
+mounted the filesystem, or by ``exportfs`` at system startup. exportfs
+would take information about active clients from ``/var/lib/nfs/rmtab``.
+
+This approach is quite fragile as it depends on rmtab being correct
+which is not always easy, particularly when trying to implement
+fail-over. Even when the system is working well, ``rmtab`` suffers from
+getting lots of old entries that never get removed.
+
+With modern kernels we have the option of having the kernel tell mountd
+when it gets a request from an unknown host, and mountd can give
+appropriate export information to the kernel. This removes the
+dependency on ``rmtab`` and means that the kernel only needs to know about
+currently active clients.
+
+To enable this new functionality, you need to::
+
+ mount -t nfsd nfsd /proc/fs/nfsd
+
+before running exportfs or mountd. It is recommended that all NFS
+services be protected from the internet-at-large by a firewall where
+that is possible.
+
+mcelog
+------
+
+On x86 kernels the mcelog utility is needed to process and log machine check
+events when ``CONFIG_X86_MCE`` is enabled. Machine check events are errors
+reported by the CPU. Processing them is strongly encouraged.
+
+Kernel documentation
+********************
+
+Sphinx
+------
+
+Please see :ref:`sphinx_install` in ``Documentation/doc-guide/sphinx.rst``
+for details about Sphinx requirements.
+
+Getting updated software
+========================
+
+Kernel compilation
+******************
+
+gcc
+---
+
+- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/>
+
+Make
+----
+
+- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/>
+
+Binutils
+--------
+
+- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/devel/binutils/>
+
+Flex
+----
+
+- <https://github.com/westes/flex/releases>
+
+Bison
+-----
+
+- <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/>
+
+OpenSSL
+-------
+
+- <https://www.openssl.org/>
+
+System utilities
+****************
+
+Util-linux
+----------
+
+- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>
+
+Kmod
+----
+
+- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/>
+- <https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git>
+
+Ksymoops
+--------
+
+- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/v2.4/>
+
+Mkinitrd
+--------
+
+- <https://code.launchpad.net/initrd-tools/main>
+
+E2fsprogs
+---------
+
+- <http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.29.tar.gz>
+
+JFSutils
+--------
+
+- <http://jfs.sourceforge.net/>
+
+Reiserfsprogs
+-------------
+
+- <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/fs/reiserfs/>
+
+Xfsprogs
+--------
+
+- <ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/>
+
+Pcmciautils
+-----------
+
+- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/>
+
+Quota-tools
+-----------
+
+- <http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota/>
+
+
+Intel P6 microcode
+------------------
+
+- <https://downloadcenter.intel.com/>
+
+udev
+----
+
+- <http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/udev.html>
+
+FUSE
+----
+
+- <https://github.com/libfuse/libfuse/releases>
+
+mcelog
+------
+
+- <http://www.mcelog.org/>
+
+Networking
+**********
+
+PPP
+---
+
+- <ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/>
+
+Isdn4k-utils
+------------
+
+- <ftp://ftp.isdn4linux.de/pub/isdn4linux/utils/>
+
+NFS-utils
+---------
+
+- <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=14>
+
+Iptables
+--------
+
+- <http://www.iptables.org/downloads.html>
+
+Ip-route2
+---------
+
+- <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2/>
+
+OProfile
+--------
+
+- <http://oprofile.sf.net/download/>
+
+NFS-Utils
+---------
+
+- <http://nfs.sourceforge.net/>
+
+Kernel documentation
+********************
+
+Sphinx
+------
+
+- <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>