Linux kernel release 2.4.xx

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1         Linux kernel release 2.4.xx2 3 These are the release notes for Linux version 2.4.  Read them carefully,4 as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the5 kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong. 6 7 WHAT IS LINUX?8 9   Linux is a Unix clone written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with10   assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net.11   It aims towards POSIX compliance. 12 13   It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged14   Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries,15   demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory16   management and TCP/IP networking. 17 18   It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the19   accompanying COPYING file for more details. 20 21 ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN?22 23   Linux was first developed for 386/486-based PCs.  These days it also24   runs on ARMs, DEC Alphas, SUN Sparcs, M68000 machines (like Atari and25   Amiga), MIPS and PowerPC, and others.26 27 DOCUMENTATION:28 29  - There is a lot of documentation available both in electronic form on30    the Internet and in books, both Linux-specific and pertaining to31    general UNIX questions.  I'd recommend looking into the documentation32    subdirectories on any Linux FTP site for the LDP (Linux Documentation33    Project) books.  This README is not meant to be documentation on the34    system: there are much better sources available.35 36  - There are various README files in the Documentation/ subdirectory:37    these typically contain kernel-specific installation notes for some 38    drivers for example. See ./Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what39    is contained in each file.  Please read the Changes file, as it40    contains information about the problems, which may result by upgrading41    your kernel.42 43  - The Documentation/DocBook/ subdirectory contains several guides for44    kernel developers and users.  These guides can be rendered in a45    number of formats:  PostScript (.ps), PDF, and HTML, among others.46    After installation, "make psdocs", "make pdfdocs", or "make htmldocs"47    will render the documentation in the requested format.48 49 INSTALLING the kernel:50 51  - If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a52    directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and53    unpack it:54 55                 gzip -cd linux-2.4.XX.tar.gz | tar xvf -56 57    Replace "XX" with the version number of the latest kernel.58 59    Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually60    incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header61    files.  They should match the library, and not get messed up by62    whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be.63 64  - You can also upgrade between 2.4.xx releases by patching.  Patches are65    distributed in the traditional gzip and the new bzip2 format.  To66    install by patching, get all the newer patch files, enter the67    directory in which you unpacked the kernel source and execute:68 69                 gzip -cd patchXX.gz | patch -p070 71    or72                 bzip2 -dc patchXX.bz2 | patch -p073 74    (repeat xx for all versions bigger than the version of your current75    source tree, _in_order_) and you should be ok.  You may want to remove76    the backup files (xxx~ or xxx.orig), and make sure that there are no77    failed patches (xxx# or xxx.rej). If there are, either you or me has78    made a mistake.79 80    Alternatively, the script patch-kernel can be used to automate this81    process.  It determines the current kernel version and applies any82    patches found.83 84                 linux/scripts/patch-kernel linux85 86    The first argument in the command above is the location of the87    kernel source.  Patches are applied from the current directory, but88    an alternative directory can be specified as the second argument.89 90  - Make sure you have no stale .o files and dependencies lying around:91 92                 cd linux93                 make mrproper94 95    You should now have the sources correctly installed.96 97 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS98 99    Compiling and running the 2.4.xx kernels requires up-to-date100    versions of various software packages.  Consult101    ./Documentation/Changes for the minimum version numbers required102    and how to get updates for these packages.  Beware that using103    excessively old versions of these packages can cause indirect104    errors that are very difficult to track down, so don't assume that105    you can just update packages when obvious problems arise during106    build or operation.107 108 CONFIGURING the kernel:109 110  - Do a "make config" to configure the basic kernel.  "make config" needs111    bash to work: it will search for bash in $BASH, /bin/bash and /bin/sh112    (in that order), so one of those must be correct for it to work. 113 114    Do not skip this step even if you are only upgrading one minor115    version.  New configuration options are added in each release, and116    odd problems will turn up if the configuration files are not set up117    as expected.  If you want to carry your existing configuration to a118    new version with minimal work, use "make oldconfig", which will119    only ask you for the answers to new questions.120 121  - Alternate configuration commands are:122         "make menuconfig"  Text based color menus, radiolists & dialogs.123         "make xconfig"     X windows based configuration tool.124         "make oldconfig"   Default all questions based on the contents of125                            your existing ./.config file.126    127         NOTES on "make config":128         - having unnecessary drivers will make the kernel bigger, and can129           under some circumstances lead to problems: probing for a130           nonexistent controller card may confuse your other controllers131         - compiling the kernel with "Processor type" set higher than 386132           will result in a kernel that does NOT work on a 386.  The133           kernel will detect this on bootup, and give up.134         - A kernel with math-emulation compiled in will still use the135           coprocessor if one is present: the math emulation will just136           never get used in that case.  The kernel will be slightly larger,137           but will work on different machines regardless of whether they138           have a math coprocessor or not. 139         - the "kernel hacking" configuration details usually result in a140           bigger or slower kernel (or both), and can even make the kernel141           less stable by configuring some routines to actively try to142           break bad code to find kernel problems (kmalloc()).  Thus you143           should probably answer 'n' to the questions for144           "development", "experimental", or "debugging" features.145 146  - Check the top Makefile for further site-dependent configuration147    (default SVGA mode etc). 148 149  - Finally, do a "make dep" to set up all the dependencies correctly. 150 151 COMPILING the kernel:152 153  - Make sure you have gcc 2.95.3 available.  gcc 2.91.66 (egcs-1.1.2) may154    also work but is not as safe, and *gcc 2.7.2.3 is no longer supported*.155    Also remember to upgrade your binutils package (for as/ld/nm and company)156    if necessary. For more information, refer to ./Documentation/Changes.157 158    Please note that you can still run a.out user programs with this kernel.159 160  - Do a "make bzImage" to create a compressed kernel image.  If you want161    to make a boot disk (without root filesystem or LILO), insert a floppy162    in your A: drive, and do a "make bzdisk".  It is also possible to do163    "make install" if you have lilo installed to suit the kernel makefiles,164    but you may want to check your particular lilo setup first. 165 166    To do the actual install you have to be root, but none of the normal167    build should require that. Don't take the name of root in vain.168 169  - In the unlikely event that your system cannot boot bzImage kernels you170    can still compile your kernel as zImage. However, since zImage support171    will be removed at some point in the future in favor of bzImage we172    encourage people having problems with booting bzImage kernels to report173    these, with detailed hardware configuration information, to the174    linux-kernel mailing list and to H. Peter Anvin .175 176  - If you configured any of the parts of the kernel as `modules', you177    will have to do "make modules" followed by "make modules_install".178    Read Documentation/modules.txt for more information.  For example,179    an explanation of how to use the modules is included there.180 181  - Keep a backup kernel handy in case something goes wrong.  This is 182    especially true for the development releases, since each new release183    contains new code which has not been debugged.  Make sure you keep a184    backup of the modules corresponding to that kernel, as well.  If you185    are installing a new kernel with the same version number as your186    working kernel, make a backup of your modules directory before you187    do a "make modules_install".188 189  - In order to boot your new kernel, you'll need to copy the kernel190    image (found in .../linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage after compilation)191    to the place where your regular bootable kernel is found. 192 193    For some, this is on a floppy disk, in which case you can copy the194    kernel bzImage file to /dev/fd0 to make a bootable floppy.195 196    If you boot Linux from the hard drive, chances are you use LILO which197    uses the kernel image as specified in the file /etc/lilo.conf.  The198    kernel image file is usually /vmlinuz, /boot/vmlinuz, /bzImage or199    /boot/bzImage.  To use the new kernel, save a copy of the old image200    and copy the new image over the old one.  Then, you MUST RERUN LILO201    to update the loading map!! If you don't, you won't be able to boot202    the new kernel image.203 204    Reinstalling LILO is usually a matter of running /sbin/lilo. 205    You may wish to edit /etc/lilo.conf to specify an entry for your206    old kernel image (say, /vmlinux.old) in case the new one does not207    work.  See the LILO docs for more information. 208 209    After reinstalling LILO, you should be all set.  Shutdown the system,210    reboot, and enjoy!211 212    If you ever need to change the default root device, video mode,213    ramdisk size, etc.  in the kernel image, use the 'rdev' program (or214    alternatively the LILO boot options when appropriate).  No need to215    recompile the kernel to change these parameters. 216 217  - Reboot with the new kernel and enjoy. 218 219 IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG:220 221  - If you have problems that seem to be due to kernel bugs, please check222    the file MAINTAINERS to see if there is a particular person associated223    with the part of the kernel that you are having trouble with. If there224    isn't anyone listed there, then the second best thing is to mail225    them to me (torvalds@transmeta.com), and possibly to any other226    relevant mailing-list or to the newsgroup.  The mailing-lists are227    useful especially for SCSI and networking problems, as I can't test228    either of those personally anyway. 229 230  - In all bug-reports, *please* tell what kernel you are talking about,231    how to duplicate the problem, and what your setup is (use your common232    sense).  If the problem is new, tell me so, and if the problem is233    old, please try to tell me when you first noticed it.234 235  - If the bug results in a message like236 237         unable to handle kernel paging request at address C0000010238         Oops: 0002239         EIP:   0010:XXXXXXXX240         eax: xxxxxxxx   ebx: xxxxxxxx   ecx: xxxxxxxx   edx: xxxxxxxx241         esi: xxxxxxxx   edi: xxxxxxxx   ebp: xxxxxxxx242         ds: xxxx  es: xxxx  fs: xxxx  gs: xxxx243         Pid: xx, process nr: xx244         xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx245 246    or similar kernel debugging information on your screen or in your247    system log, please duplicate it *exactly*.  The dump may look248    incomprehensible to you, but it does contain information that may249    help debugging the problem.  The text above the dump is also250    important: it tells something about why the kernel dumped code (in251    the above example it's due to a bad kernel pointer). More information252    on making sense of the dump is in Documentation/oops-tracing.txt253 254  - You can use the "ksymoops" program to make sense of the dump.  This255    utility can be downloaded from256    ftp://ftp..kernel.org/pub/...kernel/ksymoops.257    Alternately you can do the dump lookup by hand:258 259  - In debugging dumps like the above, it helps enormously if you can260    look up what the EIP value means.  The hex value as such doesn't help261    me or anybody else very much: it will depend on your particular262    kernel setup.  What you should do is take the hex value from the EIP263    line (ignore the "0010:"), and look it up in the kernel namelist to264    see which kernel function contains the offending address.265 266    To find out the kernel function name, you'll need to find the system267    binary associated with the kernel that exhibited the symptom.  This is268    the file 'linux/vmlinux'.  To extract the namelist and match it against269    the EIP from the kernel crash, do:270 271                 nm vmlinux | sort | less272 273    This will give you a list of kernel addresses sorted in ascending274    order, from which it is simple to find the function that contains the275    offending address.  Note that the address given by the kernel276    debugging messages will not necessarily match exactly with the277    function addresses (in fact, that is very unlikely), so you can't278    just 'grep' the list: the list will, however, give you the starting279    point of each kernel function, so by looking for the function that280    has a starting address lower than the one you are searching for but281    is followed by a function with a higher address you will find the one282    you want.  In fact, it may be a good idea to include a bit of283    "context" in your problem report, giving a few lines around the284    interesting one. 285 286    If you for some reason cannot do the above (you have a pre-compiled287    kernel image or similar), telling me as much about your setup as288    possible will help. 289 290  - Alternately, you can use gdb on a running kernel. (read-only; i.e. you291    cannot change values or set break points.) To do this, first compile the292    kernel with -g; edit arch/i386/Makefile appropriately, then do a "make293    clean". You'll also need to enable CONFIG_PROC_FS (via "make config").294 295    After you've rebooted with the new kernel, do "gdb vmlinux /proc/kcore".296    You can now use all the usual gdb commands. The command to look up the297    point where your system crashed is "l *0xXXXXXXXX". (Replace the XXXes298    with the EIP value.)299 300    gdb'ing a non-running kernel currently fails because gdb (wrongly)301    disregards the starting offset for which the kernel is compiled.302