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1 Linux kernel release 2.3.xx
3 These are the release notes for Linux version 2.3. Read them carefully,
4 as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the
5 kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong.
7 Linux version 2.3 is a DEVELOPMENT kernel, and not intended for general
8 public use. Different releases may have various and sometimes severe
9 bugs. It is *strongly* recommended that you back up the previous kernel
10 before installing any new 2.3.xx release.
12 If you need to use a proven and stable Linux kernel, please use 2.0.38
13 or 2.2.xx. All features which will be in the 2.3.xx releases will be
14 contained in 2.4.xx when the code base has stabilized again.
16 If you decide to use 2.3, it is recommended that you join the kernel mailing
17 list. To do this, e-mail majordomo@vger.kernel.org, and put in the body
18 of the message "subscribe linux-kernel" or "subscribe linux-kernel-digest"
19 for a daily digest of the mailing list (it is a high-traffic list.)
21 However, please make sure you don't ask questions which are already answered
22 in various files in the Documentation directory. See DOCUMENTATION below.
24 WHAT IS LINUX?
26 Linux is a Unix clone written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with
27 assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net.
28 It aims towards POSIX compliance.
30 It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged
31 Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries,
32 demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory
33 management and TCP/IP networking.
35 It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the
36 accompanying COPYING file for more details.
38 ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN?
40 Linux was first developed for 386/486-based PCs. These days it also
41 runs on ARMs, DEC Alphas, SUN Sparcs, M68000 machines (like Atari and
42 Amiga), MIPS and PowerPC, and others.
44 DOCUMENTATION:
46 - There is a lot of documentation available both in electronic form on
47 the Internet and in books, both Linux-specific and pertaining to
48 general UNIX questions. I'd recommend looking into the documentation
49 subdirectories on any Linux FTP site for the LDP (Linux Documentation
50 Project) books. This README is not meant to be documentation on the
51 system: there are much better sources available.
53 - There are various README files in the Documentation/ subdirectory:
54 these typically contain kernel-specific installation notes for some
55 drivers for example. See ./Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what
56 is contained in each file. Please read the Changes file, as it
57 contains information about the problems, which may result by upgrading
58 your kernel.
60 INSTALLING the kernel:
62 - If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a
63 directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and
64 unpack it:
66 gzip -cd linux-2.3.XX.tar.gz | tar xvf -
68 Replace "XX" with the version number of the latest kernel.
70 Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually
71 incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header
72 files. They should match the library, and not get messed up by
73 whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be.
75 - You can also upgrade between 2.3.xx releases by patching. Patches are
76 distributed in the traditional gzip and the new bzip2 format. To
77 install by patching, get all the newer patch files, enter the
78 directory in which you unpacked the kernel source and execute:
80 gzip -cd patchXX.gz | patch -p0
82 or
83 bzip2 -dc patchXX.bz2 | patch -p0
85 (repeat xx for all versions bigger than the version of your current
86 source tree, _in_order_) and you should be ok. You may want to remove
87 the backup files (xxx~ or xxx.orig), and make sure that there are no
88 failed patches (xxx# or xxx.rej). If there are, either you or me has
89 made a mistake.
91 Alternatively, the script patch-kernel can be used to automate this
92 process. It determines the current kernel version and applies any
93 patches found.
95 linux/scripts/patch-kernel linux
97 The first argument in the command above is the location of the
98 kernel source. Patches are applied from the current directory, but
99 an alternative directory can be specified as the second argument.
101 - Make sure you have no stale .o files and dependencies lying around:
103 cd linux
104 make mrproper
106 You should now have the sources correctly installed.
108 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
110 Compiling and running the 2.3.xx kernels requires up-to-date
111 versions of various software packages. Consult
112 ./Documentation/Changes for the minimum version numbers required
113 and how to get updates for these packages. Beware that using
114 excessively old versions of these packages can cause indirect
115 errors that are very difficult to track down, so don't assume that
116 you can just update packages when obvious problems arise during
117 build or operation.
119 CONFIGURING the kernel:
121 - Do a "make config" to configure the basic kernel. "make config" needs
122 bash to work: it will search for bash in $BASH, /bin/bash and /bin/sh
123 (in that order), so one of those must be correct for it to work.
125 Do not skip this step even if you are only upgrading one minor
126 version. New configuration options are added in each release, and
127 odd problems will turn up if the configuration files are not set up
128 as expected. If you want to carry your existing configuration to a
129 new version with minimal work, use "make oldconfig", which will
130 only ask you for the answers to new questions.
132 - Alternate configuration commands are:
133 "make menuconfig" Text based color menus, radiolists & dialogs.
134 "make xconfig" X windows based configuration tool.
135 "make oldconfig" Default all questions based on the contents of
136 your existing ./.config file.
138 NOTES on "make config":
139 - having unnecessary drivers will make the kernel bigger, and can
140 under some circumstances lead to problems: probing for a
141 nonexistent controller card may confuse your other controllers
142 - compiling the kernel with "Processor type" set higher than 386
143 will result in a kernel that does NOT work on a 386. The
144 kernel will detect this on bootup, and give up.
145 - A kernel with math-emulation compiled in will still use the
146 coprocessor if one is present: the math emulation will just
147 never get used in that case. The kernel will be slightly larger,
148 but will work on different machines regardless of whether they
149 have a math coprocessor or not.
150 - the "kernel hacking" configuration details usually result in a
151 bigger or slower kernel (or both), and can even make the kernel
152 less stable by configuring some routines to actively try to
153 break bad code to find kernel problems (kmalloc()). Thus you
154 should probably answer 'n' to the questions for
155 "development", "experimental", or "debugging" features.
157 - Check the top Makefile for further site-dependent configuration
158 (default SVGA mode etc).
160 - Finally, do a "make dep" to set up all the dependencies correctly.
162 COMPILING the kernel:
164 - Make sure you have gcc-2.91.66 (egcs-1.1.2) available. gcc 2.95.2 may
165 also work but is not as safe, and *gcc 2.7.2.3 is no longer supported*.
166 Also remember to upgrade your binutils package (for as/ld/nm and company)
167 if necessary. For more information, refer to ./Documentation/Changes.
169 Please note that you can still run a.out user programs with this
170 kernel.
172 - Do a "make bzImage" to create a compressed kernel image. If you want
173 to make a boot disk (without root filesystem or LILO), insert a floppy
174 in your A: drive, and do a "make bzdisk". It is also possible to do
175 "make install" if you have lilo installed to suit the kernel makefiles,
176 but you may want to check your particular lilo setup first.
178 To do the actual install you have to be root, but none of the normal
179 build should require that. Don't take the name of root in vain.
181 - In the unlikely event that your system cannot boot bzImage kernels you
182 can still compile your kernel as zImage. However, since zImage support
183 will be removed at some point in the future in favor of bzImage we
184 encourage people having problems with booting bzImage kernels to report
185 these, with detailed hardware configuration information, to the
186 linux-kernel mailing list and to H. Peter Anvin <hpa+linux@zytor.com>.
188 - If you configured any of the parts of the kernel as `modules', you
189 will have to do "make modules" followed by "make modules_install".
190 Read Documentation/modules.txt for more information. For example,
191 an explanation of how to use the modules is included there.
193 - Keep a backup kernel handy in case something goes wrong. This is
194 especially true for the development releases, since each new release
195 contains new code which has not been debugged. Make sure you keep a
196 backup of the modules corresponding to that kernel, as well. If you
197 are installing a new kernel with the same version number as your
198 working kernel, make a backup of your modules directory before you
199 do a "make modules_install".
201 - In order to boot your new kernel, you'll need to copy the kernel
202 image (found in .../linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage after compilation)
203 to the place where your regular bootable kernel is found.
205 For some, this is on a floppy disk, in which case you can copy the
206 kernel bzImage file to /dev/fd0 to make a bootable floppy. Please note
207 that you can not boot a kernel by directly dumping it to a 720k
208 double-density 3.5" floppy. In this case, it is highly recommended
209 that you install LILO on your double-density boot floppy or switch to
210 high-density floppies.
212 If you boot Linux from the hard drive, chances are you use LILO which
213 uses the kernel image as specified in the file /etc/lilo.conf. The
214 kernel image file is usually /vmlinuz, /boot/vmlinuz, /bzImage or
215 /boot/bzImage. To use the new kernel, save a copy of the old image
216 and copy the new image over the old one. Then, you MUST RERUN LILO
217 to update the loading map!! If you don't, you won't be able to boot
218 the new kernel image.
220 Reinstalling LILO is usually a matter of running /sbin/lilo.
221 You may wish to edit /etc/lilo.conf to specify an entry for your
222 old kernel image (say, /vmlinux.old) in case the new one does not
223 work. See the LILO docs for more information.
225 After reinstalling LILO, you should be all set. Shutdown the system,
226 reboot, and enjoy!
228 If you ever need to change the default root device, video mode,
229 ramdisk size, etc. in the kernel image, use the 'rdev' program (or
230 alternatively the LILO boot options when appropriate). No need to
231 recompile the kernel to change these parameters.
233 - Reboot with the new kernel and enjoy.
235 IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG:
237 - If you have problems that seem to be due to kernel bugs, please check
238 the file MAINTAINERS to see if there is a particular person associated
239 with the part of the kernel that you are having trouble with. If there
240 isn't anyone listed there, then the second best thing is to mail
241 them to me (torvalds@transmeta.com), and possibly to any other
242 relevant mailing-list or to the newsgroup. The mailing-lists are
243 useful especially for SCSI and networking problems, as I can't test
244 either of those personally anyway.
246 - In all bug-reports, *please* tell what kernel you are talking about,
247 how to duplicate the problem, and what your setup is (use your common
248 sense). If the problem is new, tell me so, and if the problem is
249 old, please try to tell me when you first noticed it.
251 - If the bug results in a message like
253 unable to handle kernel paging request at address C0000010
254 Oops: 0002
255 EIP: 0010:XXXXXXXX
256 eax: xxxxxxxx ebx: xxxxxxxx ecx: xxxxxxxx edx: xxxxxxxx
257 esi: xxxxxxxx edi: xxxxxxxx ebp: xxxxxxxx
258 ds: xxxx es: xxxx fs: xxxx gs: xxxx
259 Pid: xx, process nr: xx
260 xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
262 or similar kernel debugging information on your screen or in your
263 system log, please duplicate it *exactly*. The dump may look
264 incomprehensible to you, but it does contain information that may
265 help debugging the problem. The text above the dump is also
266 important: it tells something about why the kernel dumped code (in
267 the above example it's due to a bad kernel pointer). More information
268 on making sense of the dump is in Documentation/oops-tracing.txt
270 - You can use the "ksymoops" program to make sense of the dump. This
271 utility can be downloaded from
272 ftp://ftp.<country>.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops.
273 Alternately you can do the dump lookup by hand:
275 - In debugging dumps like the above, it helps enormously if you can
276 look up what the EIP value means. The hex value as such doesn't help
277 me or anybody else very much: it will depend on your particular
278 kernel setup. What you should do is take the hex value from the EIP
279 line (ignore the "0010:"), and look it up in the kernel namelist to
280 see which kernel function contains the offending address.
282 To find out the kernel function name, you'll need to find the system
283 binary associated with the kernel that exhibited the symptom. This is
284 the file 'linux/vmlinux'. To extract the namelist and match it against
285 the EIP from the kernel crash, do:
287 nm vmlinux | sort | less
289 This will give you a list of kernel addresses sorted in ascending
290 order, from which it is simple to find the function that contains the
291 offending address. Note that the address given by the kernel
292 debugging messages will not necessarily match exactly with the
293 function addresses (in fact, that is very unlikely), so you can't
294 just 'grep' the list: the list will, however, give you the starting
295 point of each kernel function, so by looking for the function that
296 has a starting address lower than the one you are searching for but
297 is followed by a function with a higher address you will find the one
298 you want. In fact, it may be a good idea to include a bit of
299 "context" in your problem report, giving a few lines around the
300 interesting one.
302 If you for some reason cannot do the above (you have a pre-compiled
303 kernel image or similar), telling me as much about your setup as
304 possible will help.
306 - Alternately, you can use gdb on a running kernel. (read-only; i.e. you
307 cannot change values or set break points.) To do this, first compile the
308 kernel with -g; edit arch/i386/Makefile appropriately, then do a "make
309 clean". You'll also need to enable CONFIG_PROC_FS (via "make config").
311 After you've rebooted with the new kernel, do "gdb vmlinux /proc/kcore".
312 You can now use all the usual gdb commands. The command to look up the
313 point where your system crashed is "l *0xXXXXXXXX". (Replace the XXXes
314 with the EIP value.)
316 gdb'ing a non-running kernel currently fails because gdb (wrongly)
317 disregards the starting offset for which the kernel is compiled.