Intro ===== This document contains a list of the latest releases of the most important packages for Linux as well as instructions for newcomers to the 2.0 series of kernels. By glancing through it, you should be able to find out what you need to upgrade in order to successfully run the latest kernels. It was originally based on material from the linux-kernel mailing list, Jared Mauch's web page "Software Victims of the 1.3 Kernel Development" (http://www2.nether.net/~jared/victim.html), and Axel Boldt's (boldt@math.ucsb.edu) Configure.help file, among other sources, and was originally written and maintained by Alessandro Sigala (ssigala@globalnet.it). There is now a web page based on this material, thanks to John Taylor. Check out http://www.cviog.uga.edu/LinuxBleed.html if you prefer a HTML-ized shopping list. Last updated: June 6, 1996. Current Author: Chris Ricker (gt1355b@prism.gatech.edu). Current Releases **************** - Kernel modules Stable: 1.3.57, Exp: 1.3.69k - PPP daemon Stable: 2.2.0f - Dynamic linker (ld.so) 1.7.14 - GNU CC 2.7.2 - Binutils 2.6.0.14 - Linux C Library Stable: 5.2.18, Beta: 5.3.12 - Linux C++ Library 2.7.1.4 - Termcap 2.0.8 - Procps 0.99a - Gpm 1.09 - SysVinit 2.62 - Util-linux 2.5 Upgrade notes ************* Network errors with recent kernels ================================== Many default network scripts are set up to add a route to the localhost at 127.0.0.1 at startup. However, they do this incorrectly. To fix the error, which is now spotted by the kernel (causing many daemons to quit working), look for a line like `route add -net 127.0.0.1' in your network configuration files and change it to `route add -net 127.0.0.0'. This error is present in all Red Hat distributions (and derivative distributions like Caldera). If you're running one of these, edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-lo, changing the line `route add -net $(IPADDR)' to `route add -net 127.0.0.0' and you should be fine. Booting Changes =============== The boot stuff in 1.3.x (for arch/i386) has been enhanced so that it now can load bigger kernels (bzImage) and that the loaders now can load an initial ramdisk (initrd). For initrd see Documentation/initrd.txt. For building bigger kernels use one of the following make targets: bzImage, bzlilo, bzdisk (equivalent to make targets zImage, zlilo, and zdisk respectively). If you want or need to use the new features you'll need to upgrade your bootloaders. Lilo can be found at ftp://lrcftp.epfl.ch/pub/linux/local/lilo/lilo.19.tar.gz. LOADLIN is at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Linux-boot/lodlin16.tgz. If you're using more unusual loaders like SysLinux or etherboot, the latest versions are 1.3 and 2.0, respectively. The Linux C Library =================== The latest stable Linux C Library release is 5.2.18. If you upgrade to this from 5.0.9 or earlier, be sure to read the `release.libc-5.2.18' file, since GNU make and a few other fairly important utils can be broken by the upgrade. The current (beta) Linux C Library release is 5.3.12. In this release there are some important changes that may cause troubles to buggy programs (programs that call free() on a pointer not returned by malloc() work with previous libc, but not with this release) so read the `release.libc-5.3.9' file carefully! In the latest libc releases a dirent bug, which erroneously defined d->reclen to d->namlen if USE_GNU was defined, has been fixed. Unfortunately, some GNU packages depend on this bug. GNU make 3.xx is one of them. To fix that you need to patch and recompile those programs (a patch for make is included in the file `release.libc-.5.3.9', and the address to obtain a precompiled binary is at the end of this file). Also, the libc-5.3.x line has a known security hole relating to rlogin. Libc-5.3.12 fixes this, so if you're going to run an experimental libc, be sure to upgrade to 5.3.12. If you're getting an error message that is something to the effect of `fcntl_setlk() called by process 123 with broken flock() emulation' then you need to upgrade to libc-5.2.18 as well. A proper (in other words, BSD-style ;-) flock system call was added in 1.3.x, and older libc's will now give this error. It doesn't *really* matter, so you can just ignore it. If it really annoys you, upgrade libc (and recompile any static binaries you might have that are linked against the old libc). If you're feeling lazy, just comment out ` printk(KERN_WARNING "fcntl_setlk() called by process %d with broken flock() emulation\n", current->pid);' in linux/fs/locks.c and recompile. If you're still running a.out, there's an unofficial libc-4.7.6 release out to which you can upgrade to fix this problem. The Termcap Library =================== The current Termcap release is 2.0.8. If you upgrade to this release read the `README' file contained into the package to get some important information about the `tgetent' function changes! Procps utilities ================ In the latest 1.3.x kernel releases the /proc file system structure was changed, so you need to upgrade the procps package to version 0.99a. In the very latest kernels, /proc has changed again. There's not yet an officially updated version of procps, so use 0.99a; you might want to look for one of the patches floating around to update 0.99a for use with 1.3.94 and later kernels. Kernel Modules ============== 1.3.x is almost completely modularized, and kerneld is now incorporated into the kernel. To take advantage of this, you'll need the latest version of the module support apps. The latest non-beta is modules-1.3.57.tar.gz, and the latest beta is modules-1.3.69k.tar.gz. These should be available at the same place you picked up your kernel (ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/kernel/src/) and the home page is http://www.pi.se/blox/modules/index.html. Note: If you try to load a module and get a message like `gcc2_compiled, undefined Failed to load module! The symbols from kernel 1.3.foo don't match 1.3.foo' where `foo' is a number for a recent kernel, then it's time to upgrade module utilities from 1.3.57 to the latest beta 1.3.69; you'll only get this error if you're running the latest binutils, so most people don't need to upgrade past 1.3.57. Another little tip: you can't have both a.out *and* ELF support compiled as modules. Otherwise, you get a nice Catch-22 when you try to run insmod to install a.out/ELF support so you can run insmod ;-). If you have an all-ELF system, but need a.out for the occasional legacy app, then you can do a.out support as a module. Otherwise, you should probably leave it in the kernel, and if you haven't gone ELF yet, you can probably say no to ELF support. Similarly, any partitions that you have to mount at startup have to have their necessary file system and device drivers compiled into the kernel, so don't get grandiose ideas about going completely modular and then forget to compile ext2fs support and ide drive support into your kernel ;-). PPP driver ========== You need to be running a pppd from ppp-2.2.0.tar.gz or greater. The latest stable release is 2.2.0f and is available at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Network/serial/ppp/ppp-2.2.0f.tar.gz. Named pipes (SysVinit) ====================== Linux's handling of named pipes changed (it now does it The Right Way instead of the SunOS way ;-). This broke some programs that depended on the SunOS behavior, most notably SysVinit. If you're running 2.59 or earlier, you will probably get a weird error on shutdown in which your computer shuts down fine but "INIT: error reading initrequest" or words to that effect scroll across your screen hundreds of times. To fix, upgrade to ftp://ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/miquels/debian/sysvinit-2.62.tar.gz. If you're trying to run NCSA httpd, you have to set pre-spawning of daemons to zero, as it incorrectly assumes SunOS behavior. I recommend you just switch to Apache httpd. The new named pipe behavior also causes problems with Hylafax. If you're running the hylafax daemon, it will just keep eating up CPU time until you have no idle time free. To fix this, edit port.h included with the Hylafax distribution and change the line CONFIG_OPENFIFO="O_RDONLY" to CONFIG_OPENFIFO="O_RDWR" A similar method (finding all named pipes opened read-only and changing them to read-write) will fix any program that is broken because of this change. File Locking (Sendmail) ======================= As of pre2.0.6 (aka 1.99.6), mixed-style file locking is no longer allowed. For example, a file cannot be simultaneously locked with `flock' and `fcntl'. See Documentation/locks.txt for all the gory details. Among the programs this has impacted are older sendmails. If you get a message that sendmail cannot lock aliases.dir (or other files), you'll need to upgrade to at least 8.7.x. The latest sendmail is at ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/ucb/src/sendmail/sendmail.8.7.5.tar.gz. Uugetty ======= Older uugettys will not allow use of a bidirectional serial line. To fix this problem, upgrade to ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Serial/getty_ps-2.0.7h.tar.gz. Kbd === For those of you needing non-ASCII character/font support, you should upgrade to ftp.funet.fi:/pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/kbd-0.91.tar.gz. Console ======= The Linux console type has changed. If your setup is old enough that you have problems, you'll need to update your termcap. To fix, add linux to one of the types in /etc/termcap or snoop around http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ncurses.html (reputedly the latest universal termcap maintainer). You may also need to update terminfo by running the following as root: ln -s /usr/lib/terminfo/l/linux /usr/lib/terminfo/c/console Better yet, just get the latest official Linux termcap from ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/termcap-2.0.8.tar.gz Also, the console driver is now responsible for keeping track of correspondence between character codes and glyph bitmaps. If you encounter problems, try `loadunimap def' to get back the default correspondence. Hdparm ====== Hdparm has been upgraded to take advantage of the latest features of the kernel drivers. The latest non-beta version can be found at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/patches/diskdrives/hdparm-2.7.tar.gz. IP Accounting ============= All IP packets coming in or going out via one of the network interfaces are now passing the accounting chain. So, packets being forwarded are passing this chain twice. Since pre2.0.7 (aka 1.99.7), accounting rules can be defined so that they will only match in one direction (either incoming or outgoing). There also exists a possibility to match on device names and/or device addresses, so that only packets coming in/going out via that device (network interface) match with a rule. You'll need to get ipfwadm from ftp://ftp.xos.nl/pub/linux/ipfwadm/ipfwadm-2.1.tar.gz to use this. IP Firewalls ============ The IP firewall code has been changed drastically during 1.3.x. There are now 3 categories of firewall rules: one for incoming packets, one for outgoing packets, and one for packets being forwarded. There also exists a possibility to match on device names and/or device addresses, so that only packets coming in/going out via that device (network interface) match with a rule. This is especially useful to prevent spoofing. You'll need to get ftp://ftp.xos.nl/pub/linux/ipfwadm/ipfwadm-2.1.tar.gz to use this. IP Masquerading =============== IP masquerading is now part of the standard kernel. However, you always need to load separate modules (ip_masq_ftp.o and/or ip_masq_irc.o) if you are going to use FTP or IRC in combination with masquerading. You'll need to get ftp://ftp.xos.nl/pub/linux/ipfwadm/ipfwadm-2.1.tar.gz to use this. ISDN support ============ The new kernels support ISDN. You'll need ISDN utils available from ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/isdn4linux/isdn4k-utils-1.3.97.tar.gz to try this. Term is broken ============== Term (a comm line multiplexer similar in purpose to slirp) does not work with kernels later than 1.3.60. Since the author of term is apparently currently on vacation, there is no fix forthcoming. I suggest that those of you who rely on term learn to use slirp. Networking ========== Some of the /proc/net entries have changed. You'll need to upgrade to the latest net-tools in ftp://ftp.inka.de:/pub/comp/Linux/networking/net-tools. The last official release there is net-tools-1.2.0.tar.gz, and the latest release is net-tools-1.32-alpha.tar.gz. If you need the upgrade, you probably need the latest beta release. Xntpd ===== Older versions of xntpd will not work with the latest kernels. Upgrade to xntp3.5f.tar.Z, available from ftp://louie.udel.edu/pub/ntp/xntp3.5f.tar.Z. Sound driver ============ The sound driver was upgraded in the 1.3.x kernels, breaking vplay. To fix this problem, get a new version of the sndkit from ftp://ftp.best.com/pub/front/tasd/snd-util-3.5.tar.gz. Some users report that various other sound utils (cdd2wav-sbpcd, for example) need to be recompiled before they will work with the new kernels. Tcsh ==== If tcsh acts funny, get the source from ftp://anise.ee.cornell.edu/pub/tcsh and add #define SYSMALLOC in config_f.h before recompiling tcsh. Binaries can be found in ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Shells/ and a corrected one will probably wind up there eventually. Make ==== If make no longer works, you need to read the release notes for the libc you upgraded to. The latest libc and release notes can be found at ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC. This is NOT an error due to the kernel, though many people have mistakenly thought it is. When you upgrade to libc-5.3.9, you have to patch make to get it to work. All of this is documented in the release notes with libc. Upgrading libc can also break xterm support. If it does, you need to recompile xterm. Loop device =========== 1.3.x kernels include loop device support which lets you mount a file as a file system, which can allow for all sorts of cool things like encrypted file systems and such. To use it, you'll need a modified version of mount from ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux/util/mount-2.5X.tar.gz and preliminary work on encrypted file system support can be found in ftp.funet.fi:/pub/OS/Linux/BETA/loop/des.1.tar.gz. Multiple device =============== Multiple device support (allowing you to group several partitions into one logical device) has also been added. Check out ftp://sweet-smoke.ufr-info-p7.ibp.fr/pub/Linux/md034.tar.gz to try this out. Arp === Arp daemon support has been added. Check out http://www.loran.com/~layes/arpd/index.html for more info and a copy of arpd. Quota ===== Quota support has also been added. You need to get quotas-1.51 from ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/subsystems/quota/all.tar.gz. This will compile just fine after you copy its mntent.h over to /usr/include/mntent.h. I've uploaded this to sunsite as ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Admin/quotas-1.51-tar.gz Process Accounting ================== Process accounting support has also been integrated into the new kernels. To use this feature, you'll need to get ftp://iguana.hut.fi/pub/linux/Kernel/process_accounting/acct_1.3.73.tar.gz. Bdflush ======= Bdflush has also been integrated into the new kernels, so those of you using it on older systems no longer need to hunt for the patches to implement it once you upgrade to 1.3.x. APM support =========== Advanced Power Management (APM) support has been added to the kernel as well. APM, which is primarily of use in laptops, provides access to battery status information and may help to conserve battery power. The support files can be found in ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/laptops/apm/apmd-2.4.tar.gz iBCS and Dosemu =============== For a version of iBCS that works with 1.3.x kernels, grab ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/BETA/ibcs2/ibcs-1.3-960404-ALPHA.tar.gz For a version of Dosemu that works (well, at least as well as DOS ever works ;-), get ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/dosemu/Development/dosemu-0.63.1.19.tgz. Be sure to follow the instructions in README.newkernels about patching your include files, or it will not compile. Mtools and Fdutils ================== The floppy ioctl numbering scheme has changed in 1.3.x. For backwards compatibility, the old system was supported through 1.3.x and will generate a warning in 2.0. In 2.1.x, the old scheme will disappear entirely. To avoid trouble (or at least annoying messages), you'll need to recompile any programs which emit floppy ioctls, including mtools and fdutils. For mtools, get ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/mtools-3.0.src.tar.gz and for fdutils, get ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Misc/fdutils-4.3.src.tar.gz. In the future, fdformat might disappear entirely, so get used to using superformat instead. How to know the version of the installed programs ************************************************* There are some simple methods useful to know the version of the installed programs and libraries. GNU CC: gcc -v and gcc --version PPP: pppd -h (wrong but it show the version) Libc: ls -l /lib/libc.so.5 Libc++: ls -l /usr/lib/libg++.so Binutils: ld -v ldd: ldd -v and ldd -V termcap: ls -l /lib/libtermcap.so.* modules: insmod -V procps: ps --version Where to get the files ********************** Binutils ======== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/binutils-2.6.0.14.bin.tar.gz Installation notes: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/release.binutils-2.6.0.14 GNU CC ====== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/gcc-2.7.2.bin.tar.gz Installation notes: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/release.gcc-2.7.2 Linux C Library =============== The stable 5.2.18 release: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/libc-5.2.18.bin.tar.gz Installation notes for 5.2.18: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/release.libc-5.2.18 The latest 5.3.12 release: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/libc-5.3.12.bin.tar.gz Installation notes for 5.3.12: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/release.libc-5.3.12 Patched make sources: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/make/make-3.74.patched.tar.gz Patched make binary: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/make/make-3.74-direntfix-elf.tgz Linux C++ Library ================= ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/libg++-2.7.1.4.bin.tar.gz Installation notes: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/release.libg++-2.7.1.4 Dynamic Linker ============== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/ld.so-1.7.14.tar.gz Termcap Library =============== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC/termcap-2.0.8.tar.gz Modules utilities ================= The latest public release: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/modules-1.3.57.tar.gz The latest experimental release: http://www.pi.se/blox/ PPP Daemon and utilities ======================== The latest public release: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Network/serial/ppp/ppp-2.2.0f.tar.gz Procps utilities ================ ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Status/ps/procps-0.99a.tgz Gpm mouse utilities =================== ftp://iride.unipv.it/pub/gpm/gpm-1.09.tar.gz ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Daemons/gpm-1.09.tar.gz SysVinit utilities ================== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Daemons/init/sysvinit-2.62.tar.gz Util-linux ========== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Misc/util-linux-2.5.tar.gz Mtools ====== ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/mtools-3.0.src.tar.gz Fdutils ======= ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Misc/fdutils-4.3.src.tar.gz Other Info ========== Please remember that most of these utils are available on your favorite local linux mirror. If you can, please get them from a closer site before checking sunsite. Also, for those of you running Red Hat (or RPM on a different distribution), most of these are available in RPM format. Check around your favorite Red Hat mirror site before installing the non-RPM version. Remember, you might need to use the -force option to get the upgrade to install. Please send info about any other packages that 1.3.x "broke" or about any new features of 1.3.x that require extra or new packages for use to Chris Ricker (gt1355b@prism.gatech.edu). I generate this from a modified texinfo setup, so you don't need to bother generating a diff against the current version before you send the additional information to me.