source: chapter02/hostreqs.xml@ b6c6947

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<sect1 id="ch-partitioning-hostreqs" xreflabel="Host System Requirements">
  <?dbhtml filename="hostreqs.html"?>

  <title>Host System Requirements</title>

  <sect2>
     <title>Hardware</title>

     <para>The LFS editors recommend that the system CPU have at least
     four cores and that the system have at least 8 GB of memory. 
     Older systems that do not meet these requirements will still work,
     but the time to build packages will be significantly longer
     than documented.
  </para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2>
     <title>Software</title>

    <para>Your host system should have the following software with the
    minimum versions indicated. This should not be an issue for most
    modern Linux distributions. Also note that many distributions will
    place software headers into separate packages, often in the form of
    <quote>&lt;package-name&gt;-devel</quote> or
    <quote>&lt;package-name&gt;-dev</quote>. Be sure to install those if
    your distribution provides them.</para>

   <para>Earlier versions of the listed software packages may work, but have
   not been tested.</para>

  <itemizedlist spacing="compact">

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Bash-3.2</emphasis> (/bin/sh
      should be a symbolic or hard link to bash)</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Binutils-2.13.1</emphasis> (Versions
      greater than &binutils-version; are not recommended as they have
      not been tested)</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Bison-2.7</emphasis> (/usr/bin/yacc
      should be a link to bison or a small script that executes bison)</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Coreutils-6.9</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Diffutils-2.8.1</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Findutils-4.2.31</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Gawk-4.0.1</emphasis> (/usr/bin/awk
      should be a link to gawk)</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">GCC-5.1</emphasis> including the C++
      compiler, <command>g++</command> (Versions greater than &gcc-version; are
      not recommended as they have not been tested). C and C++ standard
      libraries (with headers) must also be present so the C++ compiler can
      build hosted programs</para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Grep-2.5.1a</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Gzip-1.3.12</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Linux Kernel-&min-kernel;</emphasis></para>

      <para>The reason for the kernel version requirement is that we specify
      that version when building <application>glibc</application> in
      <xref linkend="chapter-cross-tools"/> and
      <xref linkend="chapter-building-system"/>,
      at the recommendation of the developers.  It is also required by
      udev.</para>

      <para>If the host kernel is earlier than &min-kernel; you will need to replace
      the kernel with a more up-to-date version. There are two ways
      you can go about this. First, see if your Linux vendor provides a &min-kernel;
      or later kernel package. If so, you may wish to install it. If your
      vendor doesn't offer an acceptable kernel package, or you would prefer not to
      install it, you can compile a kernel yourself. Instructions for
      compiling the kernel and configuring the boot loader (assuming the host
      uses GRUB) are located in <xref linkend="chapter-bootable"/>.</para>

    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">M4-1.4.10</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Make-4.0</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Patch-2.5.4</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Perl-5.8.8</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Python-3.4</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Sed-4.1.5</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Tar-1.22</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Texinfo-4.7</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

    <listitem>
      <para><emphasis role="strong">Xz-5.0.0</emphasis></para>
    </listitem>

  </itemizedlist>

  <important>
    <para>Note that the symlinks mentioned above are required to build an LFS
    system using the instructions contained within this book. Symlinks that
    point to other software (such as dash, mawk, etc.) may work, but are not
    tested or supported by the LFS development team, and may require either
    deviation from the instructions or additional patches to some
    packages.</para>
  </important>

  <!-- Use an empty sect2 element to prevent a pdf warning.  -->
  <bridgehead renderas="sect2"
              id="version-check"
              xreflabel="Host System Requirements">
  </bridgehead>
  <!--<title> </title>-->

  <para >To see whether your host system has all the appropriate versions, and
  the ability to compile programs, run the following commands:</para>

<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; version-check.sh &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>#!/bin/bash
# Simple script to list version numbers of critical development tools
export LC_ALL=C
bash --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f2-4
MYSH=$(readlink -f /bin/sh)
echo "/bin/sh -&gt; $MYSH"
echo $MYSH | grep -q bash || echo "ERROR: /bin/sh does not point to bash"
unset MYSH

echo -n "Binutils: "; ld --version | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f3-
bison --version | head -n1

if [ -h /usr/bin/yacc ]; then
  echo "/usr/bin/yacc -> `readlink -f /usr/bin/yacc`";
elif [ -x /usr/bin/yacc ]; then
  echo yacc is `/usr/bin/yacc --version | head -n1`
else
  echo "yacc not found"
fi

echo -n "Coreutils: "; chown --version | head -n1 | cut -d")" -f2
diff --version | head -n1
find --version | head -n1
gawk --version | head -n1

if [ -h /usr/bin/awk ]; then
  echo "/usr/bin/awk -&gt; `readlink -f /usr/bin/awk`";
elif [ -x /usr/bin/awk ]; then
  echo awk is `/usr/bin/awk --version | head -n1`
else
  echo "awk not found"
fi

gcc --version | head -n1
g++ --version | head -n1
grep --version | head -n1
gzip --version | head -n1
cat /proc/version
m4 --version | head -n1
make --version | head -n1
patch --version | head -n1
echo Perl `perl -V:version`
python3 --version
sed --version | head -n1
tar --version | head -n1
makeinfo --version | head -n1  # texinfo version
xz --version | head -n1

echo 'int main(){}' &gt; dummy.c &amp;&amp; g++ -o dummy dummy.c
if [ -x dummy ]
  then echo "g++ compilation OK";
  else echo "g++ compilation failed"; fi
rm -f dummy.c dummy</literal>
EOF

bash version-check.sh</userinput></screen>
<!--
  <para>Also check for some library consistency:</para>

<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; library-check.sh &lt;&lt; "EOF"
<literal>#!/bin/bash
for lib in lib{gmp,mpfr,mpc}.la; do
  echo $lib: $(if find /usr/lib* -name $lib|
               grep -q $lib;then :;else echo not;fi) found
done
unset lib</literal>
EOF

bash library-check.sh</userinput></screen>

<para>The files identified by this script should be all present
or all absent, but not only one or two present.</para>
-->

    <para arch="ml_32,ml_x32,ml_all">
      Building multilib support requires the kernel of the host system
      to have 32-bit emulation support included.
    </para>
<screen arch="ml_32,ml_x32,ml_all">Binary Emulations  ---&gt;
    [*] IA32 Emulation
    &lt;M&gt;   IA32 a.out support
    [*] x32 ABI for 64-bit mode
</screen>

    <para arch="ml_32,ml_x32,ml_all">The option 'IA32 a.out support' is
      optional. In case your kernel does not have 'x32 ABI for 64-bit mode'
      enabled but only 'IA32 Emulation', you can continue to build your
      system but you have to leave out any sections showing instructions
      for building x32 objects. If neither 'IA32 Emulation' nor 
      'x32 ABI for 64-bit mode' is enabled, you will run in errors 
      latest when building <application>glibc</application> in Chapter 6,
      so an upgrade of your host system kernel is required.
    </para>
    
  </sect2>
</sect1>