1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd" [
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3 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
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4 | %general-entities;
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5 | ]>
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6 | <sect1 id="ch-tools-hostreqs">
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7 | <title>Host system requirements</title>
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8 | <?dbhtml filename="hostreqs.html"?>
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9 |
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10 | <para>Due to the experimental nature of the current book, the host must be
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11 | running at <emphasis>least</emphasis> a 2.6.2 kernel compiled with GCC-3.0 or
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12 | higher. There are two main reasons for the high requirement. Firstly, we make
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13 | use of the Native Posix Threading Library (NPTL) whose testsuite will segfault
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14 | if the host's kernel hasn't been compiled with GCC-3.0 or later. Secondly, the
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15 | 2.6.2 or later version of the kernel is required for the use of Udev. Udev
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16 | creates devices dynamically by reading from the
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17 | <systemitem class="filesystem">sysfs</systemitem> file system. Only very
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18 | recently has support for this file system been implemented in most of the kernel
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19 | drivers, however. We must be sure that all the critical system devices get
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20 | created properly.</para>
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21 |
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22 | <para>As for obtaining such a kernel, let's hope you distributor has provided
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23 | a 2.6 kernel package for you. If so, install it. If not, you'll have to compile
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24 | it yourself. If you're forced into a situation where you need to compile it
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25 | yourself, it is highly recommended that you compile your kernel in a monolithic
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26 | manner, as you probably don't want to go fiddling with your hosts module
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27 | utilities. Supposing you don't want to listen, open up the module-init-tools
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28 | tarball and check out the README on how to get module support for 2.6.</para>
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29 |
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30 | </sect1>
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