source: chapter05/hostreqs.xml@ 8250be1

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<sect1 id="ch-tools-hostreqs">
<title>Host system requirements</title>
<?dbhtml filename="hostreqs.html"?>

<para>Due to the experimental nature of the current book, the host must be
running at <emphasis>least</emphasis> a 2.6.2 kernel compiled with GCC-3.0 or
higher. There are two main reasons for the high requirement.  Firstly, we make
use of the Native Posix Threading Library (NPTL) whose testsuite will segfault
if the host's kernel hasn't been compiled with GCC-3.0 or later.  Secondly, the
2.6.2 or later version of the kernel is required for the use of Udev. Udev
creates devices dynamically by reading from the
<systemitem class="filesystem">sysfs</systemitem> file system. Only very
recently has support for this file system been implemented in most of the kernel
drivers, however. We must be sure that all the critical system devices get
created properly.</para>

<para>As for obtaining such a kernel, let's hope you distributor has provided
a 2.6 kernel package for you. If so, install it. If not, you'll have to compile
it yourself. If you're forced into a situation where you need to compile it
yourself, it is highly recommended that you compile your kernel in a monolithic
manner, as you probably don't want to go fiddling with your hosts module
utilities. Supposing you don't want to listen, open up the module-init-tools
tarball and check out the README on how to get module support for 2.6.</para>

</sect1>