Chapter 1. The Linux Kernel

Chapter 1. The Linux Kernel
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Table of Contents

1. Configuration
2. Compilation
3. Installation

Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

1. Configuration

Make sure you have no stale .o files and dependencies lying around:

make mrproper

Run the text based color menus, radiolists & dialogs kernel configuration tools:

make menuconfig

Configure the kernel based on arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig and the following recommandations:

Stack utilization instrumentation: disable to avoid messages like "lvm used greatest stack depth: 5956 bytes left"
```
Symbol: DEBUG_STACK_USAGE [=n]
Prompt: Stack utilization instrumentation
  Depends on: DEBUG_KERNEL
  Location:
    -> Kernel hacking
```

Kernel .config support

Symbol: IKCONFIG [=y]
Prompt: Kernel .config support
  Location:
    -> General setup

Symbol: IKCONFIG_PROC [=y]
Prompt: Enable access to .config through /proc/config.gz
  Depends on: IKCONFIG && PROC_FS
  Location:
    -> General setup
      -> Kernel .config support (IKCONFIG [=y])

Universal TUN/TAP device driver support

Symbol: TUN [=y]
Prompt: Universal TUN/TAP device driver support
  Depends on: NETDEVICES
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
  Selects: CRC32

KVM

Symbol: KVM [=n]
Prompt: Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) support
  Depends on: VIRTUALIZATION && HAVE_KVM && PCI
  Location:
    -> Virtualization (VIRTUALIZATION [=y])
  Selects: PREEMPT_NOTIFIERS && MMU_NOTIFIER && ANON_INODES

Symbol: KVM_INTEL [=y]
Prompt: KVM for Intel processors support
  Depends on: VIRTUALIZATION && KVM
  Location:
    -> Virtualization (VIRTUALIZATION [=y])
      -> Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) support (KVM [=y])

Symbol: KVM_AMD [=y]
Prompt: KVM for AMD processors support
  Depends on: VIRTUALIZATION && KVM
  Location:
    -> Virtualization (VIRTUALIZATION [=y])
      -> Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) support (KVM [=y])

Symbol: VIRTIO_PCI [=n]
Prompt: PCI driver for virtio devices (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Depends on: VIRTUALIZATION && PCI && EXPERIMENTAL
  Location:
    -> Virtualization (VIRTUALIZATION [=y])
  Selects: VIRTIO && VIRTIO_RING

Symbol: VIRTIO_BALLOON [=n]
Prompt: Virtio balloon driver (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Depends on: VIRTUALIZATION
  Location:
    -> Virtualization (VIRTUALIZATION [=y])
  Selects: VIRTIO && VIRTIO_RING

Symbol: VIRTIO_BLK [=n]
Prompt: Virtio block driver (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Depends on: BLK_DEV && EXPERIMENTAL && VIRTIO
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Block devices (BLK_DEV [=y])

Symbol: VIRTIO_NET [=y]
Prompt: Virtio network driver (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Depends on: NETDEVICES && EXPERIMENTAL && VIRTIO
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])

Symbol: VIRTIO_CONSOLE [=y]
Prompt: Virtio console
  Depends on: VIRTIO
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Character devices
  Selects: HVC_DRIVER
  Selected by: LGUEST_GUEST && PARAVIRT_GUEST && X86_32 && !X86_PAE

Symbol: HW_RANDOM_VIRTIO [=y]
Prompt: VirtIO Random Number Generator support
  Depends on: HW_RANDOM && VIRTIO
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Character devices
        -> Hardware Random Number Generator Core support

Symbol: KVM_CLOCK [=y]
Prompt: KVM paravirtualized clock
  Depends on: PARAVIRT_GUEST
  Location:
    -> Processor type and features
      -> Paravirtualized guest support (PARAVIRT_GUEST [=y])
  Selects: PARAVIRT && PARAVIRT_CLOCK

Symbol: KVM_GUEST [=y]
Prompt: KVM Guest support
  Depends on: PARAVIRT_GUEST
  Location:
    -> Processor type and features
      -> Paravirtualized guest support (PARAVIRT_GUEST [=y])
  Selects: PARAVIRT

RAID Support

Symbol: MD_LINEAR [=y]
Prompt: Linear (append) mode
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_MD
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> RAID support (BLK_DEV_MD [=y])

Symbol: MD_RAID0 [=y]
Prompt: RAID-0 (striping) mode
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_MD
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> RAID support (BLK_DEV_MD [=y])

Symbol: MD_RAID1 [=y]
Prompt: RAID-1 (mirroring) mode
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_MD
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> RAID support (BLK_DEV_MD [=y])

Symbol: MD_RAID10 [=y]
Prompt: RAID-10 (mirrored striping) mode (EXPERIMENTAL)
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_MD && EXPERIMENTAL
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> RAID support (BLK_DEV_MD [=y])

Symbol: MD_RAID456 [=y]
Prompt: RAID-4/RAID-5/RAID-6 mode
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_MD
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> RAID support (BLK_DEV_MD [=y])
  Selects: MD_RAID6_PQ && ASYNC_MEMCPY && ASYNC_XOR

Device Mapper

Symbol: DM_CRYPT [=y]
Prompt: Crypt target support
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_DM
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> Device mapper support (BLK_DEV_DM [=y])
  Selects: CRYPTO && CRYPTO_CBC

Symbol: DM_SNAPSHOT [=y]
Prompt: Snapshot target
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_DM
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> Device mapper support (BLK_DEV_DM [=y])

Symbol: DM_MULTIPATH [=y]
Prompt: Multipath target
  Depends on: MD && BLK_DEV_DM && (SCSI_DH || !SCSI_DH)
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) (MD [=y])
        -> Device mapper support (BLK_DEV_DM [=y])

VLAN Support

Symbol: VLAN_8021Q [=y]
Prompt: 802.1Q VLAN Support
  Depends on: NET
  Location:
    -> Networking support (NET [=y])
      -> Networking options

Bridge Support

Symbol: BRIDGE [=y]
Prompt: 802.1d Ethernet Bridging
  Depends on: NET
  Location:
    -> Networking support (NET [=y])
      -> Networking options
  Selects: LLC && STP

Bonding Support

Symbol: BONDING [=y]
Prompt: Bonding driver support
  Depends on: NETDEVICES && INET && (IPV6 || IPV6=n)
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])

RealTek RTL-8139 C+ (KVM default NIC)

Symbol: 8139CP [=y]
Prompt: RealTek RTL-8139 C+ PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter support (EXPERIME
  Depends on: NETDEVICES && NET_ETHERNET && NET_PCI && PCI && EXPERIMEN
  Location:
    -> Device Drivers
      -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
        -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) (NET_ETHERNET [=y])
  Selects: CRC32 && MII

EXT4

Symbol: EXT4_FS [=y]
Prompt: The Extended 4 (ext4) filesystem
  Depends on: BLOCK
  Location:
    -> File systems
  Selects: JBD2 && CRC16

ReiserFS

Symbol: REISERFS_FS [=y]
Prompt: Reiserfs support
  Depends on: BLOCK
  Location:
    -> File systems
  Selects: CRC32

JFS

Symbol: JFS_FS [=y]
Prompt: JFS filesystem support
  Depends on: BLOCK
  Location:
    -> File systems
  Selects: NLS && CRC32

XFS

Symbol: XFS_FS [=y]
Prompt: XFS filesystem support
  Depends on: BLOCK
  Location:
    -> File systems
  Selects: EXPORTFS

NTFS

Symbol: NTFS_FS [=y]
Prompt: NTFS file system support
  Depends on: BLOCK
  Location:
    -> File systems
      -> DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems
  Selects: NLS