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Annotation of linux/README, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: 
        !             2:  [ NOTE! As of linux-0.97.pl5, the linux kernel include-files have
        !             3:    finally been totally integrated with the normal headers.  That means
        !             4:    no more "-nostdinc -I$(KERNELHDRS)" in the Makefiles etc, but it
        !             5:    also means that you /have/ to have the correct /usr/include/linux
        !             6:    and ../asm symlinks. See "Basic configuration 2" ]
        !             7: 
        !             8:        VERY QUICK AND DIRTY README
        !             9:            by Lars Wirzenius
        !            10: 
        !            11: This is the README for the Linux kernel sources.  It tells a few small
        !            12: things about kernel configuration and other things that can perhaps be
        !            13: useful if you want to compile the kernel from scratch.  It leaves out a
        !            14: lot as well, probably because the person who wrote it doesn't understand
        !            15: very much about operating systems.  Linus did his best to help, but all
        !            16: problems this causes are my fault. 
        !            17: 
        !            18: In order to compile this version of the kernel you need GCC 2.2.2 or
        !            19: newer.  Some makefile targets require special commands which may not be
        !            20: available on all machines (see below).  Normal utilities like ls etc are
        !            21: not explicitly listed, they are assumed to be available on all systems. 
        !            22: 
        !            23: Kernel sources are usually kept in /usr/src/linux.  If you have them
        !            24: elsewhere, you will have to change path names in a few places. 
        !            25: Filenames that aren't absolute are supposed to be relative to the
        !            26: toplevel kernel source directory. 
        !            27: 
        !            28: 
        !            29: * Basic configuration
        !            30: 
        !            31: 1.  Edit Makefile: Check the definitions of macros ROOTDEV, KEYBOARD,
        !            32: MATH_EMULATION, RAMDISK and SVGA_MODE before you run make.  They are
        !            33: explained in the Makefile.  MATH_EMULATION does not hurt much even if
        !            34: you have an FPU (387 or a 486 with a built in FPU), since Linux uses
        !            35: the FPU if it finds one, even with MATH_EMULATION defined.  The kernel
        !            36: will be slightly bigger.  It is probably not worth it to recompile the
        !            37: kernel just to get rid of the emulation.
        !            38: 
        !            39: 2.  Create the symlinks:
        !            40: 
        !            41:        ln -fs /usr/src/linux/include/linux /usr/include/linux 
        !            42:        ln -fs /usr/src/linux/include/asm /usr/include/asm
        !            43: 
        !            44: This is required so that the linux sources will correctly find their
        !            45: header files - it is also used by the normal user-level header files to
        !            46: get some system-specific information.
        !            47: 
        !            48: [ Linus' note2: This is automatically done by the gcc-2.2.2d and newer
        !            49:   installation script, so if you have the new compiler, you should
        !            50:   already have these links ]
        !            51: 
        !            52: * Things you may want to get rid of
        !            53: 
        !            54: 3.  To remove SCSI drivers, do this:
        !            55: 
        !            56:        - remove kernel/blk_drv/scsi/scsi.a from DRIVERS in the Makefile
        !            57:        - remove the commands for the subdirs dependency in
        !            58:          kernel/blk_drv/Makefile
        !            59:        - add "#undef CONFIG_SCSI" to the end of include/linux/config.h
        !            60: 
        !            61: The SCSI drivers take a bit of memory, and also slow the bootup a bit,
        !            62: so you may want to get rid of them if you don't have an SCSI drive.
        !            63: 
        !            64: 4.  The kernel contains code for the extended filesystem (extfs),
        !            65: MS-DOS filesystem (dosfs) and proc-fs (proc), all of which are in
        !            66: testing phases and are not recommended for real use yet.  If you don't
        !            67: want to include these in the kernel, do the following:
        !            68: 
        !            69:        - remove references to these in the FILESYSTEMS macro in the
        !            70:          root Makefile 
        !            71:        - remove directory names from the SUBDIRS macro in fs/Makefile
        !            72:        - remove the corresponding lines in the initialization of
        !            73:          file_systems in fs/super.c.
        !            74: 
        !            75: 5.  The TCP/IP code is in the standard sources as of version 0.98, but
        !            76: it is not compiled into the normal binary. To get TCP/IP working, you
        !            77: have to:
        !            78: 
        !            79:        - edit 'net/Makefile', defining the SUBDIRS and SOCK_FLAGS
        !            80:          variables correctly (currently commented out).  Likewise, you
        !            81:          have to edit the rule for linking net.o in the Makefile (again
        !            82:          removing a '#' to make tcp/tcpip.o active)
        !            83:        - make sure you have the /usr/include/netinet/protocols.h header
        !            84:          file.  If you don't have it, you should be able to find it at
        !            85:          the same place you got the kernel, or with a newer compiler
        !            86:          version.
        !            87:        - remove all object (*.o) files in the net/ subdirectory, making
        !            88:          sure that they are recompiled with the correct Makefile
        !            89:          definitions.
        !            90:        - Additionally, you obviously need the tcp/ip programs to make any
        !            91:          use of the kernel feature.  If you haven't joined the TCP/IP
        !            92:          mailing list, do so. 
        !            93: 
        !            94: 
        !            95: * Running make
        !            96: 
        !            97: [ Linus' note3: if you have problems with make not working correctly,
        !            98:   get a new copy of GNU make. pmake may or may not work due to the
        !            99:   macro inheritation assumptions etc ]
        !           100: 
        !           101: Unless you know what you're doing, don't ever run the makefiles in
        !           102: subdirectories by hand.  There is a bit of interaction between the
        !           103: various makefiles, e.g. in the form of inherited macros and the like.
        !           104: 
        !           105: The following targets all apply for the makefile at the root of the
        !           106: kernel source tree.
        !           107: 
        !           108: "make" or "make all" compiles everything.
        !           109: 
        !           110: "make Image" is like "make all", but it doesn't bump the number in
        !           111: .version, which tells how many times this version has been compiled
        !           112: (helps you differentiate between different configurations etc).
        !           113: 
        !           114: "make disk" is like "make Image", but it additionally writes out a copy
        !           115: of the boot image to a floppy in your first floppy drive (/dev/fd0;
        !           116: change the filename if you want a different floppy).  You need to have
        !           117: a formatted, overwritable floppy in that drive when it is time to do the
        !           118: copy.  This requires dd.
        !           119: 
        !           120: "make dep" updates all dependencies.  This requires sed.  It modifies
        !           121: the makefiles directly (the end of them, starting at the ###Dependencies
        !           122: -line at the end).  "make dep" is required after patching, or the kernel
        !           123: may not compile cleanly. 
        !           124: 
        !           125: "make clean" will remove all object files and other files created by the
        !           126: compilation.  This requires basename.
        !           127: 
        !           128: You may wish to redirect compiler error messages to a file so that you
        !           129: can review them later and to ease problem fixing.  You can do this with
        !           130: Bash with:
        !           131: 
        !           132:        make something 2>&1 | tee make.out
        !           133: 
        !           134: The tee part is so that you can check what is going on while the
        !           135: compilation runs.  If you have GNU emacs and use M-x compile you don't
        !           136: need this, of course.
        !           137: 
        !           138:                Lars Wirzenius

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