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3773b454 | 1 | Linux kernel release 3.x <http://kernel.org/> |
1da177e4 | 2 | |
0466dcbe | 3 | These are the release notes for Linux version 3. Read them carefully, |
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4 | as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the |
5 | kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong. | |
6 | ||
7 | WHAT IS LINUX? | |
8 | ||
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9 | Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by |
10 | Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across | |
11 | the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance. | |
1da177e4 | 12 | |
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13 | It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, |
14 | including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand | |
15 | loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, | |
16 | and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6. | |
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17 | |
18 | It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the | |
19 | accompanying COPYING file for more details. | |
20 | ||
21 | ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN? | |
22 | ||
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23 | Although originally developed first for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher), |
24 | today Linux also runs on (at least) the Compaq Alpha AXP, Sun SPARC and | |
620034c8 | 25 | UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, Cell, |
4f4e2dc3 | 26 | IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64, AXIS CRIS, |
cddb5de0 | 27 | Xtensa, Tilera TILE, AVR32 and Renesas M32R architectures. |
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28 | |
29 | Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures | |
30 | as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the | |
31 | GNU C compiler (gcc) (part of The GNU Compiler Collection, GCC). Linux has | |
32 | also been ported to a number of architectures without a PMMU, although | |
33 | functionality is then obviously somewhat limited. | |
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34 | Linux has also been ported to itself. You can now run the kernel as a |
35 | userspace application - this is called UserMode Linux (UML). | |
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36 | |
37 | DOCUMENTATION: | |
38 | ||
39 | - There is a lot of documentation available both in electronic form on | |
40 | the Internet and in books, both Linux-specific and pertaining to | |
41 | general UNIX questions. I'd recommend looking into the documentation | |
42 | subdirectories on any Linux FTP site for the LDP (Linux Documentation | |
43 | Project) books. This README is not meant to be documentation on the | |
44 | system: there are much better sources available. | |
45 | ||
46 | - There are various README files in the Documentation/ subdirectory: | |
47 | these typically contain kernel-specific installation notes for some | |
48 | drivers for example. See Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what | |
49 | is contained in each file. Please read the Changes file, as it | |
50 | contains information about the problems, which may result by upgrading | |
51 | your kernel. | |
52 | ||
53 | - The Documentation/DocBook/ subdirectory contains several guides for | |
54 | kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a | |
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55 | number of formats: PostScript (.ps), PDF, HTML, & man-pages, among others. |
56 | After installation, "make psdocs", "make pdfdocs", "make htmldocs", | |
57 | or "make mandocs" will render the documentation in the requested format. | |
1da177e4 | 58 | |
2af238e4 | 59 | INSTALLING the kernel source: |
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60 | |
61 | - If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a | |
62 | directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and | |
63 | unpack it: | |
64 | ||
3773b454 | 65 | gzip -cd linux-3.X.tar.gz | tar xvf - |
1da177e4 | 66 | |
b39f72fe | 67 | or |
b39f72fe | 68 | |
3773b454 | 69 | bzip2 -dc linux-3.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvf - |
b39f72fe | 70 | |
5b4285fb | 71 | Replace "X" with the version number of the latest kernel. |
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72 | |
73 | Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually | |
74 | incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header | |
75 | files. They should match the library, and not get messed up by | |
76 | whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be. | |
77 | ||
0466dcbe | 78 | - You can also upgrade between 3.x releases by patching. Patches are |