Linux (the kernel)

Official Download Location

Linux (2.4.20):
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/

Contents of Linux

Last checked against version 2.4.18.

The Linux kernel is at the core of every Linux system. It's what makes Linux tick. When a computer is turned on and boots a Linux system, the very first piece of Linux software that gets loaded is the kernel. The kernel initializes the system's hardware components: serial ports, parallel ports, sound cards, network cards, IDE controllers, SCSI controllers and a lot more. In a nutshell the kernel makes the hardware available so that the software can run.

Linux installs the following files:

Program Files

kernel and kernel headers

 

Descriptions

Last checked against version 2.4.18.

Program file descriptions

linux kernel

The Linux kernel is at the core of every Linux system. It's what makes Linux tick. When a computer is turned on and boots a Linux system, the very first piece of Linux software that gets loaded is the kernel. The kernel initializes the system's hardware components: serial ports, parallel ports, sound cards, network cards, IDE controllers, SCSI controllers and a lot more. In a nutshell the kernel makes the hardware available so that the software can run.

linux kernel headers

These are the files we copy to /usr/include/{linux,asm} in Chapter 6. They should match those which glibc was compiled against and therefore should not be replaced when upgrading the kernel. They are essential for compiling many programs.

 

Linux Installation Dependencies

Last checked against version 2.4.17.

Bash: sh
Binutils: ar, as, ld, nm, objcopy
Fileutils: cp, ln, mkdir, mv, rm, touch
Findutils: find, xargs
Gcc: cc1, collect2, cpp0, gcc
Grep: grep
Gzip: gzip
Make: make
Gawk: awk
Modutils: depmod, genksyms
Net-tools: dnsdomainname, hostname
Sed: sed
Sh-utils: basename, date, expr, pwd, stty, uname, whoami, yes
Textutils: cat, md5sum, sort, tail