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

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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.

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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