Kernel Configuration

From BLFS

Use Linux Control Group to Limit the Resource Usage

Include Firmware Blobs in the Kernel Image

cryptsetup-2.7.0

cryptsetup is used to set up transparent encryption of block devices using the kernel crypto API.

iptables-1.8.10

iptables is a userspace command line program used to configure the Linux 2.4 and later kernel packet filtering ruleset.

btrfs-progs-6.7.1

The btrfs-progs package contains administration and debugging tools for the B-tree file system (btrfs).

dosfstools-4.2

The dosfstools package contains various utilities for use with the FAT family of file systems.

Fuse-3.16.2

FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) is a simple interface for userspace programs to export a virtual filesystem to the Linux kernel. Fuse also aims to provide a secure method for non privileged users to create and mount their own filesystem implementations.

jfsutils-1.1.15

The jfsutils package contains administration and debugging tools for the jfs file system.

LVM2-2.03.23

The LVM2 package is a set of tools that manage logical partitions. It allows spanning of file systems across multiple physical disks and disk partitions and provides for dynamic growing or shrinking of logical partitions, mirroring and low storage footprint snapshots.

mdadm-4.2

The mdadm package contains administration tools for software RAID.

NTFS3 (ntfs-3g-2022.10.3)

Kernel NTFS3
ntfs-3g
The Ntfs-3g package contains a stable, read-write open source driver for NTFS partitions. NTFS partitions are used by most Microsoft operating systems. Ntfs-3g allows you to mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode from your Linux system. It uses the FUSE kernel module to be able to implement NTFS support in userspace. The package also contains various utilities useful for manipulating NTFS partitions.

parted-3.6

The Parted package is a disk partitioning and partition resizing tool.

xfsprogs-6.6.0

The xfsprogs package contains administration and debugging tools for the XFS file system.

Using GRUB to Set Up the Boot Process with UEFI

Turn Off Secure Boot

BLFS does not have the essential packages to support Secure Boot. To set up the boot process with GRUB and UEFI in BLFS, Secure Boot must be turned off from the configuration interface of the firmware. Read the documentation provided by the manufacturer of your system to find out how.

qemu-8.2.1

qemu is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

keyutils-1.6.3

Keyutils is a set of utilities for managing the key retention facility in the kernel, which can be used by filesystems, block devices and more to gain and retain the authorization and encryption keys required to perform secure operations.

libusb-1.0.27

The libusb package contains a library used by some applications for USB device access.

lsof-4.99.0

The lsof package is useful to LiSt Open Files for a given running application or process.

autofs-5.1.9

Autofs controls the operation of the automount daemons. The automount daemons automatically mount filesystems when they are accessed and unmount them after a period of inactivity. This is done based on a set of pre-configured maps.

BlueZ-5.72

The BlueZ package contains the Bluetooth protocol stack for Linux.

Bubblewrap-0.8.0

Bubblewrap is a setuid implementation of user namespaces, or sandboxing, that provides access to a subset of kernel user namespace features. Bubblewrap allows user owned processes to run in an isolated environment with limited access to the underlying filesystem.

GPM-1.20.7

The GPM (General Purpose Mouse daemon) package contains a mouse server for the console and xterm. It not only provides cut and paste support generally, but its library component is used by various software such as Links to provide mouse support to the application. It is useful on desktops, especially if following (Beyond) Linux From Scratch instructions; it's often much easier (and less error prone) to cut and paste between two console windows than to type everything by hand!

Lm-sensors-3-6-0

The lm_sensors package provides userspace support for the hardware monitoring drivers in the Linux kernel. This is useful for monitoring the temperature of the CPU and adjusting the performance of some hardware (such as cooling fans).

pm-utils-1.4.1

The Power Management Utilities provide simple shell command line tools to suspend and hibernate the computer. They can be used to run user supplied scripts on suspend and resume.

Power-profiles-daemon-0.20

The Power-profiles-daemon package provides a program that allows modification of the system power/behavior state. This is used on many laptops and can be used by a Desktop Environment to activate power saving or performance CPU governors through dbus.

UPower-1.90.2

The UPower package provides an interface for enumerating power devices, listening to device events and querying history and statistics. Any application or service on the system can access the org.freedesktop.UPower service via the system message bus.

Network Bridge

cifs-utils-7.0

The cifs-utils package provides a means for mounting SMB/CIFS shares on a Linux system.

NFS-Utils-2.6.4

The NFS Utilities package contains the userspace server and client tools necessary to use the kernel's NFS abilities. NFS is a protocol that allows sharing file systems over the network.

Configuring the Linux Kernel for Wireless

Before using any userspace tools for connecting to a wireless AP, the Linux kernel must be configured to drive the wireless NIC properly.

Wireless Tools-29

The Wireless Extension (WE) is a generic API in the Linux kernel allowing a driver to expose configuration and statistics specific to common Wireless LANs to userspace. A single set of tools can support all the variations of Wireless LANs, regardless of their type, as long as the driver supports Wireless Extensions. WE parameters may also be changed on the fly without restarting the driver (or Linux).

NetworkManager-1.44.2

NetworkManager is a set of co-operative tools that make networking simple and straightforward. Whether you use WiFi, wired, 3G, or Bluetooth, NetworkManager allows you to quickly move from one network to another: Once a network has been configured and joined once, it can be detected and re-joined automatically the next time it's available.

Wireshark-4.2.3

The Wireshark package contains a network protocol analyzer, also known as a “sniffer”. This is useful for analyzing data captured “off the wire” from a live network connection, or data read from a capture file.

Wireshark provides both a graphical and a TTY-mode front-end for examining captured network packets from over 500 protocols, as well as the capability to read capture files from many other popular network analyzers.

libnl-3.9.0

The libnl suite is a collection of libraries providing APIs to netlink protocol based Linux kernel interfaces.

Kea 2.4.1 DHCP Server

The ISC Kea package contains the server programs for DHCP. It is the successor of the old ISC DHCP server which is end-of-life since December 2022.

Mesa-24.0.1

Mesa is an OpenGL compatible 3D graphics library.

Xorg-Server-21.1.11

The Xorg Server is the core of the X Window system.

Xorg Input Drivers

The Xorg Input Drivers page contains the instructions for building Xorg input drivers that are necessary in order for Xorg Server to respond user inputs.

QtWebEngine-5.15.17

QtWebEngine integrates chromium's web capabilities into Qt. It ships with its own copy of ninja which it uses for the build if it cannot find a system copy, and various copies of libraries from ffmpeg, icu, libvpx, and zlib (including libminizip) which have been forked by the chromium developers.

Rox-Filer-2.11

rox-filer is a fast, lightweight, gtk2 file manager.

alsa-lib-1.2.11

The ALSA Library package contains the ALSA library used by programs (including ALSA Utilities) requiring access to the ALSA sound interface.

intel-media-23.4.3

The intel-media package provides a VA API driver for Intel GPUs that are provided with Broadwell CPUs and higher. This includes support for a variety of codecs.

intel-vaapi-driver-2.4.1

The intel-vaapi-driver package contains a VA API driver for Intel GPUs that are provided with Haswell CPUs and earlier.

Cups-2.4.7

The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is a print spooler and associated utilities. It is based on the “Internet Printing Protocol” and provides printing services to most PostScript and raster printers.

Gutenprint-5.3.4

The Gutenprint (formerly Gimp-Print) package contains high quality drivers for many brands and models of printers for use with Cups-2.4.7 and the GIMP-2.0. See a list of supported printers at https://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php.