USB Flash Memory HOWTO
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# 5. Hardware and kernel

## 5.1. Setup

This is a description of the salient features of the setup used to develop the procedures described below. All the procedures have been tried and tested, also for Linux-2.6. The screen-like displays are precise copies of what appeared on my screen.

- Hardware: Intel (R) Celeron (TM) 1100 MHz
- Distribution: RedHat Linux 7.0 (extensively modified)
- Kernel: Linux-2.4.20 (from www.kernel.org). See also Section 12 for Linux-2.6.x.
- Tools: util-linux-2.11z (mount, umount, fdisk); e2fsprogs-1.32 (mke2fs, dumpe2fs, fsck.ext2); mkdosfs-2.2

## 5.2. Kernel options

It is uncertain if USB-support is sufficient in kernels earlier than 2.4.xx. The following support, relevant to this document, was compiled into the kernel. A modular approach may also be followed.

### 5.2.1. SCSI support

- SCSI support (CONFIG_SCSI scsi_mod.o)
- SCSI disk support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD sd_mod.o)

### 5.2.2. File systems

- DOS FAT fs support (CONFIG_FAT_FS fat.o)
- MSDOS fs support (CONFIG_MSDOS_FS msdos.o)
- VFAT (Windows 95) fs support (CONFIG_VFAT_FS vfat.o)
- /proc filesystem (CONFIG_PROC_FS)
- Second extended fs support (ext2fs) (CONFIG_EXT2_FS ext2.o)

### 5.2.3. USB support

- Support for USB (CONFIG_USB usbcore.o)
- Preliminary USB device filesystem (CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS)
- USB Mass Storage support (CONFIG_USB_STORAGE usb-storage.o)

## 5.3. Notes

In the lists above the entities in uppercase refer to the variable names to be found in the `.config` file in the upper level directory of the kernel source (`/usr/src/linux/`). The entities `xxx.o` refer to the modules created when a modular approach is followed. When there is no reference to a module, the option can only be hard-compiled into the kernel.

Different kernel versions may have different indications of options when, for example, make menuconfig or make xconfig are run. Variables such as CONFIG_USB, which can be gleaned from the various help options, may be a more reliable indication.

Very recent Linux distributions such as RedHat and SuSE probably have the appropriate kernel options compiled in.

Under USB-support, options for a number of digital cameras are available.

Please consult the relevant texts as set out in Section 4 if you consider (re)compiling your kernel.

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