2.1. Preparing your system

2.1.1. Choosing capabilities

In order to run EVMS, you need to configure the Device Mapper in your kernel either as a module or as a component built directly into the kernel. If you want to use the RAID functions of EVMS, turn on MD and the appropriate RAID personalities in the kernel.

2.1.2. Obtaining the Device Mapper and a kernel source tree

EVMS 2.0 is built on top of the already existing components MD and Device Mapper. If you are using Linux kernel 2.5 or later, the MD and DM components are already available; however, you need to apply some patches for bug fixes because the 2.5 kernel is still stabilizing. If you are using Linux kernel 2.4, you need to patch the DM in from the Sistina website and then apply the bug fixes. The DM patches for the kernel are included in the EVMS package on the EVMS project website. The current EVMS package contains a patch for both the 2.4 and 2.5 kernel series.

	NOTE
	EVMS does not work with Linux kernels 2.3, 2.2, or earlier.

If you do not have a Linux kernel source tree, you can obtain one from The Linux Kernel Archives . The current recommended kernel is 2.4.20, but earlier 2.4 series kernels might work.