LX0-103 · Question #144
You are running Linux 2.0.36 and you need to add a USB mouse to your system. Which of the following statements is true?
The correct answer is B. You need to upgrade the kernel. Linux kernel 2.0.x was released before USB support existed in the kernel; USB was not introduced until the 2.2.x and 2.4.x series, requiring a kernel upgrade.
Question
You are running Linux 2.0.36 and you need to add a USB mouse to your system. Which of the following statements is true?
Options
- AYou need to rebuild the kernel.
- BYou need to upgrade the kernel
- CYou need to load the USB modules for your existing modular kernel.
- DUSB support is not available in Linux.
How the community answered
(25 responses)- A4% (1)
- B92% (23)
- C4% (1)
Why each option
Linux kernel 2.0.x was released before USB support existed in the kernel; USB was not introduced until the 2.2.x and 2.4.x series, requiring a kernel upgrade.
Rebuilding the existing 2.0.36 kernel from source would not add USB support because the USB subsystem source code was never included in the 2.0.x kernel tree.
Linux 2.0.36 dates from 1998 and its source tree contains no USB subsystem code. USB support was introduced experimentally in the 2.2.x kernel series and stabilized in 2.4.x. Because the USB driver infrastructure is entirely absent from 2.0.36, neither loading modules nor rebuilding the existing kernel will add USB support - the user must upgrade to a kernel version that includes the USB subsystem.
USB kernel modules cannot be loaded for Linux 2.0.36 because no USB module code exists anywhere in that kernel version's codebase.
USB support is available in Linux - it was introduced in the 2.2.x kernel series and is not missing from Linux as a whole, only from the 2.0.x release branch.
Concept tested: Linux kernel version USB support history
Source: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/usb/index.html
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