Release Notes
Copyright (c) 2003 Red Hat, Inc.
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Overview
The following topics are covered in these release notes:
o Booting Anaconda
o Installation-related notes
o Notes on input methods
o General notes
o Kernel notes
Booting Anaconda
This section describes the process necessary to boot Anaconda, the
installation program.
The first CD-ROM is bootable, and can be used to start the installation
process. If a CD-ROM-based installation is not desired (for example, if
you want to install Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 over a network connection),
a CD-ROM image file containing only those files required to start the
installation process is also available as boot.iso in the images/
directory on the first CD-ROM.
Installation-Related Notes
This section describes issues related to the Fermi Linux LTS Linux
installation program Anaconda.
o The sequence for processing CD-ROMs has changed for Fermi Linux LTS
Linux 3. The first CD-ROM is required when booting the installation
program, and again after subsequent CD-ROMs have been processed.
o The Fermi Linux LTS Linux installation program has the ability to
test the integrity of the installation media. It works with the CD,
hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods. Fermi recommends
that you test all installation media before starting the installation
process, and before reporting any installation-related bugs (many of
the bugs reported are actually due to improperly-burned CDs). To use
this test, type linux mediacheck at the boot: prompt.
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 includes a new kernel known as the hugemem
kernel. This kernel supports a 4GB per process user space (versus 3GB
for the other kernels), and a 4GB direct kernel space. Using this
kernel allows Fermi Linux LTS Linux to run on systems with up to
64GB of main memory. The hugemem kernel is required in order to use
all the memory in system configurations containing more than 16GB of
memory. The hugemem kernel can also benefit configurations running
with less memory (if running an application that could benefit from
the larger per process user space, for example.)
To remind you of this issue, the Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 kernel
displays a message at boot time if your system configuration contains
more than 16GB of memory. After the system has booted, the following
command can be used to see if your system displayed the message:
dmesg | less
NOTE: To provide a 4GB address space for both kernel and user space,
the kernel must maintain two separate virtual memory address mappings.
This introduces overhead when transferring from user to kernel space;
for example, in the case of system calls and interrupts. The impact of
this overhead on overall performance is highly application dependent.
Also note that, because some drivers were not originally written to
work well in large-memory environments, Fermi only supports a
validated subset of drivers when the hugemem kernel is used. Drivers
that have been validated by Fermi for use with the hugemem kernel
are contained in the kernel-hugemem package. Drivers that have not
been validated, but are still provided, are available in the
kernel-hugemem-unsupported RPM. To see the list of drivers in these
RPMs, use the following command:
rpm -qlp <kernel-rpm>
(Where < kernel-rpm> is the complete filename of the appropriate
hugemem RPM. Note that these RPMs can be found on CD-ROM #2, in the
RedHat/RPMS/ directory.)
Should you decide that the hugemem kernel's additional overhead and
the subset of available drivers present no problem for your hardware
configuration and system environment, and you wish to use the hugemem
kernel, you must first install it. To install the hugemem kernel,
enter the following command while logged in as root:
rpm -ivh <kernel-rpm>
(Where <kernel-rpm> is the name of the hugemem kernel RPM file --
kernel-hugemem-2.4.21-3.EL.i686.rpm, for example.)
After the installation is complete, reboot your system, making sure to
select the newly-installed hugemem kernel. After testing your system
for proper operation while running the hugemem kernel, you should
modify the /boot/grub/grub.conf file so that the hugemem kernel is
booted by default.
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 can be installed on the IBM eServer
xSeries(R) 440 and 445. However, the installation process supports
configurations containing no more than one chassis, and no attached
RXE-100 Remote Expansion Enclosures. If your system configuration does
not conform to these requirements, you can remove any additional
chassis and/or RXE-100s, and then perform the installation. Once the
installation is complete, the chassis and/or RXE-100s can then be
re-installed, and will operate normally under Fermi Linux LTS
Linux.
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 now includes support for Logical Volume
Management (LVM). LVM is a means of allocating disk space into one or
more logical volumes, which can then be used to implement
easily-resizable file systems.
o While most present-day computers are able to start the installation
process by booting directly from the first Fermi Linux LTS Linux
distribution CD, some hardware configurations require the use of a
boot diskette. If your hardware requires a boot diskette, you should
be aware of the following change.
Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 uses a different boot diskette layout than
previous releases of Fermi Linux LTS Linux. There is now a single
boot diskette image file (bootdisk.img) that is used to boot all
systems requiring a boot diskette.
If you are performing anything other than an installation from an IDE
or USB device, you will be asked to insert a driver diskette created
from one of the following image files:
. drvnet.img -- For network installations
. drvblock.img -- For SCSI installations
. pcmciadd.img -- For PCMCIA installations
As with previous releases of Fermi Linux LTS Linux, these image
files can be found in the images/ directory on the first installation
CD.
o Text mode installations using a serial terminal work best when the
terminal supports UTF-8. Under UNIX and Linux, Kermit supports UTF-8.
For Windows, Kermit '95 works well. Non-UTF-8 capable terminals will
work as long as only English is used during installation. An enhanced
serial display can be used by passing "utf8" as a boot-time option to
the installation program. For example:
linux console=ttyS0 utf8
o The firewall configuration screen in the Fermi Linux LTS Linux
installation program has been simplified. The previous "High",
"Medium", and "No firewall" settings have been replaced by a more
straightforward on/off-style control. In addition, the default
firewall configuration is now stateful, making it more secure. The new
design also makes it possible for users of NIS authentication, NFS,
and DNS to deploy a firewall with no additional customization required
(although customization by specifying port and protocol is still
possible).
NOTE: This change also applies to the Security Level Configuration
Tool (redhat-config-securitylevel).
o Installation via VNC is now supported. To initiate a VNC-based
installation, pass vnc as a boot-time option. If necessary, a password
can be set by adding "vncpassword=<password>" to the boot-time
options. The VNC display will be "<host>:1", where <host> is the
hostname or IP address of the system installing Fermi Linux LTS
Linux.
It is also possible for the Fermi Linux LTS Linux installation
program to initiate a connection to a listening VNC client. This is
done by using the vncconnect boot-time option:
linux vnc vncconnect=<client>[:<port>]
(Where <client> is the hostname or IP address of the system running
the listening VNC client, and <port> is an optional port specification
that may be specified if the VNC client is not listening on port 5500,
which the default port for this type of connection). The following
examples show the how the boot-time option is specified for standard
and non-standard ports:
linux vnc vncconnect=pigdog.example.com
linux vnc vncconnect=pigdog.example.com:27910
The system that is to run the listening VNC client must then launch
the appropriate software to run the VNC client in its listening mode.
For the VNC client supplied with Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1, the
following command is sufficient:
vncviewer -listen
In addition, a new kickstart directive has been added to support
VNC-based installations:
vnc [--password <password>] [--connect <host>[:<port>]]
(Where --password <password> is an optional parameter for specifying a
VNC password, and [--connect <host>[:<port>]] is an optional parameter
for specifying the host (and optionally, port) of a system running a
listening VNC client.
NOTE: If you specify any of the VNC-related boot-time options, they
will override the corresponding options present in the kickstart file.
o The XFree86 open source vmware video driver is provided as a
convenience to our customers and is not supported in any way by
Fermi . However, any problem reports with the XFree86 open source
vmware video driver received by Fermi will be forwarded to the
appropriate VMware staff, so that they can investigate. Bug fixes that
become available for this driver may be reviewed by Fermi for
potential inclusion in future errata and products as time permits.
Input Methods
This section contains general information related to the use of input
methods.
An input method allows users to enter non-Western characters into common
applications such as word-processing, email and instant messaging. Fermi
Linux LTS comes with input method support for the following
languages:
o Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
o Japanese
o Korean
The following entries describe the use of input methods for each of these
languages.
o Simplified Chinese
To enter Simplified Chinese characters, you use the miniChinput input
method. To activate the input method, press Ctrl-Space.
The miniChinput input method supports the following modules:
. intelligent pinyin input
. gbk pinyin input
. shuang pin input
. internal code (gb18030 code) input
The miniChinput package is installed by default if Simplified Chinese
language support is selected during installation.
o Traditional Chinese
To enter Traditional Chinese characters, you use the xcin input
method. To activate the input method, press Ctrl-Space. Pressing
Shift-Ctrl or Ctrl-Alt-Num allows you to change between input modules.
The xcin input method supports the following modules:
. CJ
. Simplex
. Phone
. CantonPing
. Bimsphone
. Bimspinyin
. Array30
. Cantonping (no intonation)
The xcin package is installed by default if Traditional Chinese
language support is selected during installation.
o Japanese
To enter Japanese characters, you use the Canna, FreeWnn or skk input
methods. To activate the input method, press Shift-Space.
The following modules are supported:
. romaji
. kana (only Canna -- depends on the configuration file)
The Canna, FreeWnn, and skkinput packages are installed by default if
Japanese language support is selected during installation.
o Korean
To enter Korean characters, you use the ami input method. To activate
the input method, press Shift-Space.
The ami package is installed by default if Korean language support is
selected during installation.
General Notes
This section contains general notes relating to post-installation issues.
o The Apache HTTP server has been updated to version 2.0. The updated
package replaces version 1.3 and has been renamed to httpd.
. The auth_ldap, mod_put, mod_roaming, mod_auth_any, mod_bandwidth,
mod_throttle, and mod_dav modules have been removed.
. WebDAV functionality is now included with the httpd package.
NOTE: Some changes to existing configuration files are needed.
Third-party Apache modules may also require updating. Refer to the
migration guide at /usr/share/doc/httpd-*/migration.html for more
details.
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 supports booting over the network using the
PXE (Pre-Boot Execution Environment) protocol. As in previous releases
it is possible to configure Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 as an
installation server, which makes kernels and image files available for
the purpose of starting network installations.
Also available in Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 is support for diskless
environments. A diskless server (similar to an installation server)
makes kernels and image files available to diskless client systems.
After booting, the diskless client systems mount a root file system
via NFS, eliminating the need for locally-attached storage.
The Network Booting Tool (redhat-config-netboot) is a graphical
configuration tool allows you to configure both environments.
o The LPRng print spooler has been replaced by CUPS, and the Printer
Configuration Tool (redhat-config-printer) is the recommended tool for
configuring it. It may be launched from the System Settings menu,
using the Printing menu entry.
o The Security Level Configuration Tool (redhat-config-securitylevel)
has been simplified. The previous "High", "Medium", and "No firewall"
settings have been replaced by a more straightforward on/off-style
control. In addition, the default firewall configuration is now
stateful, making it more secure. The new design also makes it possible
for users of NIS authentication, NFS, and DNS to deploy a firewall
with no additional customization required (although customization by
specifying port and protocol is still possible).
NOTE: This change also applies to the Fermi Linux LTS Linux
installation program.
o GNOME Print Manager, a simple graphical print queue management tool,
is now included. It may be launched from the System Tools menu, using
the Print Manager menu entry. In addition, when a print job is in the
queue, an icon will appear in the panel's system notification area.
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 includes the setarch utility. Setarch makes
it possible to change the output produced by the uname command. This
is useful for a number of reasons, such as running 32-bit applications
(those written to expect a particular value from uname -m) in 64-bit
environments.
The format for the setarch command is:
setarch <arch> <command>
(Where <arch> represents the desired architecture string (such as
i386), and <command> represents the command to be run while the
architecture has been modified.) Note that <command> can be omitted,
in which case /bin/sh is run.
In addition, some applications (such as older versions of Java) are
written to assume a 3GB virtual address space; when run on systems
with larger virtual address spaces (such as 64-bit AMD64-based
systems, or 32-bit systems running the hugemem kernel) such
applications can malfunction. The setarch utility makes it possible to
emulate a 3GB virtual address space, allowing such applications to run
properly:
setarch -3 java
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 includes the Native POSIX Thread Library
(NPTL), a new implementation of POSIX threads for Linux. This library
provides performance improvements and increased scalability.
This thread library is designed to be binary compatible with the old
LinuxThreads implementation; however, applications that rely on the
places where the LinuxThreads implementation deviates from the POSIX
standard will need to be fixed. Notable differences include:
. Signal handling has changed from per-thread signal handling to POSIX
process signal handling.
. getpid() returns the same value in all threads.
. Thread handlers registered with pthread_atfork are not run if
vfork() is used.
. No manager thread.
Applications that are known to have problems using NPTL include:
- Sun JRE prior to version 1.4.1
- IBM JRE
If an application does not work properly with NPTL, it can be run
using the old LinuxThreads implementation by setting the following
environment variable:
LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=<kernel-version>
The following versions are available:
. 2.4.19 -- Linuxthreads with floating stacks
. 2.2.5 -- Linuxthreads without floating stacks
Note that software using errno, h_errno, and _res must #include the
appropriate header file (errno.h, netdb.h, and resolv.h respectively)
before they are used. However, LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19 can be used as
a workaround until the software can be fixed.
o Multi-threaded C++ programs using thread cancellation might need to be
forced to use the LinuxThreads library using the
LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19 environment variable setting. Otherwise, the
program will terminate abnormally if the cancellation is acted on
(since the generated exception is not caught).
Newly-written C++ code that uses functions from the C runtime
environment might have to be adjusted to take the cancellation into
account. This can be done by one of the following methods:
. Not marking the C++ function with throw() (so that callers are aware
that an exception might be thrown) and by compiling the code with
exceptions. This is the default compilation option; users should not
specify -fno-exceptions when compiling.
. Disabling cancellation completely before entering the functions that
call the cancel-able C runtime functions. This can be done with the
following call:
pthread_setcancelstate (PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE, &oldstate)
After the C functions are called cancellation can be enabled again
with the following call:
pthread_setcancelstate (oldstate, NULL)
NOTE: At this point the cancellations are acted upon and therefore the
function calling pthread_setcancelstate() must be compiled with
exceptions enabled and must be marked as throwing exceptions.
o A new system message has been added to Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1:
application bug: <app-name>(<app-pid>) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but
calls wait(). (see the NOTES section of 'man 2 wait'). Workaround
activated.
This message (which is displayed on the system console and/or in the
system log files) indicates that the application is not completely
standards compliant with respect to its handling of child processes.
If you notice this message, you should alert the application's
developers.
o Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 includes the capability of producing
Position Independent Executables (PIE) for C, C++, and Java. This
feature is enabled with the -fpie and -fPIE GCC options to compile,
which are similar in usage to the -fpic and -fPIC options,
respectively, and at link time with the -pie option.
o The fileutils, textutils, sh-utils, and stat packages have been
replaced by the newer coreutils package.
o The RPMs containing the Network Administration Tool
(redhat-config-network) have changed names and functions. The
redhat-config-network RPM contains the tool's graphical user
interface, while redhat-config-network-tui contains the tool itself
(along with its text-based user interface).
o Support for XHTML1 -- the reformulation of HTML in XML -- has been
improved. This has been done by adding the xhtml1-dtd package,
installing the DTDs in the system catalog, and adding native support
in the libxml2 and xsltproc tools.
o The XML toolkit have been extended to support Relax-NG validation, and
streaming of large files.
o The OProfile system-wide profiler has been added to Fermi Linux LTS
Linux 3. OProfile is a programmer's tool for analyzing system
performance, using special hardware built into many modern computers.
Documentation for OProfile exists in the oprofile package; after
installing Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1, issue the command rpm -qd
oprofile to obtain a listing of the available documentation. Visit the
OProfile website at http://oprofile.sourceforge.net for more details.
NOTE: The kernel support for OProfile in Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 is
based on the backported code from the 2.5 development kernel.
Therefore, if you refer to the OProfile documentation, keep in mind
that features listed as being 2.5-specific actually apply to the Fermi
Linux LTS kernel, even though the kernel version is 2.4.
Likewise, this means that features listed as being specific to the 2.4
kernel do not apply to the Fermi Linux LTS Linux kernel.
o At the present time, the X Window System makes use of two font
subsystems, each with different characteristics:
. The original (15+ year old) subsystem is referred to as the "core X
font subsystem". Fonts rendered by this subsystem are not
anti-aliased, are handled by the X server, and have names like:
-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1
The newer font subsystem is known as "fontconfig", and allows
applications direct access to the font files. Fontconfig is often used
along with the "Xft" library, which allows applications to render
fontconfig fonts to the screen with antialiasing. Fontconfig uses more
human-friendly names like:
Luxi Sans-10
Over time, fontconfig/Xft will replace the core X font subsystem. At
the present time, applications using the Qt 3 or GTK 2 toolkits (which
would include KDE and GNOME applications) use the fontconfig and Xft
font subsystem; most everything else uses the core X fonts.
In the future, Fermi may support only fontconfig/Xft in place of the
XFS font server as the default local font access method.
NOTE: One exception to the font subsystem usage outlined above is
OpenOffice.org, which uses its own font rendering technology.
If you wish to add new fonts to your Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1
system, you must be aware that the steps necessary depend on which
font subsystem is to use the new fonts. For the core X font subsystem,
you must:
1. Create the /usr/share/fonts/local/ directory (if it does not
already exist):
mkdir /usr/share/fonts/local/
2. Copy the new font file into /usr/share/fonts/local/
3. Update the font information by issuing the following commands (note
that, due to formatting restrictions, the following commands may
appear on more than one line; in use, each commands should be entered
on a single line):
ttmkfdir -d /usr/share/fonts/local/ -o
/usr/share/fonts/local/fonts.scale
mkfontdir /usr/share/fonts/local/
4. If you had to create /usr/share/fonts/local/, you must then add it
to the X font server (xfs) path:
chkfontpath --add /usr/share/fonts/local/
Adding new fonts to the fontconfig font subsystem is more
straightforward; the new font file only needs to be copied into the
/usr/share/fonts/ directory (individual users can modify their
personal font configuration by copying the font file into the
~/.fonts/ directory).
After the new font has been copied, use fc-cache to update the font
information cache:
fc-cache <directory>
(Where <directory> would be either the /usr/share/fonts/ or ~/.fonts/
directories.)
Individual users may also install fonts graphically, by browsing
fonts:/// in Nautilus, and dragging the new font files there.
NOTE: If the font filename ends with ".gz", it has been compressed
with gzip, and must be decompressed (with the gunzip command) before
the fontconfig font subsystem can use the font.
o Due to the transition to the new font system based on fontconfig/Xft,
GTK+ 1.2 applications are not affected by any changes made via the
Font Preferences dialog. For these applications, a font can be
configured by adding the following lines to the file ~/.gtkrc.mine:
style "user-font" {
fontset = "<font-specification>"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"
(Where <font-specification> represents a font specification in the
style used by traditional X applications, such as
"-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".)
o By default, the Sendmail mail transport agent (MTA) does not accept
network connections from any host other than the local computer. If
you want to configure Sendmail as a server for other clients, you must
edit /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and change the DAEMON_OPTIONS line to also
listen on network devices (or comment out this option entirely using
the dnl comment delimiter). You must then regenerate
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf by running the following command (as root):
make -C /etc/mail
Note that you must have the sendmail-cf package installed for this to
work.
o The default FTP server in Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 is now vsftpd,
and runs as a SysV service.
o Change to fdisk's interpretation of partition size multipliers
The fdisk command now has a different interpretation of the size
multipliers that may be used when creating new disk partitions. The
size suffixes K, M, and G now refer to multiples of thousands,
millions, and billions of bytes, respectively. This is more consistent
with the disk size specifications provided by disk drive
manufacturers.
Therefore, if a user wants to create a 512MB partition, the size value
specified with an "M" suffix would be 512*1024*1024 (536,870,912),
rounded up to a multiple of a million (537,000,000), and then divided
by a million (537), resulting in a size specification of +537M.
o While compatibility for executables and dynamic shared objects (DSOs,
also known as shared libraries) created on earlier Red Hat Linux and
RedHat Enterprise Linux is supported, the same does not apply to
object (.o) files. Object files created on earlier versions can be
used on Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 to create new executables or DSOs
only if they were built without including any system header files.
Otherwise, the only way to use these files is to link the object files
to the compatibility version of glibc (part of the compat-glibc
package). Any newly-generated object file must use the headers from
the compatibility package. For example, to compile object files, add
the following to the beginning of the compiler command line:
-I/usr/lib/i386-redhat-linux7/include
To link the resulting executable or DSO add the following to the
command line:
-L/usr/lib/i386-redhat-linux7/lib
Any mixture of old object files and those compiled against the current
system headers can have negative results. Linking old object files
with the regular system libraries may result in completely unusable
executables or executables with subtle bugs (such as memory
corruption).
Kernel Notes
This section contains notes relating to the Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1
kernel.
o The Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 kernel makes use of a new kernel
packaging technique. Due to the almost limitless variety of available
hardware, it is not possible for Fermi to fully support all hardware
components. Therefore, while kernel modules for fully-supported
hardware remain in the standard kernel packages, a series of new
unsupported kernel packages are included with Fermi Linux LTS
3.0.1.
For each kernel package shipped there is a corresponding unsupported
kernel package. For example, the unsupported kernel package for
kernel-smp-2.4.21-3.EL.i686.rpm is
kernel-smp-unsupported-2.4.21-3.EL.i686.rpm.
NOTE: The unsupported kernel packages are not installed by the Fermi
Linux LTS installation program; therefore, in order to use
unsupported kernel modules, you must manually install the unsupported
kernel package corresponding to the kernel your system uses.
After installing the appropriate unsupported kernel package, you must
use the following command to update the module dependency tree and
your initrd:
/sbin/new-kernel-pkg --mkinitrd --depmod --install <kernel-version>
(Where <kernel-version> represents the version of the installed
kernel.)
Drivers contained within the unsupported kernel packages are provided
on a best-effort basis. This means that updates and upstream fixes may
or may not be incorporated over time, and are not covered by the same
support expectations as the fully supported drivers.
o The Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 kernel includes more accurate process
timing functionality. This new process timing mode uses timestamps to
provide more accurate timing of idle and process times. When enabled,
this information is available via the usual monitoring tools (such as
top, vmstat, and procinfo), and the getrusage system call.
To enable timestamp-based process timing, you must boot your system
using the following boot-time option:
process_timing=<value>
Where <value> can be one or more of the following, with multiple
values separated by commas:
. irq -- Use timestamps to account for IRQ interrupts
. softirq -- Use timestamps to account for softirq time in the kernel
. process -- Allow processes to enable timestamp-based process timing
on themselves (It is then disabled for all processes by default)
. all_process -- Force timestamp-based process timing on all processes
(including the idle tasks)
. everything -- Same as specifying irq,softirq,all_process
If the system is booted with the process option, no processes
initially have timestamp-based process timing enabled by default.
However, processes can use the prctl() system call to both determine
and modify their process timing mode. The system call to determine the
process timing mode is:
mode = prctl(PR_GET_TIMING, 0, 0, 0, 0);
The system call to set the process timing mode is:
status = prctl(PR_SET_TIMING, <mode>, 0, 0, 0)
(Where <mode> is PR_TIMING_STATISTICAL for enabling the traditional
process timing mode, or PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP for enabling
timestamp-based process timing mode .) Note that enabling one process
timing mode automatically disables the other.
NOTE: The prctl() system call can only be used on systems booted with
the process value. Otherwise, the system call will return -EINVAL.
This includes attempts to disable timestamp-based process timing on
systems booted with the all_process option.
A child process's timing mode is inherited from its parent; however,
the child can use the prctl() system call to modify its own process
timing mode (subject to the conditions outlined in the previous note).
o The BusLogic driver (for certain Mylex SCSI host bus adapters) is
provided in the standard kernel packages, but it is only supported
when the kernel is a guest operating system within VMWare(TM) virtual
machine software. This is because VMWare presents an emulated SCSI
adapter to the BusLogic driver, and this environment has been
thoroughly tested and supported by VMWare, Inc. The BusLogic driver is
not supported on physical SCSI host adapters because this driver has
not been maintained in the official Linux kernel for several years,
and has not received extensive testing in the Fermi Linux LTS Linux
kernel.
o The qla1280 driver (for the Qlogic ISP1x80/1x160 SCSI adapters) has
not been maintained in the official Linux kernel for many years. As a
result, although this driver works correctly with the Intel x86
architecture, it does not work correctly with other architectures.
Therefore, Fermi only supports the qla1280 driver on Intel x86
platforms.
o Systems based on the Intel I865/I875 chipsets and utilizing these
chipsets' ICH5 integrated AC97 audio functionality may experience a
failure to produce any sound when running Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1.
The ICH5 integrated AC97 audio subsystem can be identified by
reviewing the output from the following command:
/sbin/lspci -n
The PCI vendor:device code for the ICH5 AC97 audio is 8086:24d5.
o Systems based on the Intel I865/I875 chipsets and utilizing these
chipsets' ICH5 Serial ATA (SATA) functionality should configure the
BIOS settings for their SATA devices to "enhanced" or "native" mode.
"Legacy" or "combined" mode SATA is supported, but discouraged.
NOTE: Not all BIOS implementations offer the ability to change these
settings.
o New kernel support has been added to provide IPv6 capabilities. This
support is consistent with the upstream 2.6-based implementation as of
2.6.0-test3.
Note that Fermi will not be implementing additional IPv6 features
(such as any of the draft standards for Mobile IP) for this release of
Fermi Linux LTS Linux; our goal is to focus exclusively on bugs in
existing features.
o EA (Extended Attributes) and ACL (Access Control Lists) functionality
is now available for ext3 file systems. In addition, ACL functionality
is available for NFS.
Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 contains a kernel providing EA and ACL
support for the ext3 file system. Protocol extensions were also added
to NFS to support ACL-related operations for NFS-exported file
systems.
To enable ACLs on a locally-mounted file system, the file system must
be mounted with the -o acl mount option. By default, the NFS server
makes use of ACLs if the underlying file system supports them. To
disable this feature, you must specify the no_acl export option.
EAs are used intrinsically for ACL support. To use EAs separately, the
file system must be mounted with the -o user_xattr mount option.
The support for this comes in several packages:
. kernel -- Provides support for storing EAs and ACLs on disk for ext3
file systems, as well the system calls to manipulate EAs and ACLs.
Finally, the kernel package provides the mechanisms to enforce ACLs on
file access.
. e2fsprogs -- Includes knowledge of the new on-disk extended
attribute formats so that fsck can check file systems using the new
feature.
. attr, libattr -- Provides access to extended attributes attached to
files.
. acl, libacl -- Provides tools to set, modify, and query the ACLs set
on files.
. libattr-devel, libacl-devel -- Libraries and include files to build
programs using the acl and attr libraries.
. star -- An archiving tool which can create and unpack both tar and
pax format archives, and which can backup and restore EAs and ACLs.
NOTE: The options available for star are not completely equivalent
with those available for tar; therefore, make sure you review the star
man page.
. samba -- Samba can export ACL functionality in this release. Refer
to the samba documentation for information on how to enable this in
your configuration.
In addition, the coreutils package has been updated so that the cp and
mv commands copy the ACLs and EAs associated with a file.
For more information on setting and reading ACLs, refer to the setfacl
and getfacl man pages. General information about ACLs can be found in
the acl man page.
NOTE: The normal tar and dump commands will not backup ACLs and EAs.
Compatibility with older systems:
Any ext3 file system that has not had any ACLs or EAs set on it will
work unchanged on older kernels, and can be checked using older
e2fsprogs utilities.
Once an EA or an ACL has been set on any file on a given file system,
that file system will acquire the ext_attr attribute. This attribute
can be observed by using the following command:
tune2fs -l <filesystemdevice>
A file system that has acquired the ext_attr attribute can be mounted
with older kernels, but obviously those kernels are incapable of
enforcing any ACLs that have been set.
NOTE: Older versions of the file system checking program e2fsck refuse
to check any file system with the ext_attr attribute. This corresponds
to versions of the e2fsprogs package prior to 1.22.
o The Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 kernel now includes support for NFS
over TCP. To use NFS over TCP, you must include the "-o tcp" option to
mount when mounting the NFS-exported file system on the client system.
NOTE: The default transport protocol for NFS remains UDP. Use the
mount command with the "-o tcp" option to mount an NFS-exported file
system using TCP; otherwise, UDP will be used by default.
o In this kernel, the following command has been added to scan for new
devices on all attached SCSI host adapters:
echo "scsi scan-new-devices" > /proc/scsi/scsi
This is currently a non-standard addition. In future kernels a
different parameter may be used to provide the same capability, or the
semantics of the same parameter (scan-new-devices) may change, as
Fermi tracks the official Linux kernel in this area.
o Change in permission semantics for user-mode memory locking
Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1 now allows non-root processes to use
user-mode memory locking system calls within the bounds of their
RLIMIT_MEMLOCK resource limit. The default limit is one physical page
per process. Limits can be reassigned by the system administrator on a
per user-id, per group-id, or system-wide basis via the
/etc/security/limits.conf file. Root processes are no longer
constrained by this resource limit.
The system calls affected by this change in semantics are mlock(2),
munlock(2), mlockall(2), munlockall(2), and shmctl(2).
( x86 )