Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 Release Notes
Copyright © 2007 Red Hat, Inc. and others. This material may be distributed
only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication
License, v1.0, available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.
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Introduction
The following topics are covered in this document:
* Installation-Related Notes
* General Information
* Technology Previews
* Kernel Notes
* Changes to Drivers and Hardware Support
Some updates on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 may not appear in this
version of the Release Notes. An updated version of the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4 Update 5 Release Notes may also be available at the following URL:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/
Installation-Related Notes
The following section includes information specific to installation of Red
Hat Enterprise Linux and the Anaconda installation program.
Note
In order to upgrade an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 installation to
Update 5, you must use Red Hat Network to update those packages that have
changed.
You may use Anaconda to perform a fresh installation of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4 Update 5 or to perform an upgrade from the latest updated version of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
* If you are copying the contents of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update
5 CD-ROMs (in preparation for a network-based installation, for example)
be sure you copy the CD-ROMs for the operating system only. Do not copy
the Supplementary CD-ROM, or any of the layered product CD-ROMs, as this
will overwrite files necessary for Anaconda's proper operation.
These CD-ROMs must be installed after Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been
installed.
* If you installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 through a serial
console, the login prompt may not appear. To work around this, open
/etc/yaboot.conf and locate the following line:
append="console=tty0 console=ttyS4 rhgb quiet"
Edit this line by switching the order of console=tty0 and console=ttyS4
such that the line now reads as follows:
append="console=ttyS4 console=tty0 rhgb quiet"
General Information
ql2xfailover Support and Multipath
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 does not include support for ql2xfailover,
as it has not been accepted upstream.
To implement multipathing, use mdadm instead. For more information
about dm-multipath, consult its man page using the command man
multipath.
MCFG on AMD-based Systems
During PCI probing, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 attempts to
use information obtained from MCFG (memory-mapped PCI configuration
space). On AMD-systems, this type of access does not work on some
buses, as the kernel cannot parse the MCFG table.
To work around this, add the parameter pci=conf1 or pci=nommconf on
the kernel boot line in /etc/grub.conf. For example:
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.6.9-42.0.2.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb q
uiet pci=conf1
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL.img
Doing this instructs the kernel to use PCI Conf1 access instead of
MCFG-based access.
Rollbacks Using up2date
The up2date options --undo and list-rollbacks are now deprecated.
Currently, the recommended method for performing a rollback is to use
the Multi-state Rollback feature provided by the Provisioning
entitlement on Red Hat Network. For more information about this,
refer to http://www.redhat.com/rhn/rhndetails/provisioning/.
Alternatively, you can also downgrade an RPM manually. To do this,
obtain the old RPM and run the following command:
rpm -Uvh --oldpackage --nosignature --nodigest <filename of old RPM>
Virtualization
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 is now supported as a
paravirtualized guest, but cannot be used as dom0.
At present, paravirtualization for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update
5 has the following issues:
+ The PV-FB (ParaVirtualized FrameBuffer) currently does not support
keymaps other than en-US. As such, other keyboards may not be able
to type certain keystrokes. This issue will be addressed in a
future update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
+ Paravirtualized domains can only auto-detect relative mouse
movement, and pointer movement is rather erratic. This will be
addressed in a future update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.
+ Only virtualized network and disk devices are supported on
paravirtualized guests. Direct control by guests of PCI, USB,
printer or serial devices is not supported.
Slow Disk Dump
Slow disk dump may be improved using the block_order parameter. This
parameter specifies the I/O block size to be used when writing the
dump. Testing has shown that the default value 2 works well for most
adapters and system configurations.
Note that disk dumps on Megaraid hardware (in certain system
platforms and under certain configurations) may be prohibitively
slow. To address this, increase the value of the block_order
parameter.
Larger block_order values consume more module memory. For more
information about the block_order parameter, refer to
/usr/share/doc/diskdumputils-<version>/README(replace<version>with
the corresponding version of the diskdumputils package installed).
iSeries Access for Linux
The iSeries ODBC Driver for Linux has been replaced by a new product
-- the iSeries Access for Linux. This new product can be downloaded
at the following link:
http://www.ibm.com/eserver/iseries/access/linux/
iSeries Access for Linux is the latest offering in the iSeries Access
product line. It offers Linux-based access to iSeries servers.
iSeries Access for Linux allows you to :
+ Access the DB2 UDB (Universal Database) for iSeries using its ODBC
Driver
+ Establish a 5250 session to an iSeries server from a Linux client
+ Access the DB2 UDB via the EDRS (Extended Dynamic Remote SQL)
driver
+ Support 32-bit (i386 and PowerPC) and 64-bit (x86-64 and PowerPC)
platforms
ibmasm
The ibmasm package is used to facilitate communication with the IBM
Advance System Management PCI Adapter, also known as RSA I. If you
are using the RSA II, you need to manually uninstall the ibmasm
package after downloading the corresponding package for RSA II.
Technology Previews
Technology Preview features are currently not supported under Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 subscription services, may not be functionally
complete, and are generally not suitable for production use. However, these
features are included as a customer convenience and to provide the feature
with wider exposure.
Customers may find these features useful in a non-production environment.
Customers are also free to provide feedback and functionality suggestions
for a technology preview feature before it becomes fully supported. Erratas
will be provided for high-severity security issues.
During the development of a technology preview feature, additional
components may become available to the public for testing. It is the
intention of Red Hat to fully support technology preview features in a
future release.
Systemtap
Systemtap provides free software (GPL) infrastructure to simplify the
gathering of information about the running Linux system. This assists
diagnosis of a performance or functional problem. With the help of
systemtap, developers no longer need to go through the tedious and
disruptive instrument, recompile, install, and reboot sequence that
may be otherwise required to collect data.
Frysk GUI
The goal of the frysk project is to create an intelligent,
distributed, always-on system monitoring and debugging tool that
allows developers and system administrators to:
+ monitor running processes and threads (including creation and
destruction events)
+ monitor the use of locking primitives
+ expose deadlocks
+ gather data
+ debug any given process by choosing it from a list or allowing
frysk to open a source code (or other) window on a process that is
crashing or misbehaving
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 5 the frysk graphical user
interface is a technology preview, whereas the frysk command line
interface is fully supported.
Kernel Notes
This section lists updates related to the kernel.
Generic Kernel Notes
+ CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_MANY_PORTS has been increased to 64.
+ sata_nv module now supports diskdump.
+ acpiphp driver now supports ACPI-based hotplugs for bridged
adapters.
+ (x86;x86_64) Added paravirtualization guest support
+ CIFS (Common Internet file system) has been upgraded to version
1.45
Platform-Specific Updates
+ Added capabilities for disabling MSI for SHPC (Standard Hot Plug
Controllers) on PXH6700 and PHX6702 systems; these systems will use
the legacy intX mode instead
+ Intel ICH9 chipsets are now supported
+ PowerNow! (with new frequency control) is now supported on the H206
processor
+ Timer skew issue on PowerNow! drivers is now fixed
+ Quad-core processors are now supported
+ RDTSCP (Read Time-Stamp Counter Pair), an instruction that provides
better resolution in reading a processor's time stamp, is now
supported
+ MCE Thresholding is now supported on AMD 0x10 processors
+ PCI-Express is now supported for the SGI Altix platform
+ SHUB2 is now supported
Changes to Drivers and Hardware Support
* Sealevel 8-port serial cards are now supported
* Added a new PWC (Philips Web Cam) driver that supports a wider range of
webcam models
* IBM Advanced Management Module 2 has been added to the USB storage
whitelist for USB devices with multiple LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers)
* EDAC (Error Detection and Correction) is now supported on the AMD
Opteron
* Updated Alsa driver to version 1.0.9
* Added Alsa support for Broadwater platforms
* Updated LMSensors smsc47b397 driver
* Updated ixgb driver to version 1.0.109-k2
* Updated r8169 network driver to version 2.2LK
* Pathscale IB adapter is now supported
* Added qla4xxx driver to support Qlogic iSCSI hardware initiator. Also
added qla3xxx driver to provide LAN connections on the same hardware.
* Updated Infiniband support to OFED 1.1
* Updated e1000 driver to version 7.2.7-k2 to support Intel Pro/1000 PT
adapter, ICH8 LAN, and Intel Dual Port 1Gb Ethernet PCI-Express adapter
* Updated BNX2 driver to version 1.4.43-rh
* Updated Broadcom TG3 driver to version 3.64-rh to support Broadcom
BCM5787M, the Broadcom 5715 PCIExpress adapter and the Broadcom 5704S
chip
* Updated ipr driver to support SAS/SATA
* LSI Logic SAS ZCR is now supported
* sata driver now supports ULi M5289 SATA controller
* Updated cciss driver
* Updated qla2xx driver to support SLIM expansion card on JS21
* Updated MPTSAS driver to version 3.02.73rh
* Updated the LSI MegaRAID driver
* 8139cp networking driver now supports netdump; this enables fully
virtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 guests to run netdump
( x86 )