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SuSE's Next Release Will Come With 2.4 Kernel - Updated
Several people wrote in to point out that SuSE appears to be the first big Linux vendor to have
announced a distro to be shipped with the still-cute 2.4 Linux kernel as default. Here's their
announcment in
English, and in German. Since they'll also be including a
2.2 kernel "in parallel," this isn't totally earthshaking (some other distros have been shipping 2.2 stock and
2.4 optional for a little while), but it certainly is welcome news that SuSE is willing to reverse
that order. Update: 01/26 05:04 PM by T : SuSE's Lenz Grimmer wrote to correct this, saying "Even though we ship with the 2.4 kernel, it is _not_ the default kernel,
the user has to explicitly select the kernel during the installation." Thanks for the correction, Lenz.
Think of what a kernel mode web browser will be able to do for web sites!
Cool!! Imagine the possibilities!
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hda3
append="mem=256M hdc=ide-scsi url=http://slashdot.org"
:-)
Something like that.
THere's a VIA chipset IDE bug that affects some users. Enable DMA and bye-bye filesystem!
Mandrake has been shipping with an (experimental prerelease) 2.4 for some time now, though it defaults to 2.2.17.
... it happilly coexists with the current Mandrake distro, and quite probably with other distros as well.
... do not run 2.4.0 under Mandrake 7.2 on any NFS clients. There is a bug/incompatability which causes periodic hangs on the client side under 2.4, hangs which only recover with a reboot (which itself usually hangs and requires a reset). This may be an incompatability between the Mandrake nfs utilities and the 2.4 NFS implimentation ... I've only looked at it casually, as none of the machines I'm serious about running 2.4 on use NFS.
Debian is also mucking with 2.4, and I'm sure other distros are to.
I am using 2.4 in a couple of production environments that benefit from the multithreaded ip stack, under Mandrake 7.2. Everything is fine as long as you do not compile devfs into the kernel
One caveat
The other caveat is ieee1394 -- there was a bug in the drivers in 2.4 which has been fixed, so if you want to use dvgrab to capture via firewire download the cvs version of the drivers, install into the 2.4 tree, and recompile.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
The other issue is security. With 1000s of executables installed there's bound to be some with security problems, buffer overflows, SETUID expolits, /tmp exploits and the like. The more obscure the program, the less likely it is to have been thoroughly audited for holes. If I can't trust it, I don't want to install it.
I saw a demo of SuSe 7.0 installing last year. Point-click-point and 3 CDs full of shovel-ware gets installed. Yuck!
I prefer the Debian method. Only install what I want to install, and a means of reporting bugs on each package which gets back to the maintainer. Also, via apt-get, there's a centralised mechanism for updating all installed code when and if security problems occurr.
Oh man, I remember the disk box I had that was just for Slackware. Then a new version would be released and my week would be gone. After a while, I broke down and got a 4x CD-ROM specifically for Slackware (and having music was a big plus). I paid $180 for it and it's still in my main desktop.
Anyway, most of the disks ended up being various other things, mostly Linux boot disks, DR-DOS, thrown out due to bad sectors, etc. I haven't seen one around in ages. I've been using whatever driver disks come with my hardware.
I'm amazed that yours are in good condition. I wonder if you can get ridiculously old versions of Slackware... or Yggdrasil or SLS (my first) for that matter. I'm going to look around.
For what it's worth, it installs without a hitch on a RH7.0 system, and I haven't had a single problem with it.
.0 release in the 2.x series.
In fact, it fixed a few small annoying bugs that I had with 2.2.18, and introduced no new ones, as near as I can tell.
This is definitely the most stable
SuSE pays several of the key KDE developers to work full-time on Open Source, as well as some XFree86 developers, and possibly others too. I think that's charity enough :)
--
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
The big selling point for RH7 was its readiness for 2.4.
We're ready, guys. At least post a RSN on your website.
p.s. Inclusion of the Reiser patch would be peachy.
FWIW,
The reason you see so many security updates for RH, is quite simple: it's the most prevalent distro out there.
That said, there are a few things that set distro's apart:
For the record I have run RH 6.2 and am now running Debian 2.2, I liked them both, but I do like Debian better. Take my remarks (maybe someone can expand on them a little) and decide what's best for your needs, there really is not much difference.
Mart"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
Do you know how long it took Slackware to get to glibc?
Do you realize that without Red Hat, there probably wouldn't be Gnome?
Do you realize that Debian's current release is always ancient?
There is too much stuff out there that runs on Red Hat, especially in the commercial realm, to seriously consider the alternatives, excepting their nitches. Turbolinux has more advanced clustering and Asian language support, and Suse and Mandrake have Reiser. Unless you need one of these components, there is no reason to make trouble for yourself.
It's a life disturbingly similar to my own.
And I don't even own a cat.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
And all versions. Have a 7th disc containing nothing but kernels! Just for that retro feel.
As an American living in Germany I can tell you that the SuSE distro is VERY popular. I used to be a die hard RedHat fan, but no longer. Not only do they do an excellent job of releasing interim updates but check out their newsgroups and you'll see the outstanding support offered by not only SuSE employees but the fellow users as well. No, I do not work for them Tim
A Short Story by The_Messenger
===///===
"Nik, I'm not comfortable with your hand being on my ass."
"But come on, baby, you know you want it," Nik insisted. How had I, Jeff "Hemos" Bates, gotten myself into such a predicament? Sure, I'd always thought Nik was cute, and even though I never formally came out, Nik always seemed to know the wife was a front all along. And when "Gay" Nik, famous in the Open Source Community for his insatiable desire for rough gay sex, invited me to help him set up his new FreeBSD box, I had an idea something was up. Little did I know that "something" was Nik's ten inches of rock-hard manmeat, pulsing through his faded Levi's jeans like a wild jungle snake.
"Nik, you're hurting me!", I whelped.
"And that's just the way you like it, bitch," Nik snarled. "You know that famous cartoon of the daemon giving it to the penguin in the behind? Thats gonna be you and me, mate," Nate said with a flick of his golden blond highlighted locks. His English accent was so charming... it almost made such awful things sound nice. But no, I mustn't go down that road... "But first," Nik continued, "we must set up this FreeBSD box. FreeBSD is the only true homosexual operating system, and so you will learn it, because I tell you to. I won't have any dirty Linux user sucking my balls."
"Oh, Nik," I whispered, batting my eyelashes, "must you always be so forceful?" Nik slapped my ass and laughed.
"Calm down, you pansy. You don't know the meaning of forceful yet. Now grab that 4.2 CD." I leaned over and grabbed the CD set for FreeBSD 4.2. Nik got his media free from Walnut Creek, because the admins there were terrified of him. Rumour has it that one Walnut Creek operator who refused to send Nik the latest FreeBSD CD kit for free was found in the machine room the next morning duct-taped to a chair with an RJ45 crimper jammed into his bloody asshole. Ever since, Nik has been sent prerelease copies of every FreeBSD set.
All of my administration experience is with Red Hat, so I was a little scared to try a real operating system, but with Nik's expert guidance, I was well on my way to learning this queer OS. Nik showed me how to use the curses-based installation tool to partition my disks, select an installation profile, and set up XFree86. Within an hour, the system was installed, and rebooted back to a command prompt.
I was standing in front of the console when Nik came up behind me.
"How's it going, mate?" he asked.
"Oh, Nik," I said, startled, "you startled me. I'm just trying to mount this CD-ROM's filesystem. The commands are similar, but this Berkely csh takes a little getting used to."
"Let me help, love," he murmured. He stepped closer behind me, and I could feel his hot breath on the back of my neck. I moved my hands away from the keyboard to allow him access, and he mounted the drive with blinding speed. "There, all better. Anything else you need mounted, love?"
"Oh, Nik..." I said quietly, my breath rushing out. Nik stepped closer, and I could feel his hot tool pressing into the depression of my asscrack through his jeans. "Oh, Nik, yes, there is something you could mount." I couldn't take it any longer. This strapping Englishman's dominant sexuality had overcome my fears of public embarrassment, and there I vowed to myself that from that day forward I would be Nik's woman. I threw my arms behind me, grabbed his ass, and pulled him closer. "Show me your hard drive, you naughty little daemon."
"Much obliged," Nik said with a wink. "But I'm anything but little." Nik slowly pulled off his tight jeans and out sprang the biggest, thickest cock I had ever seen. Now I watch a lot of gay pornography, but never in the depths of my deepest homosexual desire had I craved a dick this magnificent. It was like a juicy flank steak, dripping with juices. The aroma of ballcheese wafted up toward me as his mammoth testicles swung like pendulums of eroticism. I lost control and feel to my knees instantly, slobbering greedily at the wonderous thing, struggling, in vain, to fit the monstrous cockhead into my mouth.
"Oh, Nik," I cried, "I want you, I need you, I must have you. Make me your woman."
"And so I will mate, but first I must prepare you. Take off your clothes," Nik commanded. I clumsily undressed, unable to take my eyes off of his prodigious member. Nik reached over to his backpack (the one with the rainbow patches) and took out five jars of Astroglide lubricant. When I was finally naked, Nik looked up.
"Oh, well look at that," Nik said, pointing to my tiny, erect penis. "How cute. It's almost as small as Jon Katz's."
"Now, Nik, don't make fun," I said, sternly.
"I'm just kidding, love. To be honest, I like the 'little boy' look. I see you've shaved your pubes. Nice."
"Oh, Nik, I never had pubes..."
"Even better. You bald testicles remind me of my youth, when I was gang-raped by my daddy and four uncles."
"You were molested too?" I asked, hopeful.
"Of course, mate. All us faggots were. Now turn around and kneel in front of the couch." I did, and Nik proceeded to slather my virgin rosebud with three jars of Astroglide. As he did, he worked his fingers in and out of my asshole. My tiny penis was completely erect, almost touching my navel. Nik reached down and stroked it with two fingers (all that was necessary) was he prepared my anus. I moaned and sighed, and called out Rob Malda's name several times in my ecstacy. But Nik stopped before I could waste my seed, and stood back.
" Hemos, I think you've inspected my hard disk for long enough. Now I'm going to give your box more RAM."
"Oh, yes, Nik, RAM my box! R007 m3! 0wn me!"
"Hemos, it gets me so hot when you speak l337. Keep doing so." I let loose a string of l337 speak which would make even the most k-r4d w4R3z d00d blush, and Nik's penis began the descent towards my throbbing asshole.
"Oh!" I screamed, as Nik's gigantor began to rend my asshole to proportions only G. Oatse had known before. "Oh, Nik, pump my virgin geek asshole! Use and abuse me like Jon Katz did the Slashdot community! Pingflood my rectum like I'm running Red Hat 7! For the love of Barbara Streisand, Slashdot my ass!!"
The pumping and thrusting started, and didn't stop for 78 hours. Nik took me on a wild, shit-caked tour of Heaven, Hell, and San Francisco. I was on the edge of consciousness when he reached climax. He spewed gallons upon gallons of creamy sputum into my rectal cavity, filling my body up with his love. My abdomen swelled up like a water balloon, and I could taste his cum in the back of my throat when the tide finally ceased. I fell to the floor, and Nik stood up.
"Now you are mine, and a l337 FreeBSD user. I dub three Lord Hemos, proud and gay, and you shall sit at my right hand in Wales, where I rule the Court of FreeBSD Committers with an iron fist and a steel cock. Stand up, Lord Hemos, and let me eat your dirty ass."
Nik helped me up, and I weakly stood, amazed, as Nik proceeded to eat my asshole clean. Nik was on his knees behind me, lowered to the same level as the lowest California gigalo. Much like Jesus would wash the feet as his followers, Nik inducted his lovers into his secret cabal of Gay FreeBSD Love by dining on their sore, runny assholes. He ingested his own jizzm, completing the Circle of Gay.
When my rump had healed, I left Michigan (and my wife) on a journey with Nik to the UK, a Gay Wonderland rumoured to be the birthplace of homosexuality. I learned the gay alphabet, gay spelling ("It's 'coluououour', stupid American! Tee hee!"), and to use the gay currency (uro), and had a BSD Daemon tattooed on my ass with the phrase "Property of Gay Nik".
This has all happened so fast! It's hard to believe that only six hours ago, I was Jeff Bates, closeted homosexual and Linux user. I'm so glad that Nik and I got together, and I credit everything to FreeBSD, the l337est and Gayest UNIX-clone in the Universe! I invite you to check out your local FreeBSD user group and check us out!
These days, I'm very busy with FreeBSD and being Nik's trophy wife, but I've also created HEMOS, the Homoerotic Male Outreach service, an organization dedicated to saving poor young men from the perils of heterosexuality and Linux-userhood. We've already saved Cowboy Neal (how could a guy with a name like that not be queer?) and Emmett will be coming along soon. Please join us!
Love,
Lord Hemos the Gay
THE END.
Send comments to billgates@ILOVESPAM.evilemail.com. Thanks.
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
- just choose some default install mode and you'll get zillions of megabytes full of redundant crap you'll mostly never use
- do it efficiently but it will take hours remove packages you actually don't want and to resolve any dependencies.
So, yes, I could just avoid to install any beta package that I don't want but why should I care when the Caldera eDesktop will just make a clean an stable install of what I need ?(And I don't tell about yast bug^H^H^Hissues...)
Else, they should follow their motto which is to bring Linux to the non technical.
How ?
By thinking configuraiton-wise instead of volume-wise.
Since 6.4 I have usually been disappointed by SuSe... I seriously wonder if I'll ever try their distrib anymore and my final point on this article is that kernel 2.4 is not the right thing to announce to the community.
They'd rather announce that they stabilized their distro and made it simple.
--
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Whilst on the subject of testing, anyone know why XFree-4.0.2 hasn't appeared yet? It is holding up a lot of other packages that depend on the 4 series libs. The excuses file on the Debian web site seems to indicate that some PowerPC debs have not gone into the package pool, but these went in over a month ago. I know that there were problems with the Arm processor port, but these I believe have been circumvented.
psxndc
Actually, since the export stuff has been lightened, does anyone out there know if they'll be including OpenSSH and so forth on the US CD's in the next release (OpenBSD does it)??
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
This is one of the most common forms of animal-slavery justification: "I'm providing a service for my pet," or (especially among cat owners), "no, silly, my pet actually owns me!"
These are both terrible rationalizations.
Let's take cats, since you obviously "own" one. Cats are, by nature, solitary hunters. In your house, your cat is kept in an environment artificially free of prey, given poor imitations of real meat at your whim several times per day, subjected to an endless succession of rewards and punishments dispensed according to the byzantine system of social conventions governing proper conduct in human households, and will grow fat and lazy and die painfully of heart disease or some similar ailment.
What kind of life is this?
I won't suggest that, at this point, you simply turn your cat out on to the street: human cities may or may not be great places for cats to live on their own, and they simply can't support all the cats that are owned today. What you can do, though, is refuse to buy any more cats or breed the ones you already have: the fewer pets that are born into misery, the closer we are to being able to free the last pets into an environment that can sustain them.
I used to work for a company selling Banyan software in the UK. We had many customers, and a lot of them ran as a default installtion, with customisable parameters set at the default (caching and buffers - nothing was dynamically allocated on these systems), and often no patches (security, performance or other) applied.
People are lazy when it comes to installing servers. They take as little time as possible to install, and selecting default installations is quite common, just to save time. Optimasation for performance, from tweaking hardware parameters to removing redundant daemons, is often missed out.
DebianPlanet
-- "I can't tell the future, I just work there." -- The Doctor
IMHO Redhat 7 and 2.4 could be a killer combo if they do it right.
Everybody denies I am a genius--but nobody ever called me one!
At least with these ones I can see what I am doing and I don't have any buggy yast effect to workaround.
It rocks under BeOS, Linux 2.2.18 and win*.*...
I guess the 2.4 driver is not ok. And this is the reason I advice laptop'ed users not to use it (we got the same situation on several different-branded laptops, here.)
--
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Well, they do: SuSE Linux 7.1 will use the init scheme defined in the LSB spec.
Bye, LenZ
Not from an engineering perspective, but it sure makes this piece of news irrelevant, since:
Since they'll also be including a 2.2 kernel "in parallel," this isn't totally earthshaking (some other distros have been shipping 2.2 stock and 2.4 optional Ib>for a little while), but it certainly is welcome news that SuSE is willing to reverse that order.
Because this is not stable kernel per se,
but "merely" a decision by Linus that there
is no more major shakeups or (binary) interface
changes in this kernel series.
Thus he released 2.4.0 in order to enlarge the
user base and get the (inevitable) bugs sorted
out. He wrote as much in his release note.
Regards,
Rasmus
I'm slightly puzzled at the conservatism in the take-up of 2.4.0 IIRC, the whole point of having even numbered versions is to indicate to the world and his wife that the 2.4 kernel is stable.
/dev, but I would have expected these to shake out in the 2+ year development of the 2.3.x series of kernels. Also presumably major distros such as RedHat keep track of changes to the kernel [they do pay/support Alan Cox and others don't they?], so any problems with such distros again should IMO have been foreseen and dealt with. One of our advantages, I thought, was that because all development is visible at all times to everyone, that problems in other packages could be foreseen and dealt with in parellel with development of 2.3.x, until it became 2.4.0.
So why the slow take up ?
Obviously there may be a couple of problems with package incompatibility with the new kernel, for example with the rearrangement of
I think that in some respects developers and distributers are not really taking full advantage of the openness of kernel development.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
This is not correct, 2.2 will still be the default. However, the user can select 2.4 during the initial installation, and can choose the kernel version on bootup.
Bye, LenZ
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.