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Linux Kernel 2.5.8 Released
green pizza writes: "Linux Kernel 2.5.8 has been relased. Major improvements include readahead cache tweaks and support for hot-swap PCI on certain IBM machines." Here's the changelog; if you want to experiment with the bleeding edge, check out the list of mirrors provided by kernel.org.
Oh yeah!
When will 2.6 come about? are we there yet?
is 2.6 ready yet?
....
Sig you!
Major improvements include readahead cache tweaks and support for hot-swap PCI on certain IBM machines.
Now *that* is important. When the biggest improvements are tweaks and support for hardware on 'certain' machines. Jeez...
How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP (Q314458)
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/dev/sda1 * 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (SCSI hard drive 1, partition 1)
/dev/sda2 501 522 176715 82 Linux swap (SCSI hard drive 1, partition 2)
/dev/sda1 * 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (SCSI hard drive 1, partition 1)
/dev/sda2 501 522 176715 82 Linux swap (SCSI hard drive 1, partition 2)
/dev/sdb1 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (SCSI hard drive 2, partition 1)
/dev/hda1 * 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (IDE hard drive 1, partition 1)
/dev/hda2 501 522 176715 82 Linux swap (IDE hard drive 1, partition 2)
/dev/hda1 * 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (IDE hard drive 1, partition 1)
/dev/hda2 501 522 176715 82 Linux swap (IDE hard drive 1, partition 2)
/dev/hdb1 1 500 4016218 83 Linux native (IDE hard drive 2, partition 1)
n fo/admi nistration/management/mltiboot.asp The third-party contact information included in this article is provided to help you find the technical support you need. This contact information is subject to change without notice. Microsoft in no way guarantees the accuracy of this third-party contact information.
The information in this article applies to:
* Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
* Microsoft Windows XP Professional
For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see Q247804
SUMMARY
This article explains how to remove the Linux operating system from your computer and install Windows XP. This article assumes that Linux is already installed on your computer's hard disk, that Linux native and Linux swap partitions are in use (which are incompatible with Windows XP), and that there is no free space left on the hard disk.
NOTE : Windows XP and Linux can coexist on the same computer. For additional information, refer to your Linux documentation.
MORE INFORMATION
To install Windows XP on a computer on which Linux is currently installed (and assuming that you want to remove Linux), you must manually delete the partitions used by the Linux operating system. The Windows-compatible partition can be created automatically during the installation of Windows XP.
IMPORTANT : Before you follow the steps in this article, verify that you have a bootable disk or bootable CD-ROM for the Linux operating system, because these steps completely remove the Linux operating system from your computer. If you intend to restore the Linux operating system at a later date, verify that you also have a functional backup of all the information stored on your computer. Additionally, you must have a full release version of Windows XP to use during this installation. If you intend to use a Windows XP upgrade CD-ROM, a CD-ROM of a qualifying Windows product must be available. Setup from the Windows XP upgrade CD-ROM will prompt you for this CD-ROM.
Linux file systems use a superblock at the beginning of a disk partition to identify the basic size, shape, and condition of the file system.
The Linux operating system is generally installed on partition type 83 (Linux native) or 82 (Linux swap). The Linux boot manager (LILO) can be configured to start from either of the following locations:
* The hard disk Master Boot Record (MBR)
-or-
* The root folder of the Linux partition
The Fdisk tool included with Linux can be used to delete the partitions. (There are other utilities that work just as well, such as Fdisk from MS-DOS 5.0 and later, or you can delete the partitions during the installation process.)
To remove Linux from your computer and install Windows XP, follow these steps:
1. Remove the native, swap, and boot partitions used by Linux:
1. Start your computer with the Linux Setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
NOTE : For help with using the Fdisk tool, type m at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
# Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information , and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information
# Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number that you want to delete. Type 1 , and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.
# Type w , and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated (because information is written to the partition table), but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.
# Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the Fdisk tool.
# Insert either a bootable floppy disk or the bootable Windows XP CD-ROM, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.
2. Follow the instructions on the screen to install Windows XP.
The installation process assists you in creating the appropriate partitions on your computer.
Sample Linux Partition Tables
Single SCSI Drive
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Multiple SCSI Drives
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Single IDE Drive
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Multiple IDE Drives
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Additionally, Linux recognizes more than 40 different partition types, including the following:
* FAT 12 (Type 01)
* FAT 16 > 32 M Primary (Type 06)
* FAT 16 Extended (Type 05)
* FAT 32 w/o LBA Primary (Type 0b)
* FAT 32 w/LBA Primary (Type 0c)
* FAT 16 w/LBA (Type 0e)
* FAT 16 w/LBA Extended (Type 0f)
Note that there are other ways to remove the Linux operating system and install Windows XP. The preceding method is included in this article because of the assumptions that the Linux operating system is already functioning and there is no more room on the hard disk. There are methods for changing partition sizes with software designed for managing partitions. Disk partitioning software may cause instability with the Windows XP installation. Microsoft does not support the installation of Windows XP on partitions manipulated in this manner.
You can also use an MS-DOS version 5.0-or-later boot disk, a Microsoft Windows 95 Startup disk, or a Microsoft Windows 98 Startup disk that contains the Fdisk utility to remove an operating system from the hard disk and install a different operating system. When you start Fdisk and multiple drives are installed on your computer, you are presented with five choices; use option 5 to select the hard disk that has the partition to be deleted. After that (or if you have only one hard disk), select option 3 ( Delete partition or logical DOS drive ), and then select option 4 ( Delete non-DOS partition ). You should then see the non-MS-DOS partitions that you want to delete. Typically, the Linux operating system has two non-MS-DOS partitions, but there may be more. After you delete one partition, use the same steps to delete any other appropriate non-MS-DOS partitions.
For additional information about how to use the Fdisk utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q255867 How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk After you delete the partitions, you can create partitions and install the operating system that you want. You can create only one primary partition and an extended partition with multiple logical drives by using Fdisk from MS-DOS version 5.0-and-later, Windows 95, and Windows 98. The maximum FAT16 primary partition size is 2 gigabytes (GB). The largest FAT16 logical drive size is 2 GB.
For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q105074 MS-DOS 6.2 Partitioning Questions and Answers When you install Windows XP, the Linux partitions can be removed and new partitions created and formatted with the appropriate file system type during the installation process. Windows XP allows you to create more than one primary partition. Windows XP does recognize the FAT32 file system. During the installation of Windows XP, you can create a very large FAT32 drive. The FAT32 drive can be converted to NTFS after the installation has completed, if appropriate.
For additional information about how to multiboot with Windows XP, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q306559 HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System with Windows XP For more information, browse to the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techi
The third-party products discussed in this article are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.
Linux: the hype is over
According to the latest Gartner group research report, the Linux hype is finally over. Research shows that market share of linux-driven production servers on the internet has finally declined to a single-digit number. The reasons for this are clear:
* Linux is very unstable
* Linux has a very unreliable filesystem
* Everybody uses Windows or BSD, nowadays
Research has clearly pointed out, that although there are still hordes of penguin-dressed geeks running around MIS departments, the management has grown wise and doesn't even allow Linux workstations anymore, since the costs in maintaining these machines turned out to be astronomically high. The reasons for this are clear as well.
* Installation is a pain in the ass and it usually takes a whole support team to install a geeks' workstation
* Installation and maintenance requires 4-5 times the bandwidth a 'normal' OS would require
* Linux was deliberately made completely incompatible and inoperable with turnkey solutions like MS Exchange or MS SQL server. Investments in these products are therefore voided the minute you start rolling out Linux.
* Web applications developed in Perl or C, the languages of the linux community have proven to be slow, unreliable and headaching complicated. Once developed and debugged, nobody is able to understand the code.
Therefore, it has been statistically proven that most companies have already moved away from Linux. All the 'geeks' wearing tux t-shirts re actually MIS support guys who are still studying for their MCSE exam. 'The screaming fast linux machines at work' are actually refurbished workstations at a separated network segment, not allowed on the production net since every linux (l)user seems to need nmap to perform normal work-related computer operations. All the 'cool' apache web servers are actually IIS machines with forged host headers. (yes, you can do that in IIS without recompiling anything. Heck, I lived for years without a C compiler and still do. ) And, for the rare instance where a free unix is actually used in a production environment, management has smartened up and BSD is usually installed.
Here's a short list of Linux flaws that make it look silly:
/usr/include/linux (come on. honestly.) Lame. Nonstandard. (for the clue-deprived, this means that any code written for linux using the linux/ headers will be incompatible with all other Unix flavors.) Guess what: string.h, types.h, malloc.h, signal.h, and so-on don't belong in a platform-specific include directory. Hope you didn't want to port your code... /usr/include/linux... /bin/sh != sh; /bin/sh == bash. Lame. Nonstandard. Result: broken shell scripts and nonportable code. /usr/bin/make != make; /usr/bin/make == gmake. Lame. Nonstandard. Same result as above: nonportable code. ...such professionalism! ...apparently it's better for any user to attack the root password than to offer added security. Ignorance of security is a common Linux thread.
*
* Neither the sigaction manpage nor the signal.h includs indicate what the system defaults are. Of course, they've put signal.h in
* "intro" manpages are a joke. Compare the BSD section 2 intro with the one from Linux.
* file systems mount async by default (power outage and your fs dies)
* Most linux users don't have pubes yet and are intolerably lame (3Y3 4m 1337 H4x0r d00d [uz 3y3 h4v3 L1Nux!)
* Too many things in user space that belong in the kernel (nfs)
* Too many things in the kernel that belong in user space (java)
* No standard distribution. Linux people say this is a good thing? Try writing software or software configuration instructions when you never know how the OS is going to be laid out, or try finding the responsible party for a block of OS code, or try fixing security problems when they arise and you'll see that this is NOT a good thing at all.
* no consistant pronunciation the os'es name (line-ucks? lynn-ucks?)
* svr4? bsd? make up your mind?
* Lame NFS & dd
* #linux, #hack, #linuxwarez...
* New kernel every week that breaks half your applications
* Security flaw/Root compromise of the week (see below)
* glibc? libc? libc5? libc6? glibc2?
*
*
* ext2fs
* Linux will mount partitions that are not clean
* can't handle partitions > 2GB (i've hear they finally fixed this one)
* e2fsck deliberatly leaves/creates corrupt files (if there is a block that it duplicate between two files, e2fsck will clone the duplicate (while fsck will remove both files. This can also result in a user gaining unauthorized access to another user's data.))
* it swap likes swap to swap swap too swap often swap
* only allows 128M of swap at a time; for a 1G of swap, you need 8 swap partitions
* can't handle more than 1GB of RAM
* To install Joe's program, you need Bob's kernel hack, but for Bob's kernel hack, you've got to have Suzy's patches, but Suzy's patches only work with a year-old kernel, unless you get Mike's patches to Suzy's patches, but even then, those conflict with Jeff's drivers, which can be resolved only by installing Nancy's patches...
* Can't handle the same IP on more than one interface
* Can't handle large files
* Max file size: 2GB. (*BSD: 4 Terabytes)
* Dynamically linked root shell. Doom!
* lilo! any boot loader that needs to have magic block numbers is wrong
* linux icmp.h is *NOT* unix icmp.h - they're totally incompatible.
* flatfile password files make listing large ftp directories impossible due to huge numbers of flatfile searchces.
* password file can be non-shadowed - encrypted passwords visible to all
* shadow.h! hahahahahahaha!
* Slowass network code
* Did I mention slowass network code?
* Oh, also slowass network code
* Miserably pathetic threading implementation doesn't scale for shit: all threads wake up on signals (stampeding process problem).
* L1nux c0d3rz!
* LILO can't cope with kernels > 1Mb, so the kernel has to be gzipped.
* strfry and memfrob
* Can't cope with hard drives > 32GB
* GPL - a license and a virus
* Fundamental design and direction problems. It turns out that Linus is not the smartest man in the world and the saviour of all mankind.
* OS or religion?
* UNABLE TO LOAD INTERPRETER...memory leak much?
* This is a real Linux error message: Uhhh. NMI recieved. Dazed and Confused. Trying to cope
*The GNU su manpage actually says this:
This program does not support a "wheel group" that restricts who can su to super-user accounts, because that can help fascist system administrators hold unwarranted power over other users.
* vi != vi; vi == vim. vim links to X libraries. Wipe X, and now you can't use vi. Retards.
* Still no USB support in 2000, after NetBSD and FreeBSD have had it for nearly 2 years. So much for the "million geeks" theory of rapid software development.
* Always trying to help you hold your weewee when you're going tinkle.
* No version control used to manage the system.
Well, these BitKeeper logs are pretty lengthy.
I've always been partial to the multiple one-liner summaries, a la Alan Cox.
I wonder if Linus has always devoured and spit out this many patches for new kernel revisions or whether I'm just seeing an artifact of BitKeeper?
Could it be argued that kernel development is moving faster as a result of Linus adopting some kind of source code management system? I know Grandpa Eric Raymond would be pleased if that were the case:)
[Just hoping that 2.6 comes out faster than 2.4...]
"Provided by the management for your protection."
We've got readahead cache, can I get a redhead cache? First I'll load Kirsten Dunst in Spiderman into it...
--
Vote for your hopes, not for your fears - Vote Third Party
Anyone tried it yet? How stable is it already?
Not a front page job. I think it's interesting to get a feel for the sort of work that is going into the development kernel as it's progressing. That said I'm only interested in it from the point of view of a casual observer, sure I can (and do) read about it at kt.zork.net but I can't read other peoples comments there.
I like reading other peoples opinions on a topic, particularly if they are knowledgable ones rather than self important whinging about how they personally never wanted to read the story in the first place.....
Your browser probably has a back button. Next time you get to an article you don't want to read try using it and leave other people to make their own decisions for themselves.....
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park