Posted by
timothy
on from the jamie-has-the-munchies dept.
punkmac writes "It's that time again to do the thing we all love to do, compile your shiny new kernel. This time its 2.4.20. The changelog can be found at the usual places, and please use a mirror for all your downloads"
Be kind to kernel.org
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Don't just use a mirror, get the patch to update your 2.4.19 tree.
Re:how long will it be...
by
silvaran
·
· Score: 5, Informative
It's not a matter of "Linux" having service packs. I'm assuming you use a specific distribution. You have to trust that distribution to release updates for your system as necessary. You can't binary patch the Linux kernel, because no binaries are released, only source. Red Hat, for example, has binary releases of the kernel (included in their distribution), but doesn't bother releasing service packs, instead they release updates as they see fit (pretty much the same thing).
I don't quite understand the obsession with using the latest and greatest. I'm not going to grab this and compile it for my machine; a) 2.4.19 works fine and b) I skimmed through the changelog and didn't really see anything that affected my situation, and c) My roommate will scream at me if I take down the server just to update the kernel by a double-point revision.
You mentioned when you update the kernel/compiler it breaks a lot of applications. You'll have to be more specific. I can see problems when migrating from a 2.2 kernel to a 2.4 kernel, or from gcc 2.x to gcc 3.x, but if you use one of the major distributions, this is trivial. The thought of using "service packs" on an open source operating system indicates to me that you don't have a clear handle on the way things work in Linux.
small VM updates...
by
kinko
·
· Score: 5, Informative
From the changelog....
<hch@lst.de>:
o dump_stack()
o backport yield() and conditional reschedule changes from
o small VM updates from -aa (1/5)
o small VM updates from -aa (2/5)
o small VM updates from -aa (4/5)
o small VM updates from -aa (5/5)
Is this using a Linus definition of small, or a normal definition of small?
Re:small VM updates...
by
Blasphemy
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Just a quick reminder that Linus isn't manging the 2.4 tree anymore. He's moved on to the 2.5 tree.
Marcelo Tosatti is managing the 2.4 tree.
Re:Important changes?
by
updog
·
· Score: 5, Informative
There was at least one very important change for me personally - support for KT-400 motherboards (by adding support for VIA8235 southbridge). I had gotten 2.4.20-rc3 for this support when I got my new motherboard, but now it's official.
Incedentally, 2.4.19 will sorta work on a KT-400 board, but disk access is really slow because it can't turn on DMA.
Re:Did they fix the new ptrace vulnerability?
by
Juergen+Kreileder
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I haven't tried it myself yet, but I found no reference to this ptrace vulnerability [google.com] in the changelog. I suspect this is still a problem (it was in 2.4.19).
It was fixed in 2.4.20-rc2, see the "[PATCH] Fix lcall DoS" entry in the ChangeLog or this bk comment (and the corresponding patch).
Re:I'll wait for 2.4.20-ac1 or -ac2. :)
by
darketernal
·
· Score: 5, Informative
You do realize 2.4.20-rc4 was released as 2.4.20 without any changes. Hence, 2.4.20-rc4-ac1 is the -ac1 that you are looking for:)
Re:Linux is truely impressing me now...
by
Webmonger
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Shakedown. All kernels take a while to mature. 2.4 took longer than most.
Re:No more printers on fire?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I do not think it was originally a joke. Older printers used to give that error message when they got a paper jam. The paper would then get hot enough from the friction of whatever was trying to roll it through would cause a fire, and thus by the time the user got the error message the printer would be on fire.
Eh, I guess it still in a way was a joke, but a joke based more on reality. Of course now, that is just preposterious, but eh whatever.
Re:Apparently
by
mysticalreaper
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Uhm... are you SURE? You sure it's not the new 2.5 development kernel you're talking about? Cause i think if you looked into it, you'd realize that all these massive changes you mentioned, improving threading, I/O, VM and the rest are changes happening in the 2.5 kernel. They are major changes, and very significant. But they're happening in 2.5.
This release is just an incremental release. Bugfixes here, added support there... no major changes, just evolutionary changes.
Good to see the mods are looking for informative comments... however, it's sad when they mod up comments that don't reflect the facts.
Re:Important changes?
by
thesadmac
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I beleive the reiserfs write_file function was added to the reiserfs filesystem. This speeds up writing large files on a reiserfs formatted volume. Which on my boxes is every partition except/boot and swap.
Tips on testing your new kernel
by
goingware
·
· Score: 5, Informative
You should thoroughly test your new kernel before putting it into production. Even if the kernel works well for everyone else, you could personally discover a new bug. You could save yourself a lot of pain by testing first, as well as help the kernel developers.
A while back I wrote a couple articles on Linux kernel testing:
The Open Source Development Lab kindly provides Japanese translations
here.
(The articles are under the GNU Free Documentation License. I would be quite stoked if you copied or translated them. There are articles on other quality topics
here.)
Is VIA KT400 (8377+8235) finally supported?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Informative
2.4.19 needs a patch to recognize that chipset and enable dma transfers on IDE devices. It somewhat worked, but still runs awfully (crashes and data corruption). I found no mention in the changelog about this chipset, dug the kernel ml archives for weeks and found about nothing. Forgive me if I ask in the wrong place, but a month has passed since I purchased a KT400 motherboard (Soltek SL75FRV) and still cannot figure how to make it work properly.
Re:Is VIA KT400 (8377+8235) finally supported?
by
Brissie_lad
·
· Score: 3, Informative
8235 support is in,
vojtech_suse.cz
[PATCH] Add vt8235 support
Hi!
This patch adds support for the vt8235. Marcelo, please apply it to current 2.4.20 rc. It doesn't break anything, basically adds an entry to the table of supported devices. Thanks.
If you do a search of the changelog for 8235 you'll find it.
-- Slackware - because apt is for the lazy.
Re:Seriously - 486-33
by
Brissie_lad
·
· Score: 2, Informative
i386 support is still there, those i586/i686 distro's are just that, distro's.
I've got an old (circa 1991) 486-DX25 machine here that I'm going to play around with as soon as I can dig up an old ISA NIC.
IIRC, it wasn't so much the patch itself that was in violation of the DMCA (Dilbertized Merkin Copyright Anomaly) as the description of the problem. So I can't describe it to you, but if you *aren't* American, you can safely click on this link, which will tell you. (Read & click-through the licence/disclaimer, then pick it off the drop-down menu thingy. Yeah, it sucks, but so does a copyright law that prevents people from fully documenting software bugs. Sorta like the evening news in some places--"Scientists think this common household substance could kill you! We'll tell you more on Channel 11's News at Eleven!")
Re:zlib in the kernel?
by
Random+Frequency
·
· Score: 3, Informative
its used by PPP for packet compression, as well as initial kernel decompression with the zImage target.
EXT3 may be broken
by
Xua
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Here is a link with some info about it. Now much though...
But here where I work one guy tried 2.4.20 on his Mandrake 9.0 (I cannot confirm that he did everything right though), but his / partition got completely corrupted. Same thing after fresh install and new kernel install.
Re:How do you extract..
by
Brissie_lad
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Have a look in/boot for a Config* file, or if you have the source that came with the stock Suse kernel have a look for a.config file, if you find one or the other copy it to/usr/src/linux-2.4.20 as.config and do "make oldconfig" instead of "make menuconfig".
-- Slackware - because apt is for the lazy.
Re:For anyone using reiserfs
by
kinri
·
· Score: 3, Informative
2.4.20-pre6 came out before 2.4.20-rc4 === 2.4.19 was released
2.4.20-pre1 to 2.4.20-pre11 were released
2.4.20-rc1 to 2.4.20-rc4 were released
2.4.20-rc4 became 2.4.20
Pre's come before rc's (release candidates)
VServer patch for 2.4.20
by
Laven
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Slashdot Mirror
Don't just use a mirror, get the patch to update your 2.4.19 tree.
It's not a matter of "Linux" having service packs. I'm assuming you use a specific distribution. You have to trust that distribution to release updates for your system as necessary. You can't binary patch the Linux kernel, because no binaries are released, only source. Red Hat, for example, has binary releases of the kernel (included in their distribution), but doesn't bother releasing service packs, instead they release updates as they see fit (pretty much the same thing).
I don't quite understand the obsession with using the latest and greatest. I'm not going to grab this and compile it for my machine; a) 2.4.19 works fine and b) I skimmed through the changelog and didn't really see anything that affected my situation, and c) My roommate will scream at me if I take down the server just to update the kernel by a double-point revision.
You mentioned when you update the kernel/compiler it breaks a lot of applications. You'll have to be more specific. I can see problems when migrating from a 2.2 kernel to a 2.4 kernel, or from gcc 2.x to gcc 3.x, but if you use one of the major distributions, this is trivial. The thought of using "service packs" on an open source operating system indicates to me that you don't have a clear handle on the way things work in Linux.
From the changelog....
<hch@lst.de>:
o dump_stack()
o backport yield() and conditional reschedule changes from
o small VM updates from -aa (1/5)
o small VM updates from -aa (2/5)
o small VM updates from -aa (4/5)
o small VM updates from -aa (5/5)
Is this using a Linus definition of small, or a normal definition of small?
There was at least one very important change for me personally - support for KT-400 motherboards (by adding support for VIA8235 southbridge). I had gotten 2.4.20-rc3 for this support when I got my new motherboard, but now it's official.
Incedentally, 2.4.19 will sorta work on a KT-400 board, but disk access is really slow because it can't turn on DMA.
You do realize 2.4.20-rc4 was released as 2.4.20 without any changes. Hence, 2.4.20-rc4-ac1 is the -ac1 that you are looking for :)
Shakedown. All kernels take a while to mature. 2.4 took longer than most.
I do not think it was originally a joke. Older printers used to give that error message when they got a paper jam. The paper would then get hot enough from the friction of whatever was trying to roll it through would cause a fire, and thus by the time the user got the error message the printer would be on fire.
Eh, I guess it still in a way was a joke, but a joke based more on reality. Of course now, that is just preposterious, but eh whatever.
Uhm... are you SURE? You sure it's not the new 2.5 development kernel you're talking about? Cause i think if you looked into it, you'd realize that all these massive changes you mentioned, improving threading, I/O, VM and the rest are changes happening in the 2.5 kernel. They are major changes, and very significant. But they're happening in 2.5.
This release is just an incremental release. Bugfixes here, added support there... no major changes, just evolutionary changes.
Good to see the mods are looking for informative comments... however, it's sad when they mod up comments that don't reflect the facts.
I beleive the reiserfs write_file function was added to the reiserfs filesystem. This speeds up writing large files on a reiserfs formatted volume. Which on my boxes is every partition except /boot and swap.
A while back I wrote a couple articles on Linux kernel testing:
-
Why We Should All Test the New Linux Kernel
-
Using Test Suites to Validate the Linux Kernel
The Open Source Development Lab kindly provides Japanese translations here.(The articles are under the GNU Free Documentation License. I would be quite stoked if you copied or translated them. There are articles on other quality topics here.)
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
2.4.19 needs a patch to recognize that chipset and enable dma transfers on IDE devices. It somewhat worked, but still runs awfully (crashes and data corruption).
I found no mention in the changelog about this chipset, dug the kernel ml archives for weeks and found about nothing. Forgive me if I ask in the wrong place, but a month has passed since I purchased a KT400 motherboard (Soltek SL75FRV) and still cannot figure how to make it work properly.
i386 support is still there, those i586/i686 distro's are just that, distro's.
I've got an old (circa 1991) 486-DX25 machine here that I'm going to play around with as soon as I can dig up an old ISA NIC.
Slackware - because apt is for the lazy.
IIRC, it wasn't so much the patch itself that was in violation of the DMCA (Dilbertized Merkin Copyright Anomaly) as the description of the problem. So I can't describe it to you, but if you *aren't* American, you can safely click on this link, which will tell you. (Read & click-through the licence/disclaimer, then pick it off the drop-down menu thingy. Yeah, it sucks, but so does a copyright law that prevents people from fully documenting software bugs. Sorta like the evening news in some places--"Scientists think this common household substance could kill you! We'll tell you more on Channel 11's News at Eleven!")
Click here if you just like to click on shit.
its used by PPP for packet compression, as well as initial kernel decompression with the zImage target.
Here is a link with some info about it. Now much though...
But here where I work one guy tried 2.4.20 on his Mandrake 9.0 (I cannot confirm that he did everything right though), but his / partition got completely corrupted. Same thing after fresh install and new kernel install.
Have a look in /boot for a Config* file, or if you have the source that came with the stock Suse kernel have a look for a .config file, if you find one or the other copy it to /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 as .config and do "make oldconfig" instead of "make menuconfig".
Slackware - because apt is for the lazy.
2.4.20-pre6 came out before 2.4.20-rc4
===
2.4.19 was released
2.4.20-pre1 to 2.4.20-pre11 were released
2.4.20-rc1 to 2.4.20-rc4 were released
2.4.20-rc4 became 2.4.20
Pre's come before rc's (release candidates)
For those of you looking for the vserver with security contexts patch for 2.4.20.