Linux 2.6.0-test3 Released

xepsilon writes "Linux 2.6.0-test3 has been released. Grab your copy off your local kernel.org mirror and report those bugs! Remember, any bug you find that you don't report is likely to not be fixed in the next release if you don't report it. See the ChangeLog for more details."

Comments

Re:What else do you need beside the kernel?

[geeveees]

You *need* to upgrade modutils, also if you want to use cryptoloop you'll have to get a new util-linux.

Re:RPM for Redhat 9?

[AndersM]

RedHat's Arjan van de Ven has RPM's here.

But: Half the fun of Linux is hand-tweaking your own kernel setup and compiling your own. Why not just do that? =)

Also, remember that you need to upgrade other pieces as well when going from 2.4 to 2.6 - the module utilities in particular. They are now known as "module-init-tools"

Re:RPM for Redhat 9?

[Xpilot]

However, if you do want an rpm, there are people at Redhat who do build them ;)

You can download from here.

Re:What else do you need beside the kernel?

[etymxris]

Here's your list of gotchas. Read it carefully before proceeding.

Here's How to Test Your New Kernel

[MichaelCrawford]

You should test your new kernel more thoroughly than by just casually trying it out on your machine. You can help the kernel developers significantly by doing so. You should also never deploy a new kernel on a production machine, even from a stable source version, unless you have rigorously tested it. While it may work great for everyone else, you may be personally blessed with the discovery of your very own bug, a bug which may cause data loss or significant downtime.

You should also be aware the Linus gets to release a new kernel whenever he wants. He does this when he thinks its the right time, for reasons that don't always involve reliability. He posts a new kernel release when he feels its ready, often without testing it particularly rigorously, and it has happened quite a few times that Linus has released a new "stable" kernel that turns out to be quite broken. It is actually quite common for the stable releases of the non-86 architectures to be quite buggy.

Finally, Linus announced on linux-kernel that the reason he released the first 2.4 stable kernel (2.4.0) was because he wanted more widespread testing, not because he felt it was ready to use. I wouldn't be surprised if he does this with 2.6. Both 2.2 and 2.4 went through several releases before they were really stabilized, and 2.4 has never been as reliable as the later 2.2 versions.

That's why I ask you to read:

• Why We Should Test the New Linux Kernel
• Using Test Suites to Validate the Linux Kernel

The Open Source Development Lab's Japan development center used to have japanese translations of them but they don't seem to be online anymore. I'll track them down and post them here when I can find them.

I am actively seeking further translations of these and the other articles that are at The Linux Quality Database. The articles are all under the GNU Free Documentation License so you can just grab them and translate away.

Thank you for your attention.