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Kernel 2.4.23 Released

Posted by michael on from the hey-debian-how-about-compiling-in-acpi-this-time dept.

MikeCapone writes "As if we didn't already have enough articles about Linux kernel releases, Marcelo Tosatti has released the final 2.4.23 Linux kernel. Check out the changelog at Kerneltrap."

2 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Kernel Release by joshhan · · Score: 5, Informative
    The 2.4 kernels ARE major kernels since they are the stable releases.

    Any mission critical environments should run a stable version of the kernel.

    In this sense, they are more major than the 2.6 beta kernels.

  2. Re:Is there.. by Crazy+Eight · · Score: 5, Informative
    Well, to be fair the 2.6 prereleases seem much more stable to me than the 2.4 prereleases. I think there was a bit too much anticipation centered around 2.4's release. It might have been better served by staying a 2.3 kernel until around 2.4.9 or so. I'm sure the tinkerers here remember how much flux the VM went through after 2.4.0.

    But... just because this release is going much smoother that doesn't mean your critic doesn't have a point. Regardless of how long 2.6 retains backward compatability with some aspects of 2.4's presentation to userland, there are some fairly fundamental things that are going to have to change for a system to be fully 2.6-ized. Devfs is being dropped for udev, swaths of proc are being moved to sysfs, and modules get a whole new userland tool. Now, I can boot 2.6 on my desktop and even run X with those unofficial nvidia module wrappers, but hde's performace is degraded despite hdparm's report of increased functionality and I can't run it on my powerbook without a hack to fix the keyboard. The userland stuff for udev hasn't even been written yet. If you've got anything under /etc that touches /proc you may have to rewrite it. Does your server hardware have the ability to monitor fans and temperatures? If so is that important as a failsafe for your uptime? Better check everything between i2c-foo.ko and whatever sends you mail 'cause sysfs has made it a whole new ballgame. Understand, I'm not saying that this kernel doesn't look born to win. It does. But look at your conf files for devfsd. Unless you've rolled your own distro odds are you've got all sorts of wierd tweaks to support a namespace that's lingered since 2.2. Raise your hands if you can boot your machine without "MKOLDCOMPAT"! (I especially love the "original 'new' devfs names or the really new names".) My point here is simply that 2 years after 2.4.0 made a better way of handling devices official the change is still being absorbed. That's not a bad thing. It just illustrates the conservative, one-step-at-a-time way that the whole system moves forward. Most won't stick a prerelease or even a 2.6.0 kernel on a machine that pays thier rent because they don't want to fix something that isn't broken.