Meet Linux Kernel 2.6.2, 'Feisty Dunnart'

hatrisc writes "As of about 10:04 pm on February 3rd, Linux users can grab the official 2.6.2 kernel release from kernel.org. A lot of PPC fixes. Changelog is here." omniru writes "Linux kernel 2.6.2 aka 'Feisty Dunnart' released," and adds some possibly useful information "about Dunnarts, in case you've never heard of them before. Changes include ACPI, Bluetooth, USB, XFS and many more improvements and fixes." gowdy suggests eager downloaders use a mirror.

Comments

Anything broken? Otherwise why upgrade?

[r6144]

I don't think many people will find upgrading to a stable release of the kernel interesting. For those who upgrade often, is anything broken for you (including security fixes of course, but there doesn't seems to be anything serious recently), or if not, why do you upgrade to a stable release without significant new features?

Personally I upgraded from 2.6.0-test11 to 2.6.1-rc3 in order to fix the famous local security exploit. User-mode linux still doesn't work well, but since the 2.6.0-test3 version of the virtual machine on 2.6.1 hosts works mostly (newer umls don't work), I decide to ignore the problem for now. Unluckily the SMTP server of my mail provider has trouble contacting lists.sourceforge.net, so I can't even submit a bug report :(

Re:Anything broken? Otherwise why upgrade?

[makapuf]

Because, for any people having an nforce2 board, they will be able to use their ethernet controller on a stable kernel.

Re:Anything broken? Otherwise why upgrade?

[BenjyD]

I'd think that the fix for the "hash key being bound to ctrl-alt-f7 on many British layout keyboards" problem is a pretty good reason for a lot of people to upgrade. Kinda makes it hard to put comments in shell scripts...

ACL?

[Lussarn]

Does anybody know if ACLs will become standard in 2.6 (Is there even ACL patches out for 2.6)?

Changelog Translation

[Apreche]

I always love to read kernel changelogs. They are always really long and a great way to visualize just how much work is being done on linux all the time. The problem is, that while they are fun to read, they are not particularly informative to the average joe. For example let's look at some excerpts from the winamp changelog.

* Support for classic Winamp 1.x/2.x/2.9x skins and Winamp 3 ("Modern") skins
* Fancy new modern skin:
- Integrated video, AVS, and Milkdrop support
- Many built-in colorthemes
* Same ol' classic skin for people who want the Winamp 2 feel
* Vastly more powerful media library:
- Automatic background directory scanning options
- Customizable views and columns, graphical view editor
- Internet Radio (SHOUTcast) and TV listings
- Context-sensitive item info viewer
* CD ripping support (AAC@2x in free version, MP3 at unlimited speeds in pro)
* CD burning support (limited to 2x in free version)

and so on. Looking at stuff like this really helps the user like me understand what fixes and changes have taken place. More importantly it allows me to easily determine if any of these fixes or changes will affect me, and how they will do so. This is necessary because I need this information to decide if I'm going to recompile my kernel or not. I propose that in addition to releasing the usual changelog they also make a human readable changelog. Something that would say stuff like this

USB Lego towers work now
SATA works now
Fixed a bug that makes it go faster
Cleaned a warning so it compiles better

etc. etc.