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Linux Kernel 2.6.6 Released
maradong writes "The new Linux Kernel 2.6.6 has been released just 2 hours ago. The Patch from version 2.6.5 to 2.6.6, which can be downloaded on kernel.org measures 2.4MiB and the Changelog can be found at the known place."
Note that this breaks the loading of Nvidia modules.
Rather annoying since Nvidia knew this issue was coming.
The fix is to back a patch out, but it's a bad idea.
Stay at 2.6.5 if you use Nvidias drivers, for now.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
KernelTrap has more information about the 2.6.6 release. Looks like lots of good stuff was merged! Laptop mode, CFQ, ...
Check out the now merged laptop mode. Allows you to really save that battery. It is also good on my home server that uses hostap - there is not too much to write on disk, so I'll set the timeout to something like once a week...
A definite must for laptop users that want a little more operating hours from their batteries.
This is not as much bugfixing as it is improving the kernel.
Like writing better code, better memoryhandling, adding new features, improved hardwaresupport and the like.
And unlike Windows Update, you don't have to update the kernel if you don't want to. Very little software do require specific kernel-versions, as opposed to Microsoft where almost everything seems to have kernel tie-ins.
Hope this answers your question.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Every piece of software gets updates as bugs get squashed and new features added. The gripe with windows is that the updates don't come as often and they often break other things, so your system can be vulnerable for long periods of time. Also, Microsoft has been known to ignore critical errors, while linux problems generally get fixed very quickly.
The big difference is in the development process, so you can see what exactly is changing, you can fix things that break your system (for example, the nvidia problem somebody mentioned already) and you can choose between different kernels (more feature-rich, more stable, or more performance-oriented) maintained by different people. You don't get this freedom with closed-source software.
If you're a new user or an end user, you shouldn't concern yourself with vanilla kernel updates. Your distro should provide hot patches like MS Update on some kind of a regular basis. As for how different that MS Update that is, it's not, a code fix is a code fix, regardless of your platform. There's nothing really wrong with this since MS Update is actually a decent patching facility.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
Can't help you on the build time, but this will save you time on the download, seeing as you already have the 2.6.5 source;
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/
patch-2.6.6.bz2 09-May-2004 20:18 2.4M
It'll only break if you choose the new CONFIG_4KSTACKS option (use 4Kb for kernel stacks instead of 8Kb under the Kernel hacking menu of menuconfig). Leave that option unchecked and it should work just fine (I'm using 2.6.6-rc3-mm1 right now with NVIDIA's driver).
Last week someone from nVidia finally stepped up to the plate on lkml and told us all the real problem with the apic hangs. They'd told the BIOS writers long ago, but from what I can tell, only Shuttle had done anything about it. So they finally released the same info to the Linux community.
Hours after the information was released, the first patch followed. A little feedback and tweaking, and it's into the mainline kernel in less than a week. Kudos to Ross Dickson, et al, for all the work they'd done trying to fix this problem, prior to the official informatino release.
Does anyone know if the patch for either forceDeth or the 3com 2nd adapter on some nForce2 boards is in the mainline kernel, yet?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Aha, mine also stopped working in 2.6.6-rcX.
/dev/input/mouse0 and hit the wheel, maybe you're missing some modules. Check you have: ohci_hcd, ehci_hcd, uhci_hcd, usbmouse and usbhid.
I had to set the type as ExplorerPS/2 in XF86Config (was IMPS/2 before).
Although, you should see something when you cat
You should read you own links:
It is important to recognize that the new prefixes for binary multiples are not part of the International System of Units (SI), the modern metric system.
...
Faced with this reality, the IEEE Standards Board decided that IEEE standards will use the conventional, internationally adopted, definitions of the SI prefixes. Mega will mean 1 000 000, except that the base-two definition may be used (if such usage is explicitly pointed out on a case-by-case basis) until such time that prefixes for binary multiples are adopted by an appropriate standards body.
Hopefully, it will remain that no "appropriate standards body" adopts this ridiculous notation!
kernel.org seems slashdotted from here. Good job direct-linking to it in the story.
Mirror to the rescue!
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6
Errrm, the kernel numbering scheme doesn't work on a "Oh crap, we hit x.y.9, next rev is x.y+1.0!" scheme. The third number has no ceiling; theoretically, we could see 2.6.159, if there was any reason to continue the 2.6.x kernel out that far.
2.4 is hovering in the low 20's as far as minor rev. number at this point.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
I have found that KernelTrap often discusses things in language I can understand, and then it should be quite accessible to many more than kernel hackers... :-)
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
I wouldn't go that far. Not entirely.
I'd say you had a point saying that noone wants these changes. I certinaly don't want or particularly like them. But I can see that if they aren't needed, it's not for much longer.
They aren't "more correct" and they aren't "better". But what they are is clearer. And, like it or not, it's getting to a point where that clarity is needed.
Firstly there's the two types of manufacturer. For whatever reason the HDD manufacturers prefer to use the 10^n meanings. Maybe it's so that they can swipe more money on misleading advertising. Maybe it's some sort of tradition. Maybe it's both - a tradition that just so happens to benefit them. But they're not going to chance.
For memory-manufacturers the reason is clear. When dealing in binary (and unless something happened overnight, memory is still working on digital signals) then you can only really work to the power of two. So they're going to continue using the 2^10n notation.
Secondly you get everyone else. Whether professionals in other disciplines, or merely Joe Average taught in school (or whatever) that kilofoo is always 1000 foo, and megafoo is always 1000000 foo, they're going to have assumptions about what the prefix means that in any other context would be right but in this case would (or may... - damn HDD labels) be wrong.
And even then, if you need to refer to "one thousand bytes" then how else could you shorten it?
Back when computers where still specialist then it wasn't too much of a problem. But now computers are so prevalent that the potential for confusion is too high.
I'd love to get everyone else to change. To me "one megabyte" is "1024 x 1024 bytes" and always will be. But getting every other SI prefix to change to make way for one is unlikely.
Personally I don't "read" KiB/MiB/whatever any differently. My brain still "hears" it as kilo-/mega- or whatever. Probably always will - those "bibibibibi" bits trip me up. But when I see it (or even write it) I know with 100% certainty that the 2^10n is meant (often mentally interpreting it as "binary megabytes" or whatever...). If it's not there, I always wonder. On products it oftenleaves me always searching for the small print to be totally certain of what is meant.
Like it or not, the confusion is there. And something has to be done to reduce it. And, unfortunately, we're the ones in the minority side of the prefix-usage.
Tell that to the hard-drive manufacturers.
TiggsThey don't accept it, or use in in the industry. They may be wrong, but unfortunately they're not exactly helping things any. It means it's a part of the ocmputing industry that's muddying up the waters internally.
Tiggs
"120 chars should be enough for everyone..."
Blech. Bad formatting/sentence structure. Let me try that again, without HTML formatting.
> Just out of curiosity, what's it going to take to get to kernel version 3.0? Honestly, what changes, additions, etc have to be incorporated until they call it Kernel 3.0?
An ABI change.
The main argument against the numbering of the 2.6 kernel as 3.0 as I understand it was that, while the change from major version 1 (1.x) to major version 2 (2.x) of the Linux kernel involved a change in the ABI (Linux 1.x used A.OUT binaries, 2.x uses ELF binaries), the transition between 2.4 and 2.6 did not.
Since 2.4.x and the new kernel version were binary-compatible, they decided not to name it 3.x despite the major architectural changes and improvements that had been made.
You can just download the 2.6.5->2.6.6 patch and apply only those parts that you want. Or, better, you can find the interesting bits in the Changelog, and use bitkeeper to get the relevant changesets.