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Linux 2.2.5 Released
Insomniacs of the world unite: Linus has bestowed kernel 2.2.5 upon us. Looks as though some sparc64 fixes were applied,
some IPv4 and IPv6 updates were included. This should prevent lock-ups on sparc64 machines, hopefully. Don't know about ega fbcon, though.
Can't wait for 2.2.5ac1, though...PLEASE USE A MIRROR. Sorry to shout, but it's very important that the
files can be mirrored, and that the hardcore kernel hackers can get their patches.
Don't upgrade then. You may not need the bugfixes and/or enhancements the new kernels provide, but somebody out there does. I generally skip 2 or 3 kernel versions unless there is something I need immediately.
Subscribe to linux-kernel-patch and have them emailed to you :)
See http://www.linux.org/help/lists.html for details.
SegFault
Posted by Myrdraal:
Hi, for those of you who don't know, you can snag the changelist at http://edge.linuxhq.com.
-Myrdraal
You mean to say you _download_ 10+ megs of source every time there's a new release? Woops! There goes the world's bandwith :)
/usr/src/linux ../patch-2.2.x
1) D/l patch-2.2.x.tar.{gz or bz2}
2) gunzip or bunzip2 patch-2.2.blah..
3) cd
4) patch -p1
5) compile/bake for 20 mins (cooking times may vary according your computer speed).
rgds.
Kev.
Was there some sort of brown-paper-bag issue in 2.2.4? I know Linus was about to go on a two-week vacation, so did he release this to fix some real showstoppers?
When I checked LinuxHQ, I didn't even see 2.2.5 mentioned yet, and the changelog at Cutting Edge Linux didn't hint at any real showstoppers. Even Alan Cox's diary didn't mention that 2.2.5 was iminent. A search of the Linux Kernel mailing list archives was similarly unenlightening. (I was looking at http://www.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/latest/ ... is there a better place?)
So what's the rush? This almost feels like a development kernel patch cycle....
--Joe--
Program Intellivision!
Yes, as a matter of fact, there is steady constant work being done on the USB subsystem, it's being done mainly by one advernturesome soul who is in school right now. You can check his progress at the web site. You can always find information about inportant projects at the Linux Documentation Project. I know they have keyboards, hubs, mice and several interfacec cards working right now. They are doing some weird crap too... the guy that's doing it noticed that his code puked when he added the seventh mouse...
The lesson here is quite simple:
Any new software release may contain major bugs that the developers missed. If you really need a stable system, don't upgrade to the latest release until it has had time for the bugs to settle out. Sure, the developers try to make every release bug free, but they're only demi-gods (i.e., only mostly perfect).
Fortunately, for Linux, this means wait a few days, possibly a week.
Of course, many of us don't need absolute perfectly stable systems. Hence, we're free to upgrade the moment the latest compiler, kernel, or whatever hits the mirrors, and we just might be the ones to find the brown-paper-bag issue that the developers need to know about. In other words, running a brand new software release and looking for problems is one thing that non-programmers can do to help the free software community.
2.0.0 was out on june 9th, 2.1.0 was out on sep 30th (all 1996), that makes almost 4 months.
In those 4 months came 22 releases in the 2.0 series, in the 2.2 series we haven't seen more than 6 releases, so 2.2 seems to stabilize faster, and so we might see 2.3.0 soon.
If you bothered to look at the contents of the patch file, you will notice that the majority of this patch falls into 3 distinct changes.
i. New device drivers for support of additional serial cards. One of these drivers is huge with many comments. New drivers are always being added - it is called progress
ii. Minor source code changes that do not remove functionality (replacing obsoleted calls and removing include files no longer needed).
iii. Modifications to the Sparc and Sparc64 architecure trees - most users won't need this either.
How many slashdotters actually bother to check the contents of a patch to see what has changed - having worked as a support engineer for 9 years I wager that the answer is 'Not Many'.