Differences between version 25 and previous revision of LinuxKernel2.6.
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| Newer page: | version 25 | Last edited on Thursday, February 17, 2005 1:07:58 pm | by JohnMcPherson | Revert |
| Older page: | version 24 | Last edited on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:23:56 pm | by BrendonJones | Revert |
@@ -16,8 +16,11 @@
!!!Caveat Emptor
It took kernel 2.4 about 14 patches and three different VM systems before a "stable" stable version. 2.6 has gone through several months of test kernels, but the design methodology still says "release it to primetime and let the users do the testing" (otherwise, no-one would!) Running a beta kernel is not reccomended for any server or otherwise important box. If in doubt, wait six months. It should be fine to run on a workstation until then. There are some cases, however, when a [RAID] or [SCSI] controller isn't supported by the 2.4 series kernels, so if you want to use one of them in a server, your best bet is upgrading (carefully) to 2.6.
+
+See our KernelNotes page for other upgrade notes and differences from
+the 2.4 series.
!!! Detailed Reviews of the kernel
Joe Pranevich on [The Wonderful World of Linux 2.6|http://www.kniggit.net/wwol26.html]
@@ -28,43 +31,8 @@
You'll notice in the menuconfig several things have moved about. There is now an option for architecture and a seperate option for processor family, for instance, whereas in 2.4 these are combined. The list of platforms Linux supports is now so long that Linus felt the need to split architecture and family to make it easier to choose the right options. Other new entries include support for kernel accelerated crypto (you can build crypto algorythm support as modules or directly into the kernel). There is also support for additional (nazi) security regimes like grsec which can protect your machine from some kinds of tampering, but is generally an annoyance. Of course these arent the only new entries, you can find and explore them yourself.
(Lazy RedHatLinux users can see KernelNotes for prepackaged RH kernels).
-!!!Nvidia notes
-
-[NVIDIA drivers|http://www.nvidia.com/linux] version 1.0-6106 and up support all 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, including kernels with the new 2.6 option for 4k stacks.
-
-!!!ModuleInitTools
-
-Starting with 2.5.51, Linus merged a new way of handling modules. He's added versioning on every symbol inside a module, with the intent that the kernel can read the module and what hooks it uses, compare it to an internal database of whats critical and whats not, and can decide whether the module could be used even if it wasnt compiled specifically for the current running kernel. This adds a lot more flexibility for people forced to run binary-only proprietary modules to support their hardware. What this means for the user is a completely rewritten set of module tools (modprobe(8), insmod(8), lsmod(8)). On [Debian] you can get these with a quick
-
- apt-get install module-init-tools
-
-Module-init-tools is backwards compatible with 2.4.x kernels, so if you're dual booting between a stable and a beta kernel, you've got module functionality on both. (Read ModuleInitTools for an important caveat!)
-
-__Important:__ module-init-tools no longer reads modules.conf and instead uses a new file called modprobe.conf(5) which has a different syntax. 'man 5 modprobe.conf' will be your friend here. It's possible to set modprobe.conf to handle modules for both 2.4.x and 2.5.x kernels, which is pretty cool if you're a dualbooter.
-
-Also you may notice that the extension of modules has changed from .o to .ko, for kernel object.
-
-!!!Debian Woody and 2.6
-As mentioned above you need at least a new version of module-init-tools - you will need to use backports to get updated
-versions of some important packages. Add the following two lines to your apt sources.list:
- # kernel 2.6 and related things
- deb http://www.backports.org/debian woody kernel-2.6
- deb http://www.backports.org/debian woody module-init-tools
-and install/update module-init-tools, modutils (if you want to dual-boot with a 2.4 kernel), hdparm, and procinfo.
-
-! dhcp server
-If you install 2.6 on a machine running a dhcp server, then the default woody startup script won't work.
-The "dhcp", version "2.0pl5-11" has two separate binaries, one for 2.0 kernels and one for later kernels.
-Unfortunately, the /usr/sbin/dhcpd shell script tests if your kernel version is either 2.0, or 2.x (where "x"
-is between 1 and 5, inclusive). Edit the shell script and add a "6" to the part that says [[12345].
-
-(This is an incredibly helpful hint. As far as I know, this is the only place its documented, and it's pretty
-damn important -AS)
-
-! dhcp client
-The dhcp client startup script looks to suffer from the same problem. Edit the shell script /sbin/dhclient and make the same changes - add a "6" to the part that says [[12345].
----
For anyone who tries a 2.6.x kernel early in the game, here is a place to record your experiences.
@@ -74,9 +42,9 @@
'Tried a generic 2.6.0 from kernel.org on Fedora Core release 1 (Yarrow) using SoftwareRaid. When running the make install it complains when creating the initrd image and the raid1 module not being present. The bzImage loads fine when testing it manually, and seems to run sofar. -- GerwinVanDeSteeg'
Compiled 2.6.5 under Debian Sarge, monolithic (no modules, compiled in everything I use) and pre-emptable. It feels very responsive! Been using it for a few days already. - zcat(1)
-After upgrading my [
Linode]
running woody to 2.6, I was unable to ssh in (fortunately the guys at linode provide a nice ssh-able console running under screen so I could fix the problem). Googling revealed that I had to add the following line to /etc/fstab (see http://lists.debian.org/debian-sparc/2004/07/msg00119.html):
+After upgrading my Linode running woody to 2.6, I was unable to ssh in (fortunately the guys at linode provide a nice ssh-able console running under screen so I could fix the problem). Googling revealed that I had to add the following line to /etc/fstab (see http://lists.debian.org/debian-sparc/2004/07/msg00119.html):
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
-- !PaulBrannan
@@ -85,12 +53,7 @@
----
[1] Originally unusual; now Gnome and Evolution (to name a few) use it.
-[2] Interestingly enough, in order to get the above working, I had to add the line:
-
- #define kdev_val(d) ((unsigned int)(d))
-
-To the nv-linux.h file of the aforementioned driver (version 4496) in order to get it to work. Others appear to have had no trouble with it, perhaps someone could shed some light as to why this is?
----
CategoryKernel
