[Linux-ia64] Red Hat Linux 7.1 for Itanium now available - Release Notes
FYI.
Bdale
From: notting@redhat.com (Bill Nottingham)
Subject: [Linux-ia64] Red Hat Linux 7.1 for Itanium now available - Release Notes
Date: 10 Jul 2001 08:54:23 -0600
Message-ID: <20010710104413.B7928@devserv.devel.redhat.com>
Red Hat Linux/Itanium 7.1 Release Notes
-----------------------------------------------
This document describes features that are new to Red Hat Linux/Itanium, but
may not have been available prior to our documentation being finalized.
For the very latest information, please read the RELEASE-NOTES file on the
Red Hat Linux CD #1.
Last-Minute Changes
-------------------
o Boot loader Change -- Red Hat Linux/Itanium uses the ELILO boot
loader. Older, prerelease evaluation Itanium systems shipped with
an older boot loader (known as ELI). These systems must be upgraded
to use ELILO before installing Red Hat Linux/Itanium.
If you have used ELI, please note that the change to ELILO affects
the boot loader configuration file names:
- ELI used eli.cfg
- ELILO uses elilo.conf
o Partitioning -- Red Hat Linux/Itanium supports EFI GUID Partition
Tables. These partition tables are created by default on unpartitioned
disks by Disk Druid, and can be edited with parted. fdisk does
not currently support EFI GPT partitioning. Note that Disk Druid
only supports 64 partitions per disk for EFI GPT partitioning; any
partition table entries greater than 64 will be REMOVED if Disk
Druid is used.
o Automatic Partitioning -- Red Hat Linux/Itanium only supports
automatic partitioning for Server installs. Note that choosing
automatic partitioning will erase ALL existing partitions, destroying
ALL data on ALL disks.
o Firmware revisions on prototype hardware -- If you intend to run Red
Hat Linux/Itanium on prototype Itanium hardware, please be sure that
your hardware is using the latest revision firmware. Contact your
system's vendor if you require a firmware update. Note that
non-prototype Itanium systems should already be at the appropriate
revision.
o Upgrades from beta versions not supported -- Please note that
upgrades from a Red Hat Linux beta to a final version of Red Hat
Linux/Itanium are not officially supported. Such upgrades may or may
not work, so please plan on performing a fresh install when moving to
a final Red Hat Linux release.
o Reminder regarding NFS, FTP, or HTTP installations -- Because the Red
Hat Linux Itanium installation program is capable of installing Red
Hat Linux from multiple CD-ROMs, if you intend to support NFS, FTP,
or HTTP installations it is no longer possible to simply mount a
single Red Hat Linux CD-ROM, and install from it.
Instead, you must copy the RedHat directory from each CD-ROM
comprising Red Hat Linux Itanium 7.1 onto a disk drive:
- Insert CD 1
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
cp -var /mnt/cdrom/RedHat /location/of/disk/space
umount /mnt/cdrom
- Insert CD 2
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
cp -var /mnt/cdrom/RedHat /location/of/disk/space
umount /mnt/cdrom
You must then make /location/of/disk/space accessible to the
installation program (for example, exporting it for NFS
installations):
- Export /location/of/disk/space
Installation-Related Enhancements and Changes
---------------------------------------------
The Red Hat Linux 7.1 installation program includes a number of new
features. For more information, please refer to the Official Red Hat Linux
Installation Guide.
o Swap-related issues -- The 2.4 kernel is more aggressive than the 2.2
kernel in its use of swap space. However, as with previous versions
of the kernel, the optimal sizing of swap space remains dependent on
the following:
- The amount of RAM installed
- The amount of disk space available for swap
- The applications being run
- The mix of applications that are run concurrently
No rule-of-thumb can possibly take all these data points into
account. However, we recommend the following swap sizes:
- Single-user systems with less than 128MB physical RAM: 256MB
- Single-user systems and low-end servers with more than 128MB
physical RAM: two times physical RAM (2xRAM)
- Dedicated servers with more than 512MB physical RAM: highly
dependent on environment (must be determined on a case-by-case
basis)
While it is certainly possible for systems with specific
configurations and application loads to run with less (or even no)
swap space, these guidelines attempt to ensure that you will not run
out of swap. The old saying certainly applies to swap space:
"It's better to have it and not need it, than to need
it and not have it."
o XFree86 4.0.3 -- The Red Hat Linux 7.1 installation program includes
improved test screens and better detection of video memory, doing
more than ever to help you get everything correct with a minimum of
fuss.
o Firewall Configuration -- For added security, you can now configure a
firewall as part of your system installation. You can choose from
two levels of security, as well as choosing which common system
services should be allowed or disallowed by default.
Please note that both "medium" and "high" firewall settings will
cause RPC-based services (such as NIS or NFS) to be blocked, and
thus fail.
o Hard Drive Installation - ISO images are now required for hard drive
installations, making it no longer necessary to copy and install the
entire tree. Instead, simply put the required ISO images in a
directory. During the hard drive installation, point the Red Hat
Linux installation program at that directory. In addition, since Red
Hat publishes MD5 checksums for all ISO images, it is now possible to
ensure that you are using officially-released software by running the
md5sum program against your ISO images, and comparing the checksums
against the ones published by Red Hat.
o Language Selection -- Language selection has been significantly
re-vamped. It is now possible to install in one language, but
specify that the system, after installation, will operate in another
language.
o Disk Druid Improvements -- Disk Druid now detects partition table
inconsistencies, such as partitions that do not end on cylinder
boundaries. This can be caused if the geometry of a hard disk drive
is detected differently than when the drive was originally
partitioned. In these cases, we recommend that you use the fdisk
program to more closely inspect these inconsistencies, or choose to
skip the drive entirely.
o Graphical Kickstart Configuration -- Red Hat Linux 7.1 now provides a
graphical interface for creating kickstart configurations, allowing
custom, unattended installations to be created with greater ease than
ever before.
o Improved Rescue Mode -- Rescue mode now attempts to mount the
filesystems listed in /etc/fstab (assuming the root filesystem can be
found). The filesystems are mounted under /mnt/sysimage. This
eliminates a very confusing step for users using rescue-mode for the
first time.
o New Authentication Configuration Security Option -- Authentication
configuration now includes the ability to use Transport Layer
Security (TLS) when performing lookups. TLS allows LDAP clients to
use an encrypted connection when performing authentication.
o Miscellaneous Installation Program Improvements -- Overall, there are
many additional tests and checks performed to catch potential
problems which previously caused tracebacks (installer crashes).
This should reduce the number of poor out-of-box experiences for
newer users.
System-Related Enhancements and Changes
---------------------------------------
There are many features new to Red Hat Linux 7.1 that are not part of the
installation process. Some new features are server-oriented programs,
while others are new applications or desktop environment changes. This
list will provide a bit more information about what to expect from Red Hat
Linux 7.1 once you are actually using the OS.
o Upgraded Core System Components -- The following major system
components have been upgraded in Red Hat Linux 7.1:
- kernel 2.4.x (with additional fixes)
- glibc 2.2.3
- KDE 2.1.1
- XFree86 4.0.3 with the Xft anti-aliased font render extension
- GCC 2.96-RH, with many new fixes since the original 7.0 release
o Improved USB Support -- The 2.4 kernel gives Red Hat Linux 7.1 more
mature USB support than previous versions of Red Hat Linux. It
contains more drivers, and includes support for storage devices such
as CD-ROMs. It also supports "hot-pluggable" or removable devices --
if a supported device is plugged in after booting, the necessary
drivers will load automatically.
o Removable media drives automatically added to /etc/fstab -- Red Hat
Linux 7.1 now includes the ability for users to mount and unmount
removable media drives. This is done by the updfstab program (which
is part of the kudzu boot-time hardware configurator). It adds and
removes the necessary entries in /etc/fstab. Note that each entry
managed by updfstab contains the new "kudzu" option -- this acts as a
token indicating that the entry may subsequently be removed; if you
wish to permanently add such an entry to your fstab, simply remove
the "kudzu" option.
Hotpluggable devices are handled through a combination of cardmgr,
hotplug, updfstab, and pam_console_apply. When the kernel notifies
hotplug or cardmgr that a new storage device has been attached to the
system, updfstab is run to add the new entries to the fstab. Then,
updfstab runs pam_console_apply, which uses the rules specified in
/etc/security/console.perms to give the current console user access
to the device.
GNOME users who run magicdev will see device icons appear on their
desktop automatically. magicdev regularly checks the timestamp of
/etc/fstab, and directs gmc to rescan devices when the fstab has
changed. If you do not run magicdev, the "Rescan Devices" option on
the root gmc menu (which appears when you right-click on the desktop)
performs an equivalent function.
KDE users will see similar functionality.
o New and Updated Drivers -- Many drivers are new to Red Hat Linux 7.1,
or have been upgraded as a result of switching to a 2.4-based kernel.
Changes include:
- Updated Adaptec AIC7XXX SCSI driver
- IEEE1394 (FireWire(tm)) subsystem
- Adaptec starfire quad ethernet
- IPv6 support
- NFS version 3
- iptables, an improved firewall layer
- Maestro3 sound
- Broadcom BCM5700 PCI-X 10/100/1000BASE-T controller
- IDE UltraDMA/66 and UltraDMA/100 contoller support
o 3D acceleration under XFree86 4.0.3 -- A wide variety of 3DFX cards
have been added to the list of cards supporting accelerated 3D
graphics. In addition, Intel i810, Matrox G200, G400, G450 (NOTE:
dual-head operation on the G450 is unsupported), and ATI Rage 128
based cards also support accelerated 3D graphics. Please note that
3D acceleration on ATI Radeon cards is not yet supported by XFree86
4.0.3.
o New Apache Configuration Tool -- apacheconf:
- Helps manage virtual hosts in an intelligent fashion
- Configured via the Alchemist Data Library
o New BIND Configuration Tool -- bindconf:
- Makes DNS configuration easier
- Configured via the Alchemist Data Library
o New Printing Configuration Tool -- printconf:
- Filters are based on David Parson's magicfilter, the foomatic
system, and the Linux Printing Database
(http://linuxprinting.org).
- Supports over 500 printers
- Upgrades old systems configured with printtool
- Configured via the Alchemist Data Library
o Emacs/XEmacs site-start.d Directories -- Emacs/XEmacs each support a
site-start.d directory. Packages can now place emacs .el startup
files in the appropriate directory, and they will be loaded when the
editor starts. This eliminates the need to edit the site-start.el
file directly. The directories are:
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/site-start.d
/usr/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages/lisp/site-start.d
o IMAP server changes -- The IMAP server now defaults to using its
built-in SSL support instead of stunnel's tunneling support.
Accordingly, the name of the certificate file used by imapd has
changed from stunnel.pem to imapd.pem. Users upgrading from previous
releases of Red Hat Linux will need to rename, copy, or create a
symbolic link to their existing certificate.
o Sendmail -- By default, sendmail does not accept network connections
from any host other than the local computer. If you want to
configure sendmail as a server for other clients, please edit
/etc/mail/sendmail.mc and change DAEMON_OPTIONS to also listen on
network devices, or comment out this option all together. You will
need to regenerate /etc/sendmail.cf by running:
m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/sendmail.cf
Note that you must have the sendmail-cf package installed for this to
work.
o Other package highlights:
- Ogg Vorbis audio encoder/decoder
- LSB-compliant SGML and XML packages
- KDE 2.1 and KOffice
- BIND 9.x with DNSsec support and remote named control
- SSL support in links, slrn, OpenLDAP, and pine
- Pine 4.33
- Quanta HTML editor (on Powertools)
- Postfix and exim (on Powertools) include SSL/TLS support
- WINE (on Powertools) can directly execute Windows .exe binaries
from Linux
o Deprecated Packages -- the following packages are deprecated, and
could disappear in a future release:
- AfterStep
- Netscape 4.x
- Qt 1.x
- KDE v1 compatibility libraries / build environment
- elm
- linuxconf
- ncpfs
- mars_nwe
Documentation-Related Enhancements and Changes
----------------------------------------------
o Additional documentation regarding the /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file
-- Due to time constraints, the following information was not
available prior to the Red Hat Linux Reference Guide's print date.
The /etc/sysconfig/vncservers file configures how the Virtual Network
Computing (VNC) server starts up. VNC is a remote display system
which allows you to view a desktop environment not only on the
machine where it is running but across different networks (from a LAN
to the Internet) and using a wide variety of machine architectures.
It may contain the following:
VNCSERVERS=<value>, where <value> is set to something like "1:fred",
to indicate that a VNC server should be started for user fred on
display :1. User fred must have set a VNC passwd using vncpasswd
before attempting to connect to the remote VNC server.
Note that when you use a VNC server, your communication with it is
unencrypted, and so it should not be used on an untrusted
network. For specific instructions concerning the use of SSH to
secure the VNC communication, please read the information found at
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/sshvnc.html. To find out more
about SSH, please refer to the Red Hat Linux Reference and
Customization Guides.
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