Red Hat Linux/x86 7.1.93 Release Notes
-----------------------------------------------
Anaconda Notes
--------------
Bootloader
----------
- We now use GRUB as the default boot loader. However, LILO is still
available for legacy installations. Because of these changes, please
test dual boot (and other interesting boot environments) and report
any problems you may have.
- GRUB supports a password that controls access to the GRUB shell;
because of GRUB's ability to run arbitrary commands, this can be an
important aspect in maintaining system security. The password can be
in either clear text, or encrypted using MD5; Red Hat Linux supports
both.
Partitioning
------------
- GNU Parted is now used as the partitioning backend, replacing the
libfdisk library.
- The Disk Druid user interface has been redesigned by a interface that
(we feel) takes advantage of the GUI environment. We are interested
in feedback as to how we can improve it farther.
- Disk Druid can now create primary partitions by specifying a cylinder
range.
- Disk Druid supports the ability to specify that a new partition must
be a primary partition.
- Text mode now has support for creating RAID devices.
- Specifying spare drives for RAID devices is now supported.
- Autopartitioning now allows you to specify which drives to use, and
which to avoid touching at all.
- There is now an option to view and edit the results of autopartitioning
(for GUI only -- under text mode you will always see the results).
- The EXT3 journaling filesystem is now available.
- Pre-existing filesystems may be selected for reformatting during the
installation.
- Pre-existing EXT2 filesystems may be migrated to EXT3 during installs
and upgrades. This process does not affect the data on the drive.
- Many additional sanity checks are made against user-created mount
points; this should avoid most common problems (such as a '/' mount
point of only 5 MB).
Kickstart
---------
- During the installation process, a kickstart file which mirrors the
user-selected installation options is written to
/root/anaconda-ks.cfg. This file can be used to create a installation
similar to the newly-installed system.
- Kickstart runs in GUI mode by default. However, it can be switched
back to text mode with "text" as a directive in the kickstart file
- Kickstart has several new features/directives:
interactive -- reads in kickstart file, goes through install with UI
filled in with kickstart values
text -- forces kickstart to run in text mode. Default is now to run in
graphical mode.
- clearpart now accepts a --ondisk option:
--ondisk -- you can specify which drives to clear partitions on now.
- new command for bootloader, "bootloader" which supports an argument of:
--append <args> -- append <args> on the kernel line
--useLilo -- use LILO instead of grub
--md5pass <crypted MD5 password> -- password for GRUB to use
- Added flags for xconfig directive to define:
--resolution 1024x768 -- set screen resolution (1024 by 768 in this
case)
--depth 16 -- set display color depth (set to 16-big color in this
example)
Miscellaneous
-------------
- The individual package selection screen now supports a flat view of
all packages.
- For FTP-based installations, it is now possible to loopback mount the
Red Hat Linux ISO images on an FTP server. The ISO images should be
loopback mounted as /disc1, /disc2, and so on in the same directory.
This directory should be then be specified when an FTP-based
installation is started.
- In order to maximize space in the install image, the BusyBox program
now provides support for many common commands.
- Rescue mode now prompts before attempting to mount filesystems from
the installed system.
- Partitionless installs are no longer supported; however, upgrades are
still currently supported.
- USB floppy devices are now supported during installation.
Distribution General Notes
--------------------------
- For this beta release of Red Hat Linux, the up2date program has been
configured to point to a different Red Hat Network server. This
server (beta.rhns.redhat.com) can be used to obtain updated packages
for the duration of this Red Hat Linux beta test ONLY. After the beta
test has been completed, this Red Hat Network server will no longer be
available for use.
- There are known issues upgrading Red Hat Linux 6.x, 7.0, and 7.1
systems running Ximian GNOME.
The issue is caused by version overlap between the official Red Hat
Linux RPMs and the Ximian RPMs. Please be aware that this is a
configuration unsupported by Red Hat. You have several choices in
resolving this issue:
o You may remove Ximian GNOME from your Red Hat Linux system prior to
upgrading Red Hat Linux.
o You may upgrade Red Hat Linux, and then immediately reinstall
Ximian GNOME.
o You may upgrade Red Hat Linux, and then immediately remove all
remaining Ximian RPMs, and replace them with the corresponding Red
Hat Linux RPMs.
You *must* resolve the version overlap using one of the above choices.
Failure to do so will result in an unstable GNOME configuration.
- The PowerTools CD is no longer being produced. However, the most
widely-used packages which were in PowerTools have been included in
Red Hat Linux.
- GNOME has been updated to 1.4 and includes the Nautilus graphical
shell.
- The GNOME control center has been replaced by the preferences: folder
in Nautilus (however, running "gnomecc" manually still works)
- Initial unified support for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese,
and Korean
- Binutils and gcc support for merging string constant duplicates across
whole binaries or shared libraries (previously duplicates have been
merged within a single compilation unit only).
- gcc3 is included for those who need standards-compliant C++ or STL
support, and for those who want to use the Java features of gcc. Note
that the supported system compiler for C and C++ is still gcc-2.96
(Red Hat).
- The VNC package now supports a new encoding type for low-bandwidth
connections.
- First release of the Gnome XSLT processor xsltproc using version 2 of
the associated XML library.
- ODBC-support has been added to php, postgresql have been updated to
7.1.2, python interfaces have been added, and perl interfaces
updated.
- XFree86 4.1.0 is now included, with improved hardware support. The
old XIE and PEX (Phigs) X extensions are now officially deprecated by
the XFree86 team, and will be removed from a future release of Red Hat
Linux.
- DRI support is not included for XFree86-4.1.0. This means that
hardware-accelerated GL will not work.
- XFree86 3.3.6 is now deprecated and will be removed from a future
release of Red Hat Linux. It is currently included for compatibility.
- Several new configuration tools are included. With these tools you can
configure:
- network (redhat-config-network)
- time/date (dateconfig)
- system control (serviceconf)
- users/groups (redhat-config-users)
Kernel Notes
------------
- The VM system is still being tuned. Processes are sometimes killed
from apparent lack of available memory when there is sufficient swap
space available. This is the main known reliability problem with this
kernel.
- ext3 is updated. Since the Rawhide releases of 2.4 with ext3, new
unified error handling has been added; this is new code that needs
testing.
PLEASE report any odd behavior in ext3!
Feel free to try different journal sizes, anything from 4MB (the
minimum for normal 4K block size filesystems) up to several hundred MB
if you are mounting with the option data=journal instead of the
default (data=ordered). Stress test, benchmark, whatever you like.
The data=journal option is not as well tested right now (because it is
not the default) so please test and report any problems with it.
- The kernel has several internal debugging checks enabled. The main
effect of this is a slight performance decrease under generic use;
however, specific benchmarks might be influenced significantly.
i386 7.1.93
Wer Intresse hat am Image melde sich hier !