Linux Kernel 2.5.1 is Out

xise writes: "The next installment in the 2.5 Linux Kernel beta series, 2.5.1 is avaliable at the usual place Linux Kernel Archives. Remember to use the mirrors. You can read the changelog here."

Re:I'm Bored

[Luti]

What about this, you use /. like I do, I leave everything on in the main section, I read the headline, and if it interests me I'll read the article, if not, I can do this amazing thing, SCROLL DOWN!!!

Argh(Argh())

[matticus]

There are 5 standard replies every time slashdot lists a new kernel release.

• Only the brave need apply! This is not for servers! Blah Blah!
• Slashdot shouldn't post this!
• So exactly what has changed?
• My uptime! Argh!
• There are 5 standard replies every time...

Upgrading

[Zog]

I just finally got version 2.0.34 to not make my toaster oven radiate green antimatter. I've heard that 2.4.15-pre14 has this feature built in if I remount my disks enough without syncing and doing lots of little changes to my filesystem - I guess it'd be a bit unorthodox to use that method to make my toaster stop, but it should theoretically work. Does the 2.5 series have this problem solved?

I kind of got frustrated after trying to patch it for a while, and just let it eat stuff before I finally made myself fix it, but when I sent in the patch, he said it was too big and obfuscated (I'm not quite sure what he meant - BettyLuJane could read it fine if I held her head on for her), but now I have to try all over again? 2.1 or 2.2 I think I could get done before it starts eating the sofa again, but 2.5? It'd eat all the way through the safety systems on all my Acme stuff, and I don't want that to happen again.

I mean, 2.5 just sounds really big. Does it mean I have to use real names for my variables instead of just my favorite letters? Also, I don't think my toaster liked gcc. It said something about being incompatible with M$ PROPRIETARY ANTIMATTER-GENERATING TOASTER's. I still don't know where that came from, but it all went away when I rewrote the kernel in Visual Basic 2.0+.

Well, thank you for your time. If you have any suggestions (or if you want to send me a new toaster - I can't really afford a new one quite yet), my email is [e-mail].

P.S. If it does fix the antimatter problem, does that mean I don't have to worry about it destroying the city anymore? (these guys in suits wouldn't take me seriously when I told them I couldn't figure out what was going on, and they let me go after a couple of years, but I don't like them anymore - they aren't as polite as they used to be)

Don't overdo the caution

[The Pim]

from the only-the-brave dept.

Ok, this is a development kernel, so you shouldn't just jump in as if it were a stable release. But keep in mind that this is only 2.5.1, where 2.5.0 == 2.4.15, a stable kernel. Since it's only been one revision, it can't have destabilized that much.

A quick primer on kernel engineering might help. You know how the 2.4.x series solidified release by excruciating release? Well, the 2.5.x series is the same, only in reverse. It takes as much work to destabilize a kernel as it did to stabilize it, so don't expect crashes and corruption right away. In fact, just as a few 2.4.x releases were regressions, 2.5.1 might even be stabler than 2.5.0. That would be an accident, though, and the developers try to prevent it.

To the Slashdot editors: You can dispense only so much over-caution before the readers decide you're crying wolf. As a community, we need to save up our restraint for the real hour of need, when the siren song of exotic new features lures even the most stolid administrator from the doldrums of predictable stability, into the roiling churn of highly evolved breakage. I would recommend toning down the warnings for now, and becoming progressively more shrill as the kernel hits its maximal instability.

Re:I think you guys missed some of the point...

[Oily Tuna]

I very much doubt we are going to see EVERY 2.5.x release on the front page

You're new here aren't you, number ... err ... 6473?

Re:This doens't belong here!!

[mbrubeck]

Since when did slashdot started announcing the DEVELOPEMENT kernel releases?!

You must have an awfully short memory.

• 2.4.0-prerelease [slashdot.org]
• 2.4.0-test2 [slashdot.org]
• [slashdot.org]
• 2.3.41 [slashdot.org]
• 2.3.40 [slashdot.org]
• 2.3.0 [slashdot.org]
• 2.2.0pre9 [slashdot.org]
• 2.2.0pre6 [slashdot.org]
• 2.2.0pre4 [slashdot.org]
• 2.2.0pre3 [slashdot.org]
• 2.2.0pre1 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.131 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.130 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.129 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.128 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.126 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.125 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.122 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.119 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.118 [slashdot.org]
• 2.1.117 [slashdot.org]
• ...a couple dozen more 2.1.x announcements. Do your own damn search. :-)

Re:So when are...

[elefantstn]

So the 64000 Euro question is... when are we getting ACL support?

You're probably going to have to offer more than $1.37 to get someone to hack that for you.

Re:I think you guys missed some of the point...

[Anonymous Coward]

Until someone at VA Software replaces him, that is.

I vote for Jon Katz.