Linux Kernel 2.4.21 Released 539
An anonymous reader writes "After > 6 months of waiting, 2.4.21 is here. Lots of cleanups, and a patch which gives a MAJOR boost to the 'feel' of the system under heavy disk IO, especially on IDE systems. As usual, available from your local kernel.org mirror or ftp.COUNTRYCODE.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/! Tidbit: 'Current bandwidth utilization 131.72 Mbit/s '." See the Changelog for new stuff.
Be gentle to the mirrors (Score:5, Informative)
cd
bzcat
make oldconfig
why not posting the http links instead of the ftp? (Score:2, Informative)
for example.
ftp needs much more time and authentication stuff for login, commandos and so forth.
fr [kernel.org]
jp [kernel.org]
and so on...
Re:unstable 2.5 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:BitTorrent (Score:5, Informative)
heres how to compile the kernel (Score:3, Informative)
$ make menuconfig # Replace menuconfig with xconfig if you want
-Select the options you need in your kernel and save it
$ make dep bzImage
-Look in arch//boot/ for the bzImage file
-Install it for your favourite bootloader (grub/lilo) and reboot machine
-gloat
2.4.21 final is the same as RC8 (Score:1, Informative)
final:
- 2.4.21-rc8 was released as 2.4.21 with no changes.
dont upgrade if u have RC8 running already
Re:Quick Question (Score:5, Informative)
$ cd linux-2.4.21
$ make oldconfig
Re:Just to get these out of the way... (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry to burst your bubble...
Re:Admin Question (Score:4, Informative)
Well, the 2.4.21 kernel was (in reality) the RC-8. Look at the changelog and see if any of that applies to you. If so then yes, it's would be wise to upgrade. If not, then it's your call. This is why the changlog exists...
Re:heres how to compile the kernel (Score:2, Informative)
Re:why not posting the http links instead of the f (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Quick Question (Score:3, Informative)
make oldconfig
That will only prompt you for new stuff, rather than go back through every single option.
GrSecurity update. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Quick Question (Score:2, Informative)
This seems to be frequent question. I'd say that you don't need to compile new kernel until the old one doesn't have the xyz feature that you need and/or you feel that the new kernel is far more reliable and faster.
In other words: some still use 2.2 series because there is no reason (for them) to upgrade.
Remember that you can use modules to get that xyz feature..
Re:heres how to compile the kernel (Score:3, Informative)
# make menuconfig
# make dep clean modules bzImage
(assuming all's good)
make modules_install install
The scripts have been able to install the kernel itself by itself for quite a while and also detect lilo or grub or whatever. I have no idea why people keep telling the n00bs to cp
Re:Quick Question (Score:3, Informative)
Is there a way I can easily use the old configuration? Any HOW-TO on this?
Copy the old arch/$(ARCH)/config.in file to the new tree and 'make oldconfig'
Re:why not posting the http links instead of the f (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Admin Question (Score:5, Informative)
should I go up tp 2.4.21
If stability is important to you, you should only use proven, stable kernels on a production server.
Unless there is some new feature that you absolutely need RIGHT NOW and cannot wait, it is very bad to use 2.4.20-rc7 on a production server. The "rc" stands for "release candidate", which means that the kernel is almost ready to be used by the public, but needs people to test it first.
If you care about system stability, you should not be testing the kernel on a production machine. If you do want to test the kernel, do so on a test machine that is not a mission critical machine.
On several occasions in the past, a release-candidate kernel introduced new code which would crash or corrupt systems that used the kernel.
However, if 2.4.20-rc7 is not crashing on you, you don't need to upgrade to 2.4.21 right away. Review the kernel changelog, and see if any of the changes apply to you. Wait a few days (or weeks), and upgrade to 2.4.21 when it's convenient to you.
Personally, unless there is some urgent fix that I need in the new kernel, I always wait a few weeks or months before upgrading the kernel, just in case some wierd bug was introduced into the new kernel version. During those weeks or months, I usually test the new kernel on a test machine and see if anything wierd happens.
Re:Started to think 2.4.x was dead (Score:5, Informative)
As long as it's not available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org or http://www.kernel.org, there is no newer version of the linux kernel.
The same applies to the ftp://gcc.gnu.org and GCC (not the website, they are always a little bit lame updating it).
So if you say
'Mandrake has already put the "2.4.21" kernel in their 9.1 release'
your are wrong! They didn't. They lied to you. Or you are mistaken. Or they used a prerelease and renamed it 2.4.21.
And no, 2.4.21 it's not 'too late'. Look at the Changelog and what huge amount of bugfixing has been done. And all those updates to the drivers!
True, 2.6 will feature a log of nice extra stuff, but I guess 99.9% of all linux users are happy with just the features 2.4 has. They simply don't need support for NUMA, 64bit dev_t or Zero-copy NFS.
Re:RedHat kernels (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Disc IO Related Lockups? (Score:2, Informative)
This is a known problem, if: (Score:5, Informative)
-You have an IDE CD burner
-You are using IDE-SCSI emulation
-You are burning a CD with a blocksize other than 2048 (such as redbook audio, or (S)VCD, etc..)
If the above are all true, the ide-scsi emulation reverts to PIO mode. Supposedly this will be fixed for 2.6
Re:excellent, we can switch to this (SCO) (Score:4, Informative)
> o [Bluetooth] Use very short disconnect timeout for SCO connections.
> o [Bluetooth] Kill incoming SCO connection when SCO socket is closed.
> o [Bluetooth] Support for SCO (voice) over HCI USB
Are these the lines SCO's bitching about?
Nope. SCO in the bluetooth world means Synchronous Connection Oriented link.
Used mostly with bluetooth wireless handsfree devices. [phonearena.com]
2.4.21 (Score:5, Informative)
They now have Opteron support in there.. I knew it was in the pre, I was just wondering if the new kernel or the rest of my hardware would show up first. I have everything for a dual Opteron system, except the processors and case. I'm so anxious, I'm going to burst.
( ) 386
( ) 486
( ) 586/K5/5x86/6x86/6x86MX
( ) Pentium-Classic
( ) Pentium-MMX
( ) Pentium-Pro/Celeron/Pentium-II
( ) Pentium-III/Celeron(Coppermine)
( ) Pentium-4
( ) K6/K6-II/K6-III
( ) Athlon/Duron/K7
(X) Opteron/Athlon64/Hammer/K8
( ) Elan
( ) Crusoe
( ) Winchip-C6
( ) Winchip-2
( ) Winchip-2A/Winchip-3
( ) CyrixIII/VIA-C3
( ) VIA-C3-2
I'm going to be a compiling fool when the rest of the parts show up.
Re:BitTorrent (Score:5, Informative)
http://66.227.104.34/linux-2.4.21.tar.bz2.torre
Re:BitTorrent (Score:2, Informative)
...or have uptimes >= 6 months.
BitTorrent Link (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Started to think 2.4.x was dead (Score:5, Informative)
Even 2.0.X is still maintained. It currently stands at 2.0.40-rc6 (almost one year old).
Re:Admin Question (Score:2, Informative)
The main point is that one should do a small test deployment, and some heavy testing, before a wider deployment. There a probably few, if any, user mode level compatibility problems between 2.4.20 and 2.4.21, so reverting back to 2.4.20 should be fairly easy if there are problems. It all depends on the situation.
Re:RedHat kernels (Score:3, Informative)
Try out this newest kernel or the preempt patches. ALso like someone else said make sure you have the right hard drive flags set. After making sure your hdparm setting are correct tune ext3 as well.
to change ext3
add data=writeback to the mount points you want to be writeback not data=ordered in fstab
mkinitrd
update grub if you used a different name to point to correct
My experience with RH 8.0 after upgrading to 2.4.20, making sure hdparm was correct, and change the ext3 journal type improved dramitically.
Re:Disc IO Related Lockups? (Score:2, Informative)
BitTorrent Download Link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Broadcom support (Score:2, Informative)
Re: RedHat kernels (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Admin Question (Score:3, Informative)
Uh, because there were several vulnerabilities found in the 2.4.20 kernels which were only fixed in the -rc's? See this summary [lwn.net].
Just apply security patches and don't tinker with anything else.
Sometimes the kernel needs security patches too.
Re:Disc IO Related Lockups? (Score:2, Informative)
The new kernel (well, 2.4.21-rc8) fixed that.
One workaround mentioned in the LKML is to disable IO-APIC.
Re:Be gentle to the mirrors (Score:4, Informative)
But, is anyone actually running vanilla 2.4.20, or keeping it in
Of course, you might still have the official linux-2.4.20.tar.bz2 tarball sitting around somewhere, and if you do you can use that and the patch-2.4.21.
Re:Uhh....what timing (Score:2, Informative)
Control-C, lftp ftp.xx.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/
cp -va
bzcat
cp -va
make oldconfig
make menuconfig
make...
Re:ccache for the compulsive kernel compiler (Score:3, Informative)
distcc.samba.org [samba.org]. It's another fine piece of coding from the Samba team. It uses your standard gcc, and does parallel builds on other machines. Really speeds things up.
as a side note....for LP Patch users (Score:3, Informative)
Use 2.4.20 source
patch for LPP
patch to 2.4.21
Voila... that nice Purdy linux boot screen is still there for your relatives that ball up on the floor crying when the boot messages start flying...
Re:13th? (Score:4, Informative)
Thanksgiving 2002 saw the 2.4.20 data corruption on umount [kerneltrap.org] kernel released; thanksgiving 2001 saw the famous 2.4.15 "greased turkey" data corruption on umount kernel released.
There have been other kernels with problems, but it seems that the data corruption bugs tend to arrive with thanksgiving.
Re:13th? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Intel SATA Support (Score:4, Informative)
Re:2.4.21? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Vendor Kernels (Score:3, Informative)
If you install the
Re:Be gentle to the mirrors (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry I cannot help you there. RedHat has something very similar, but you only have to click once on the icon not doubleclick.
OT: 2.5.x and nvidia drivers (Score:3, Informative)
One can download the nvidia driver from ftp://download.nvidia.com (the website only seems to link an "installer" version, which was irritating)
Now I'm happily runny mozilla-xft without those buggy artifacts the nv driver has-- and GL is always nice...