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Linux Software

Linux 2.2.17 Released 138

Posted by CmdrTaco from the for-all-your-stable-needs dept.
Paul Weaver was among the hoardes to note that Linux 2.2.17 has been officialy released at the usual places. So take some time out from trying to compile 2.4 test releases and update the boxes that need stable kernels.
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Linux 2.2.17 Released More

Linux 2.2.17 Released

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  • um...did I miss something? I though debian 2.2 shipped with kernel 2.2.17...


  • Alan Cox couldn't wait for the sluggish Linus, and he released the 2.2.18-pre series (pre-1 and pre-2) against the 2.2.17-pre20.

    Now that 2.2.17 is official, where does 2.2.18-pre series stand ?

    I think the question I want to ask is this:

    Is the official 2.2.17 exactly the same as
    2.2.17-pre20 ?

  • if it's not in there now, http://www.linux-ide.org
  • As soon as I go to school I will have a 10mbit connection to the internet so I have been holding off on the new modem.
  • No doubt - 2.4 test4 gave me problems (wouldn't make bzImage) but 2.4 test7 runs just peachy. Lots of great stuff in there too. I just wish DRI support for my Matrox G400 was in there. It is "grayed out" so it will be there soon, but not as yet...
  • Joe,

    My sarcasm was definitely getting in the way. I had considered using the 4sp6 to 4.6 analogy, but I got a little too carried away with my rant. I've got to come down my almost knee jerk reaction to statements such as...

    No, It's not linus's fault that Microsoft makes shitty products and only releases them every few years

    I see these kinds of blanket statements about any product I just smell troll spirit in the air. What's of major concern is how statements like this are for more favorable for MS in the long run.

    Anyhow, thanks for the clarification to my post.
  • Bah, i havn't even been able to get a ppp connection with the 2.4.0-test(x) kernels, and the 2.4 pppd. The best bit is, pppd 2.4 works fine with kernel 2.2.16. I'm damned if i can figure it out. :/
  • Could still be, it aint summer down here yet...
  • Hush. Some of us don't have time to read through the avalanche at Freshmeat, stable kernel announcements are relatively rare, and useful. If you don't like it, please take use of that wonderful feature someone put on your keyboard: the 'down' arrow.

  • Well I've got a "classic" Athlon 750 and a 56k modem... only the phone lines 'round here are so shitty that 28.8 is akin to winning the lottery for me. :P

  • I'd have to agree... at this point I don't have any systems that I can consider as "spare" boxes. I installed FreeBSD (and winders, on another drive) on my "power geek" system, an Athlon 750, and that leaves my Linux laptop for production use. (Things such as email, web browsing, IRC, etc) On the laptop I've got Mandrake 7.0 (with many upgrades) with a 2.2.14 kernel and everything works beautifully.

    And I KNOW from EXPERIENCE that whenever I go upgrading something that ain't broke, it gets broke in a hurry. :^)

    Thinking of putting together a homebrew Linux system alongside windows on the second drive, though, just to see if I can do it.
  • Actually, I don't think the posters are all that much worse, either. There's a somewhat higher percentage of idiots, but moderation's made it easier to filter them out, too.

    Similarly, I think Katz is an idiot, but the addition of the user preferences to keep me from ever seeing his [rant deleted] column again fixed that.

    Steven E. Ehrbar
  • Simple. Because Linus prefer the current way. The kernel is his piece of software.
  • 2.4.0test8pre4 just ate my linux-kernel mailbox. *sniffle*

  • Oh and hey you've got the same name as my PC (give or take an e).

    So is your PC "wintermute" or "wintrmut"?
    ---

  • Yahoo! Support for onboard ethernet on i815. (Score:3)

    by Milican ( 58140 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @07:30PM (#805337) Journal
    Just bought some of Intel's i815 motherboards [intel.com] with on-board ethernet. Unfortunately, 2.2.16 does not have a driver for the Intel® 82562ET 10/100 Mbit/sec Platform LAN that comes built into the motherboards (optional of course). From what I read on newsgroups support could be added with a patch or two to the 2.2.16 kernel since the chip is based on popular ethernet cards using tulip drivers, but unfortunately I don't possess enough Linux Karma to get that to work yet. Anyway, now that 2.2.17 is out hopefully RedHat will be releasing some new RPMs soon and I can get my ethernet to work, and if they don't.. well I'll just have to get down n' dirty and make RedHat and my 2.2.17 kernel play nice ;)

    JOhn
  • Yes, it is, according to Alan Cox's release notes [iu.edu].

    First line, "Ok Linux 2.2.17 official is now out. This is the same as 2.2.17pre20 without the -pre20 id string"
    ---

  • depends how drunk I am :)

  • Well, I'll go ahead and say why it was important for me, at least this time around... I wanted to start a homebrew Linux setup, but I was waiting for 2.2.17 to be released. And now it is. And thanks to /., I KNOW that it is, and can thus start my little project.

    So there, naysayers. This human was satisfied. I'm not into all that anime stuff as much as everyone else here.
  • heh. and yet you get irritated at my same knee jerk reaction to someone even asking whether or not a new kernel is news (of course it is).

    Unfortunately, i didn't make myself as clear as i should have. No, a new kernel is not the same thing as a full OS upgrade (Anyone who knows about the whole RMS GNU/Linux debacle realizes this)...however, it is a signifigant change for the community, whether the newer kernel offers signifigant increases in performance gains or new features, or just boils down to a "penis envy" competition. "Hey, i've got 2.2.17!"

    However, considering that slashdot's track record has shown that it is much more closely aligned with the open-source community, and would seem to advocate *nix over windows (in general) would certainly make this kernel release a highly newsworthy story.

    No, a new kernel and a SP are not the same, but they are closer than i originally noted.

    and M$ still makes shitty products ;-)


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
  • Warning: The DELL/AMI Megaraid driver in 2.2.16 and .17 is unstable and may crash with console message "Mailbox locked" on heavy load. See thread on the linux-kernel mailing list.

  • AARP is part of the AppleTalk protocol suite. It's basically AppleTalk ARP. (ARP is used on Ethernet and other LAN's, to correspond IP addresses with hardware addresses. AARP uses AppleTalk addresses instead of IP addresses.)

  • http://slashdot.org/articles/98/1 1/15/1120246.shtml [slashdot.org] gives a randomly chosen article from Nov 98

    Follow the links. See for yourself.
  • For more details, see On Mindcraft's April 1999 Benchmark [kegel.com].

  • Troll? How is this a troll?
    Which part is the troll? The penguin pee or linus' announcement part?

    geez, I'm being called a troll by someone with a use id # that's 10x mine!

    I just like Linus' humurous announcements. He's a cool guy and all. You know?

  • Larry McVoy was reported to be working on some uber-version-control setup to help out Linus
    (BitMover or something like that).

    Did anything ever come out of that?
  • ...and pppd 2.4.0 as well. With 2 X 56K modems my 486 gateway will do 10-15K/sec on file transfers, and up to 25-30K for highly compressable data (text, etc). I'm connecting to a Cisco AS5300.

    I had problems getting versions of 2.4 prior to test5 to even boot on my 486.

  • I had the same problem until I compiled ppp into the kernel, and not as a module...
  • for the record (since you've probably done it by now), make oldconfig;make dep, then the usual compile stuff is all you have to do. With 2.2 kernels, you don't have to make dep after every reconfig, but you have to after major changes that affect dependencies. (which can happen when you go to a new version.)
    #define X(x,y) x##y
  • a service pack isn't really the equivalent of a kernel update.

    Come again? A series of fixes, upgrades, and patches to the underlying kernel of Linux is in someway different than the exact same thing for the kernel on NT?

    In it's essence, a kernel upgrade is basically a new version of linux coming out.

    Now the kernel IS the operating system? Umm, I don't tink so quiksdraw.

    Being that you hear about it on slashdot whenever a new version of windows comes out - then this kernel release *does* qualify as news

    Are you at all familiar with what a service pack for NT or Win2k is, what it includes, what it upgrades? Your post would already indicate an answer.

    No, It's not linus's fault that Microsoft makes shitty products and only releases them every few years.

    Ahh, so it's MS that's the bunch of dummies. Now I get it, thanks.
  • Oh the agony - having to decide which to do first - post a comment on slashdot or download the source!

  • What do you mean, try? (Score:3)

    by wintrmute ( 31308 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:30PM (#805353) Homepage
    I've been running 2.4.0-testx for quite a while, without any problems. It's easier than trying to patch 2.2.16 to cover everything!
  • I have made two successive attempts to build from separate downloads (full 2.2.17 tar.bz2 file). Both terminated with an error message saying EOL is not on correct boundary and file can't be unpacked.

  • Yes (Score:1)

    by Pfhor ( 40220 )
    Alan Cox actually said that in his release notes...
    its 2.2.17-pre20 without the pre20 tag
  • Score:2, Offtopic

    I think it's actually a pretty interesting idea, so it doesn't deserve to be marked as offtopic.

    --

  • Eighth post?

    Looks like you made the wrong choice.

    Bruce

  • shit. tonight i finally decided to work the kinks out of my 2.2.16 compile. well, I did it. while i test out the cdrecorder that is now working, I decide to visit slashdot....oh well.

    a post like this deserves a sig

    -andy de los reyes

    just understant that your mother is quite obese
  • Nope, plain ole ftp. But from an xterm, not barebones command line. Mozilla downloads just fine from xterm, but then it is "only" 8 MB, not 16. Hmm. Seems like I recall doing previous (successful) kernel downloads from barebones command line.
  • I just realized, but perhaps you grabbed it from the mirror (you were using a mirror, weren't you?) while it was still updating. The file size could have appeared as the "final" size, even though rsync (or whatever the kernel mirrors use) was still transferring the file. A truncated file could easily have resulted in the error message you got.


  • Actually, i was speaking to a guy on IRC last night, who also had kernel panics on a Duron. The kernel for the Redhat installer worked fine though. I don't know if he managed to fix the problem (He was compiling a 2.2.16 kernel on another machine to try when i left him). Seems to be some sort of problem with 2.2.x & Duron/Socket A motherboards...
  • What did you use to download it? Netscape, perhaps? Try using wget instead (or even just plain ftp or ncftp).

  • it could take a long time (actually, depending on how many people know how to get ATA/100 to work and willing to write the code for the kernel)
    for ATA/66, i had to pass kernel params to get it to work, and only at a slow, ATA/33 speed.
    applying patches to 2.2.x kernels, as well as using 2.3.x kernels claming to support my ATA/66 board (HPT366), wouldn't work (DMA problems?). it was only when i tried 2.4.0-test5 that it finally worked (i haven't touched anything between 2.3.34 and 2.3.99-pre, soo...)
    then again, it could really just be the DMA problem that prevented me from properly using my ATA/66 to it's full potential under linux
    ---
    Mouse location changed. You must restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
  • If you are going to troll at least try to do a decent job of it...
  • Linus is a nice guy. He really is.

    But there's a touch of ego going on here; if he were to put the kernel in CVS, like the FreeBSD guys do, then he would lose a certain amount of control over who gets what and when.

    Linus is quoted as saying "Think of me as CVS with brains", which tells you everything you need to know about his attitude to source control.
    --
  • Read /Documentation/Changes. I had to upgrade modutils and rename conf.modules to modules.conf.
  • Thanks for the tip. This is the problem I ran into.
    until (succeed) try { again(); }
  • Yeah, yeah - and besides that, it has lots of slashes and dots in it!
  • Damn, it's scary to know that Linux isn't in CVS. I mean, hell, all they'd have to do is use readers, writers, and avail files to ensure only Linux Gods got to commit. Sheesh...are they afraid of the box being hacked or something?
  • eh? Solaris sucks (IMO) cos all the tools are 10 years out of date. Windows/Linux are more on the bleeding/cuttingedge, although stability suffers a lot/little.
  • hip hip horay!
    hip hip horay!
    hip hip horay!

     Alan Cox is doing good work for the stable series 2.2.x which most people use.
    I wonder if he will support 2.4 when it goes into the stable series?
    Hope Linus stops anything else getting added to 2.4; debug it and get it out. The rest can go in 2.5/2.6.
  • that looks like the output of uname...
  • It's because all the modules have moved. I have been loading the ppp related ones manually
  • I just got 2.2.16 installed on all the network boxen last week. Although, after 2.2.15 sometimes it's best to wait.

    I haven't heard of any nasty security issues in 2.2.16 so maybe I'll just wait on this one.

  • Dammit... I'm on a 28.8; I'll have to download it at work tomorrow. ;-)

    Hey, has anyone else been having mouse problems with the XFree86 distro in Debian 2.2? Anytime I'm do something CPU-intensive (esp. working with large files in The GIMP), the mouse gets jerky as hell and even seems to register mouse events that aren't happening (sudden erratic movement and clicks). I've never had this problem in the past and it's weirding me out. Perhaps I should download the latest unpatched 3.* from XFree86 along with the new kernel.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • Preach on brother (or sister... can't tell with AC ;).. the anime kinda pushed me over the boat there. Cool stuff that is scientific is nice, but anime?! WTF? Wish I had some moderator points to, but I posted a comment already..

    JOhn

  • Re:ATA/100 Support? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Just go with W2K - it is much better than any linux out there. Put your computer to good use.

  • Can you prove that? (Score:4)

    by Ian Schmidt ( 6899 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:09PM (#805378)
    That's an awfully serious accusation to be levelling against the likes of Alan. Please list reliable sources, 'cuz this is the story of the year if you can prove it.

    Given that Redhat funded development of the TUX webserver, which requires 2.4 for it's fundamental operation, I'm not gonna put much stock in it though...
  • I've been using my custom compiled 2.2.15 kernel for quite some time now. I have usb support using the usb-backport stuff so that my usb webcam and intellieye mouse works. I've got the pcmcia package so that my ethernet card and modem works. I use reiserfs and I have the appropriate reiser patch for this kernel revision. This is a laptop so I shouldn't really be concerning myself with speed issues since I'm the only user on the system all the time. Unless this kernel patches some major security holes, why should I get this new kernel?

    Is there something new with this kernel or with the new 2.4 series of kernels that would want to make me compile a new kernel?

    Bios updates for motherboards come out every so often, and people always feel the need to have the newest bios on their system. But if everything works perfectly, there should be no reason to flash the bios. If everything on my computer is supported by my current kernel, why should I feel the need to update my kernel?

    catch23
  • The x.x.x-xxxx are usually verndor specific patchs that have been applied to the kernel.
  • As the Anonymous Coward pointed out - Take care the last link could cause you some embarrassment in the office. *pron*. Someone Moderate that Coward!
  • You paid 4K for a bloody i810 box?!!?

    Pauvre petit.

  • It would be good to point out that with an established OS that sits nicely in its niche already, updates of that frequency can be afforded.

    Linux is not that, it is propelled by a new market now that is not the server market alone. New drivers are being made, new features, ect ect. If your OS performs on most server hardware just fine, and it is going nowhere but the server market, then updating rarely is okay.

    Linux has a different ideal however, that has never been denied, and chasing that ideal means rampant development. If you want to observe the more conservative Linux side of the tree, use 2.0.xx, updates there are rare, and many people are still using that for its hardened stability.

    Comparing different OSes that cater to different markets and ideals does not work.

  • The world is SUPPOSED to present you with surprises, and you're SUPPOSED to modify your world-view based on those things. To deny being surprised by the world is to calcify your world-view. That's dangerous.

    Filtering your news is close to filtering those surprises. It may be a valid argument that filtering Katz is not the same as filtering news. Still, I enjoy some Katz articles, though I frequently only skim them.
  • Perhaps the /. site html is deemed as a good benchmark site for opera.

    ---
  • Hate to rain on your party, but according to Linus, they still have a way to go to catch up with 2.0. He says the first few 4.0 will not have the ideal VM balance. The hard part is dealing with all the different usage patterns in a sane manner...
  • Is the official 2.2.17 exactly the same as 2.2.17-pre20 ?

    The only change is the version line in the makefile.

    The 2.2.18-pre patches apply to 2.2.17 cleanly, except for that line.

  • Re:Quick question (Score:3)

    by poet ( 8021 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:14PM (#805388) Homepage
    Yes, the scaling issues have been fixed in 2.4.
    The scheduler has been completely reworked as has the SMP stability.

    The 2.4 kernel although does not have everything in it, is the first kernel to truly address some enterprise level concerns.

    It even includes RAW devices for databases :)
  • Why do I see people who have clearly been reading slashdot for less than a year saying that a stable kernel release isn't slashdot material?

    The deal is that there is always something that somebody things is unworthy of coverage. The hardcore linux guys deride Mac coverage, the mac folks are bored with "rms catches a cold: says 'linukths'" stories, Amiga nuts think it's unfair Quake has it's own category, javaheads think c# gets too much air time, space junkies think anime is a waste, everyone hates the book reviews... yatta yatta.

    For a significant portion of readers, this is news. Period. If your don't care about it, don't read it... if you really don't care about it, go to your prefs and ditch the penguin picture

  • It aint like that. (Score:5)

    by Crutcher ( 24607 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:19PM (#805390) Homepage
    I'd like to start this by saying that I am NOT speaking for Red Hat in this, but for myself.

    I started working at Red Hat about 2 months ago, and I can say that since I have been here, I've been continually impressed by the extent to which everyone works to make sure everything works. No one EVER talks about steering development 'backwards', as its damn hard enough keeping it going forwards.

    Now, the 2.4.0 kernel is a BIG deal, it is a big change, and it will save the world, clean your laundry, get you dates, clear up your acne, etc, etc. But it is not finnished. Period. There is more to do on it, and while work continues on it, some code is backported /from it/ to the 2.2.x series, so that it doesn't fall too far behind.

    But should Red Hat wait until 2.4? How about KDE 2.0, or Gnome 2.0, or Gimp 2.0, or Jargon 3.0? How long do you wait, for what? They can't, they have to make sure that the software that they put the stamp on is as uptodate as it reasonably can be, while simultaneously being as stable, and as compatible.

    And how can you seriously believe that Red Hat is purposely steering development to slow the advent of the 2.4 kernel? Did you see the Slashdot article about Tux? That is a 2.4 kernel based webserver, something that is VERY cool, and it'd be great for Red Hat if it worked out of the box. But it doesn't, cause 2.4 is not finnished.

    If you really have issues with the speed of the development cycle of 2.4, help the kernel developers.

    -- Crutcher --
    #include <disclaimer.h>
  • Ok, I goto www.kernel.org, wheres the "2.2.17" readme?
    I have to download the 16.7 meg kernel for a readme file!
    Couldnt /. at least post whats new? Or a url for the readme?

    Please a little more info on the news stories please...
    I'm a linux user, not a kernel developer, need the info...

    Brook Harty
    --
    I'm running 2.4-test7.

  • It's not the official 2.2.17. `uname` may report 2.2.17, but trust me, it's 2.2.17-pre-something. In the Potato release notes, Debian says "Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 is based on the latest stable Linux kernel (2.2.16), updated with Alan Cox's patches expected to go into 2.2.17." (My memory is currently failing me, but I think it's pre6. Sorry, not on the Debian machine right now!)

    IMNSHO I doubt it's worth the upgrade from Potato's "2.2.17" to the real 2.2.17. Myself, I'm not touching Debian's kernel until 2.4 is released. My Slack box is currently running 2.2.16 with Unified IDE and it's probably going to wait for 2.4 as well. Wonder when we can hope to get it. November, maybe? Hopefully before the end of the year. 2.4 is all I want for Xmas. (Well, that and a Yopy.)

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • We'll see. Trolling is like murder... usually bad for your karma. Therefore, it should be done in moderation. (At least while logged in. ;-)

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • You're both right and wrong, ok? (Score:3)

    by Mr Z ( 6791 ) on Tuesday September 05, 2000 @02:40AM (#805396) Homepage Journal

    fluxrad said:

    a service pack isn't really the equivalent of a kernel update. In it's essence, a kernel upgrade is basically a new version of linux coming out.

    Metrol replied:

    Come again? A series of fixes, upgrades, and patches to the underlying kernel of Linux is in someway different than the exact same thing for the kernel on NT? Now the kernel IS the operating system? Umm, I don't tink so quiksdraw

    Well, you're both right on some points but wrong on others. fluxrad is right that a SP is not the same as a kernel upgrade, and Metrol is right that a Linux kernel update doesn't update the whole OS. (FWIW, Metrol seems to have a better idea of what's going on here... not sure if sarcasm is getting in the way here. :-)

    A Windows Service Pack upgrades the kernel as well as a large number of system DLLs and utilities. It's effectively a point release of the OS by another name. (eg. In a different world, NT4SP6 might've been named NT 4.6. My personal theory is that changes in version number need to go through more approval processes than a "service pack" might at a large number of big, stodgy companies.) The major architecture of the OS doesn't typically change between SP's, but the SP touches just about everything.

    In contrast, a Linux kernel upgrade touches just the kernel. No system libraries, no utilities, no user-land drivers, just the kernel. It is not an OS-wise upgrade.

    This bears repeating: By itself, the Linux kernel is not an OS. The Linux kernel plus a usable userland environment is.

    I think the main reason 2.2.17 is out as compared to some of the other revs of Linux 2.2.x is that 2.2.17 has been a long time coming. And to think I just installed 2.2.17pre20. Anyone have diffs between 2.2.17pre20 and 2.2.17final?

    --Joe
    --

  • Why is there no code versioning system for the Linux kernel? Will there ever be, ie. will the devtree be moved to some kind of CVS in the future?

    I never dared to ask, thinking there's an obvious reason why there is no CVS for Linux, but I'm not so sure anymore. I sure would like to be able to browse the code without having to download the whole thing.

  • Actually we have seen a beta built around the 2.4 pres, The mandrake 7.2 that was just released. I agree with RedHat's decision to put a 2.4 in 7.0, They have a product almost ready to ship in a hopefully stable state. By the time 7.1 rolls around 2.4 will have a couple point releases under it's belt and will probably ship with 7.1. If for some reason they don't want a new kernel in a point release, RedHat can ship an 8.0 with the possibly released GNOME 1.4 and the new GPL Open Office suite.

    I don't think that releasing an upgrade with a 2.4 would be much of an issue though. I seem to remember Bero saying that the main identifier of a .0 release was breaking binary compatibility, which most certainly isn't going to happen with a new kernel. Pinstripe (7.0 beta) is already compiled against the 2.4 headers even though it runs on a 2.2 (2.2.17-pre1[[0-9]).
    treke

  • Re:What's in it: Alan's release notes (Score:3)

    by Isldeur ( 125133 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @08:40PM (#805406)

    Well, a better "summary" is at Alan's page here [linux.org.uk].

  • the mouse gets jerky as hell and even seems to register mouse events that aren't happening (sudden erratic movement and clicks). I've never had this problem in the past and it's weirding me out.

    Yeah, I've had that prob. Not with deb tho'. With SuSE 6.2. I think it's my old cirrus logic graphics. It hasn't happened so far with the new linbox I'm building with an HIS Rage IIc video card. Mind you, the old box is a 486 and I'm running KDE and StarOffice, which is probably more than that box can handle.

    Yuri

    Show me a fossil of a half-evolved eye.

  • Finally! (Score:3)

    by vertical-limit ( 207715 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:31PM (#805412)
    Some actual software release news! I'm glad to see to see that Freshmeat is getting back to reporting on new software instead of this extraneous garbage they've been running lately. It seems like every third story on Freshmeat these days is about about Microsoft and licensing issues. Hell, I even saw an anime story on Freshmeat this morning... I could've sworn that I was looking at the front page of Slashdot!

    Oh, wait a second...

  • Quick question (Score:3)

    by mplex ( 19482 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:31PM (#805413)
    I heard the 2.2 series had serious scaling problems under heavy load, but I can not remember the cause. Does anyone know if these problems have been addressed in the newer 2.4 series? This really worries me, considering 2.0 outperforms 2.2 under heavy load in many cases. Could someone a little more knowledgable about the situation reply...
  • Downloaded and compiled great. I even applied the cuecat-0.0.8 patch for 2.2.16, and it worked flawless (see earlier /. articals if you have no idea what patch I am talking about). Actually, I wonder if it is two late to work the scanner into 2.4.....(grinning at the powers that be).

  • My Linux box crashed today after 56 days of uptime. (Quite mysteriously indeed, I just pressed Shift and boom, the boot texts came immediately but that's not important) I then waited the machine to check quite uncleanly unmounted partitions and when I started irc, my friend MSG'ed me and told that 2.2.17 is out. I had planned to wait until next hardware upgrade to compile the whatever-to-be version of that time, but now I have no uptime to lose! ;)

    Somehow I almost could think that my machine subtly noticed that 2.2.17 is out and it's really time to upgrade old and buggier 2.2.13, and decided to make the point clear to me. ;)

  • Why do I see people who have clearly been reading slashdot for less than a year saying that a stable kernel release isn't slashdot material? There was a time when 10% of all the slashdot news was kernel releases.

    Besides, what harm does it do you? Shut up and stop bitching at Rob 'n' crew.
    --
  • I've got the ppp stuff compiled in the kernel rather than modules as well.

    The only problems I had was that kppp didn't like the new setup (easily fixed as I had KDE 1.9 on a cd). And also something I'd upgraded thought it would be amusing to add a default route (route del default - b4 dialling fixed that.)

  • Hear, hear. About time we founded an "old timers who actually think /. hasn't gotten that much worse than it used to be except for all the idiots who post" club :)
    ~luge
  • I'll keep this brief, Slashdot is not about "us geeks" it's about what rob malda finds interesting. This does not include NT, but does include linux, I personally think both have their place and try to stay as operating system agnostic as possible, but you can't expect everyone to do the same. Slashdot has ALWAYS been about what Rob Malda finds interesting, and judging by your user number you should know that.

  • Why new features are being added to 2.2.x (Score:4)

    by The_Deacon ( 137827 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @10:13PM (#805427)
    The reason new features are being added to the stable series is largely to keep the 2.2.x kernels able to support recently improved features (new and updated hardware drivers, tuned algorithms, etc). If it weren't for this, then we'd be stuck with a kernel that required massive patching to support any newer hardware or improved features. Additionally, since the changes are relatively not very intrusive, and are pretty thoroughly tested in the -dev tree, the people running production boxes on 2.2.x kernels can be confident that the kernel is still solid, even with the new features.

    The reason 2.x.x *appears* to be incrementing more rapidly than 2.4.x in some areas is because all the cool new stuff (RAID code, USB, PCMCIA, etc ad infinitum...) has been in development (2.3.x) for a long time, and has been pretty thoroughly wrung out. In other words, all the initial "hard work" has largely been done. It's finally been deemed stable in the 2.4 series, and is now being backported for the benefit of those less adventurous souls (like me) who prefer a well-used, known-good kernel (2.2.x) on production systems, but want the benefit of some new features. The same thing happened with backports of 2.2 features into the 2.0.37+ kernels, even after 2.2 was released. Instead of a massive overhaul, with an entirely new kernel architecture to deal with, you get the shiny new stuff (new hardware support, bugfixes, and tuneups) and still get to stay with the tried-and-true kernel you're used to using.

    That's likely why RedHat is developing their next distro to 2.2.x, *not* 2.4. After all, 2.4 is still considered a moving target at this point, and is extremely difficult to develop to (Alan Cox mentioned this in a recent diary entry). If you've got an entire distro to worry about, best to keep it with the currently stable and well-known 2.2 kernel, instead of a constantly-changing 2.4-test kernel.

    Besides, if you really want to be cutting edge, go get slackware or rabbid squirrel and build your own distro with whatever software versions you want. This is Free software, after all -- if you've got an itch, scratch it! ;)
  • Seriously. If you don't like hearing about Linux, you have three choices:
    1. Turn off Linux-related topics in your preferences [slashdot.org]
    2. Stop reading Slashdot. [zdnet.com]
    3. Kill yourself [gunshop.com] in a spectacular manner for the amazement and amusement of your peers [rotten.com].

    If in doubt, go with that third option. I'm bored.

    ---------///----------
    All generalizations are false.

  • ATA/100 Support? (Score:3)

    by Lord Ender ( 156273 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:46PM (#805437) Homepage
    Does anyone know if this release has full support for ATA/100? I really want to put linux on my shiny new 800MHz Tbird, however, I really don't want to waste my time downloading over my 28.8 modem only to find no support for my computer.

    Seriously, Win2k and Win98 do not support ATA/100 without 3rd party drivers. It would be nice if Linux could get ahead of the game with this.
  • Should slashdot also announce microsoft service packs as well?

  • Re:What do you mean, try? (Score:3)

    by titus-g ( 38578 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:47PM (#805439) Homepage
    Yup, no problems at all with 2.4.0-blah after a couple of minor teething problems getting everything else up to spec.

    For anything that isn't going to get you calls at 4am in the morning if it goes down it should be fine.

    Also ppp connection seems to have speeded up quite a bit after upgrading (possibly just the new pppd, but even so) so I can't see myself going back to the 2.2 series unless something goes seriously weird. I haven't benchmarked, but I suspect that everything else is running a bit faster as well.

    Oh and hey you've got the same name as my PC (give or take an e).

  • What's in it: Alan's release notes (Score:5)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:48PM (#805440) Homepage
    Here [iu.edu] is Alan's official release notes for this kernel. "Holy Penguin Pee" among other things. :)

    ---

  • Dare we compare (Score:5)

    by toofast ( 20646 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:51PM (#805441)
    I say Rob should pull out a week's worth of Classic Slashdot, from a couple years ago, and post it somewhere. We could then compare the content of THEN with the content of NOW.

    I've been reading /. for a few years now, and I prefer to read a new kernel announcement, where I can pickup tidbits like "it screwed my ext2" or "won't boot on my 8-way Celery bawx" than read about how Bill Gates just hired Larry Ellison to clean his indoor pool!
  • I agree. I come to slashdot because I want to stay informed. It needn't be groundbreaking, but I think a new stable kernel affects many of us who run / admin Linux boxen.

    If slashdot wouldn't have reported on the new kernel, when would I have found out? Not that I check kernel.org everyday, and edge.kernelnotes.org are so behind it's not even funny!
  • Figured it out... :)

    I think.

    I found a small reference in the README to copying my /usr/src/linux/.config file to my new linux src directory the running 'make oldconfig'.

    This method prompted me for any new features that have been added and I'm assuming it will compile.

    Can anyone confirm that this is correct? Before I install this kernal remotely and reboot, dooming my machine to be down for 6 hours while I wait till I get home :) Thank god this isn't a mission critical box.

    - Xabbu
  • correction: Company paid 4K for i810 box.

  • 800MHz Thunderbird with ATA/100 and a 28.8 modem?

    um... what's wrong with this picture?

  • from the link in the parent thread:

    - Improve AARP handling (Alistair Riddell)

    AARP? isn't that the Old Folks [retirement] thing or another?

    "sorry grandpa, your arthritis aside, you really DO need a 3 button mouse. maybe the AARP can suggest one for you"

    --

  • Re:Why is this on Slashdot's front page? (Score:3)

    by toofast ( 20646 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:57PM (#805456)
    Absolutely. Many uf us "geeks" run NT on some systems (not really by choice, but hey). It would be nice if Slashdot reported on NT Server / Win2000 service pack releases. Microsoft's website is soooo difficult to navigate that having that info here on slashdot would be a big asset!

  • Also - USB, AGP, and DRM in 2.2.18? (Score:4)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Monday September 04, 2000 @06:57PM (#805457) Homepage
    Hm... Alan's Diary [linux.org.uk] also says that USB, AGP, and DRM are being merged in for 2.2.18? Wow.

    ---

  • Linux.... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The windows 98 ( well, ME these days ) of the unix world....

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