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2.5.4 Kernel Out 208

Posted by timothy from the just-when-you-thought-etc-etc dept.
Saint Aardvark writes: "Just in time for my 30th birthday, the new kernel is out...how did he know? Thanks, Linus! Change log here. I usually stick to stable stuff, but I think I'll try this for fun." Reader Scooby Snacks writes: "Be sure to use the patches and pick from the fine list of mirrors."
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2.5.4 Kernel Out More

2.5.4 Kernel Out

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  • This must be a slow geek news day...
    • Actually, read the January and February threads on the kernel list. Some really heavy debate about changes to low level stuff like schedulers and such. I found it a VERY interesting read and I think the things being proposed for 2.5.x are pretty impressive. I found Ingos O(1) scheduler work and the debate it generated very interesting.

      It may not be "Justice wins over Microsoft" but its still a notable event.

  • Patchdot (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:09AM (#2986251)
    2.6.0 released
    2.5.20 released
    2.5.19 released
    2.5.18 released
    2.5.17 released
    2.5.16 released
    2.5.15 released
    2.5.14 released
    2.5.13 released
    2.5.12 released
    2.5.11 released
    2.5.10 released
    2.5.9 released
    2.5.8 released
    2.5.7 released
    2.5.6 released
    2.5.5 released

    Expect all these articles on this site soon.
    Slashdot, news for "nerds", notifying you of minor changes to the penguin!

  • New Topic Please (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Dredd13 ( 14750 ) <dredd@megacity.org> on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:12AM (#2986260) Homepage
    Can we have a topic "Linux-Kernel-Release", so that those of us who care about "Linux news" (and so don't want to check-to-exclude the "Linux" topic) can still send these Freshmeat-intended stories to /dev/null where they belong?

    • While the guy's clearly trolling, I actually think this is a fine idea. If nothing else, it'd get rid of the crowd of trolls on every kernel story.

      • Re:New Topic Please (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Dredd13 ( 14750 ) <dredd@megacity.org> on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:30AM (#2986332) Homepage
        I don't think I was trolling at all, I'm actually really sick of having to wade through kernel announcements.

        .0's are newsworthy

        .FINAL_VERSION's are newsworthy

        .PATCH_OF_THE_WEEK's are not "Stuff that matters" for the majority of folks out there. If you ARE one of the folks that it matters for, chances are you're monitoring the kernel.org site already.

        Just my $0.02 worth anyhow....

        • Re:New Topic Please (Score:5, Insightful)

          by hal200 ( 181875 ) <slashdot@jGAUSSdk.ca minus math_god> on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:45AM (#2986392) Journal
          I'm not trying to troll here, but I don't get it. Maybe it's just me, but is it really so onerous to read a headline and move on if you're not interested? (Just to go on the record though, I happen to like the Kernel X.Y.Z is out! news items.)

          Are you paying for your desktop real estate by the pixel or something?

          I rather effectively screen out JonKatz by reading the headline, and seeing the big green JonKatz underneath. Then I know it's drivel and I move on.

          I just don't understand the motivation behind, "I should be able to filter this out!"...It's not like they're forcing you to read the article and all the comments. Just move along if it doesn't pique your interest. Considering how many stories flit past the front page in a day (and more with judicious use of Slashboxes), it's not hard to find something more personally interesting.

          Then again, maybe I'm just being obtuse. Anyone care to enlighten me?
          • Well, I kinda agree - but then /. does have the feature to block categories from the front page.

            I mean, I don't block anything. I don't like Katz, so I don't click on the link to his posts. Reading the headline and summary doesn't cause me undue distress. If it did (as it appears to do to some), I could check the box in my prefs and it would go away. Choice is good.

            Some people seem to be very distressed about seeing repeated postings about linux development kernel releases. What is the harm in making a new category for these that can be filtered as well (especially if it shuts the ones that have to bring this up again each time).

            Personally, I want to see posts about new kernel releases. I want to read comments about it that don't repeatedly say 'why is this on slashdot!?'.

            Then again, me theory is that some people just need to have something to bitch about (over and over). Jon Katz and kernel releases are easy to avoid, yet they click on the links, read the posts and then express their outrage. I think it is a compulsion.
            • Ok. I can accept that. Choice IS good. =)

              I want to read comments about it that don't repeatedly say 'why is this on slashdot!?'.

              I agree. Of course you have to appreciate the irony that one of the most compelling arguments for filtering is so that other people can filter the stories they are not interested in rather than bitch and moan about the fact that they can't filter it out! ;)

          • ...but checking the "JonKatz" box on the "exclude authors" config page. Saves me having to even think about him, and also saves some screen real estate (no, I don't have to pay $$$ for it, that doesn't mean I like it wasted). Too bad there isn't a similar option for $KERNEL_MINOR_AND_SHORTLIVED_VERSIONS.
        • I don't contend that the point itself was trolling, but your phrasing could certainly have been way more diplomatic. Throwing stuff about /dev/null and freshmeat into the post turns it, in my mind, from a decent point about a way to make things better for everyone into something that's a decent point made in a deliberately inflammatory way. I guess it depends on your definition of trolling.

    • [OT] Re:New Topic Please (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Psiren ( 6145 )
      Moderators, this isn't a troll. Enough complaints have been made about this over time for it to be a justified request.

      There are those of use who do want to read Linux stories, but don't want to know about every release of the kernel. It's not as if theres a shortage of sites that have that information.

      • Yeah, but (Score:4, Insightful)

        by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:32AM (#2986342) Journal
        Some of us use slashdot as a central news source. Why go around to a zillion other places, when we can just catch the announce here? Saves time.

        • Re:Yeah, but (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Dredd13 ( 14750 ) <dredd@megacity.org> on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:36AM (#2986354) Homepage
          And if there was a separate "LinuxKernelReleases" topic, both of us would be happy. you could get your "news" (which I don't consider news, but that's here nor there), and myself (and others) could simply check that box to say "Don't show me these stories".

          And life would be happy all around. See how nice that'd work if TPTB @ /. would just use the Slash engine the way it's designed to work? :-)

          D

          • Designed? (Score:5, Funny)

            by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:39AM (#2986364) Journal
            use the Slash engine the way it's designed to work?

            The slash engine was designed? I thought it just sort of grew. Like a fungus.

            A'course, I haven't actually looked at it in a few years. The first release was traumatic.

            • The slash engine was designed? I thought it just sort of grew. Like a fungus.

              Like some other software out there. I qoute:

              "Software "Design" is like a religion - too much of it makes you inflexibly and unpopular."
              - Linus Torvalds
            • How much OSS software works the way it was designed at the beginning?

              Isn't the point that future redesigns of the software are based upon the users' needs and that they can directly affect the process? In this sense, it sort of organically grows very much like a fungus.

              Wasn't it Steve Balmer who said that Linux springs up "organically" as competition? Is this not one of the big strengths of OSS?
        • Yes, that's exactly why it should be made a new topic. If it were it's own separate topic, people who want to see every single kernel version post can see them, while those who don't can just filter them out. All that is being asked is that each person can easily filter out kernel version posts, not that they be stopped altogether.
    • I FULLY agree with the post. I would like to go one step ahead. I think we need more rational topics, and many many more topics. There could easily have been a LOTR topic, as was requested by many people.

      There is no need for topics on "Be", "Comdex", "Digital", "TurboLinux", "Upgrades", "Beanies", etc..

      What is needed is a rethinking on how to categorize the news to make it more informative and useful.

      I would like that there be some 100-200, or even more topics, and the user can either ignore certain topics, or select the topics that he is interested in. This way the frontpage can get really configurable.

      Also, the sections "apache", "bsd", "developers", etc are redundant! There shoud only be topics, and people who are interested in new apache releases can select that topic for their page. I really do not understand the reason behind the "sections", when everything can be handled usint "topics" alone.
    • Can we have another new topic "Linux-Kernel-Release-News-Item-Moans" so I don't have to read 86 posts on why this item shouldn't be on slashdot and read some comments from people who have tried the new kernel and what they think about it.

      I'm so fed up of reading all this moaning crap - I want some of the advertised "stuff that matters". How fast does the new IDE subsytem go. Does the USB 2.0 patch make life worth living? I am actually interested in these things NOT in this "you're a troll", "no you're a troll", "NO YOU'RE A TROLL" noise. You are wasting my bandwidth. (and now I've wasted yours)

    • GNU/Linux (Score:2, Insightful)

      by gotan ( 60103 )
      Although most people use the term 'Linux' for the operating System as a whole it really only the name of the Kernel. Would we call it 'Hurd' if we ran it with a hurd-Kernel? No, we probably talk about 'Linux with a Hurd-kernel' or somesuch, which is funny enough (maybe it should be 'GNU/Hurd' or just 'GNU' then). In that light (Linux being really just the name of the kernel) news about new kernelversions are very appropriate under this topic, what more interesting could there be under the 'Linux' topic, than something about a new Version of 'Linux'?

      So if we want to keep the terms right (and those who always complain about the use of the term hacker in a wrong context know we should) maybe there should be another topic 'GNU/Linux' or 'LinuxOS' (and also 'LinuxAPPS'?) to comfort those who want to read about Linux, but not about the kernel (so actually not about 'Linux' ...). The term 'Linux-kernel' is redundant, and thus really not a good topic.

      I also wonder, how one can be interested in Operating systems based on the Linux kernel, without being interested in the development of the kernel itself (especially the unstable versions, since there is much more happening), and for a lot of readers the 'new kernel' news is the place to discuss these developments. So if you want to vent your complaints, that hardware x isn't supported, why patch y didn't make it in, express your happiness that z works now (z preferably being the VM), or just have a question these stories are the place to go. The kernel is the thing that all those LinuxOSes, LinuxDevices and whatnot have in common, and if you're interested in Linux on your Palm, or maybe in your coffee-machine, then you should be interested in the kerneldevelopment, since without a kernel allowing to be shrinked down to that size it's just not possible. If you're interested in 'Linux' running on big iron, like n-Processor machines, well, it's really the kernel and its development that makes it possible.

      And finally, if you're really not interested in kernel development, it's not that hard to spot, that a story is about the new kernel, just ignore it, and be happy, these storys are there, because if they weren't people would just post things about new kernel developments in other Linux-stories (even if slightly offtopic).
      --
    • See, here's how it works. A whole bunch of folks post the article. Slashdot editorial staff then adds it to current news.

      Are you with me? It's not hard.

      If you don't understand, then read on...
      If a lots of slashdotters post the article, they must be interested in it. If slashdotters are interested in the story, it should be posted on the site. Even if there is a vocal minority that love to post complaints about the type of news.

      • Seems to me like everyone posts these because they know they can get the karma boost, not because they really care about it. They know the editors are bound to use it.

        It's a vicious cycle; people post to get the karma, the editors use it because they think lots of people are interested, and then more people post because they know the editors will use it.

  • Having trouble with 2.4.17, should I get this? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by knulleke ( 557202 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:12AM (#2986262) Homepage
    Well, I'm still having trouble with 2.4.17 on my AMD. A couple of weeks ago it was suggested here that I should add "nopentium" to my boot parameters but after that the machine doesn't feel as fast anymore (can't understand why; it should not be noticable)

    Parsing the changelog, I don't see that many changes with potential enormous impact. Should I consider trying this version because many problems are straightened out or should I wait for a next "stable" 2.4.x?

    I did see something regarding AGP (which I believe to be the source of my problems, as they go away if I disable 3D support) Linus said something about a workaround for AGP problems until a real solution was found. Doesn't look very encouraging, but hey...

    • Re:Having trouble with 2.4.17, should I get this? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Use a 2.4.18-pre kernel if you want to try something experimental
    • As far as I know, the problem's not been fixed in either tree, so you should probably sit tight with 2.4, and keep with the nopentium flag (or don't use it, and don't be surprised when it's unstable).

      The problem is indeed with the combination of AGP and Athlon - disabling 3D support would probably help here, but is unlikely to make it go away completely.

      I'd expect it shouldn't be too long (maybe it already happened, and I missed it) before there's a patch available for the problem (just disabling use of 4Mb mappings on Athlon should be the quick fix). When this is available, I imagine it'll go into both 2.4 and 2.5 fairly quickly.
    • NO! This is the beginning of a development branch. When a new devel branch opens up there are tons of changes made that may break various things. If you really know what you are doing and you want to try this kernel for _testing_ then go ahead, but it should not be used for bugfixes. There may be a bugfix or two that you like, but there are other changes that could destroy your system.

      And the nopentium option slowing your computer down is in your head, I am running the same thing right now and it isn't noticible.
    • You can just disable AGP. It solves the problem too
    • There is a lot more in the changelog now, but this is only because a new tool is used to maintain the changelog.

      If the nopentium option helps, stick there. If you want performance inprovements try:
      -Enable dma by playing with hdparms.
      -Try some 2.4.17 patch that promises improvement. (low latency patch is still available for the 2.14 tree, but will not be maintained as it is included in 2.5 now.)
      -Buy more RAM 8-)

    • If I was you (but i'm not) I would use Linux with a slightly dated yet powerful machine. Like - a year old or so. Good performance, and most bugs in the drivers have been ironed out. Looking through the list of supported hardware is also a good idea before ordering a machine or any other piece of hardware for that matter.

      Then again, you can always use w2k or xp. Sadly, there are more drivers available there.
    • I run an AMD Athlon with an AGP4x video card on 2.4.17 with no issues whatsoever. I also compiled the kernel as an Athlon which is not affected by the issue. Gentoo [gentoo.org] describes the bug in kernels running on Athlons that were compiled for Pentiums. Pentiums builds enable 'extended paging', where the issue resides. In short: compile your kernel as an Athlon (which you should do anyway) and you will not have issues.
      • I have a similar setup, and also have no problems. I remember reading that these problems were also chipset-dependent, namely some subset of the VIA chips (and thus it makes sense that AGP would trigger them).

        I can't verify the 'running kernels compiled for Pentium on Athlon causes problems' reports because... well, I haven't, and why would I anyway? :)

  • What's good about 2.5 (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What's the big new stuff / benifits we can expect from 2.5 series???

    • Re:What's good about 2.5 (Score:4, Informative)

      by Alphix ( 33559 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @11:01AM (#2986796) Homepage
      Check out this link [osdlab.org]. It's a list of stuff to expect in 2.5
      Follow the link to the posts if you want the details and discussions, if you don't, the items and a more human-readable explaination is below:

      2.5.x API change summaries
      o Shouldn't matter much as far as I could tell, mostly "heads up" to people writing programs that mess with the kernel.

      o Block I/O layer changes:
      The goal seems to be a more generic i/o scheduler while at the same time making it more efficient.
      Typical "dont-understand-exactly-what-they-are-doing-but-g lad-they-do-it" stuff.

      o initrd / initramfs:
      initramfs is intended as a replacement for initrd. The basic idea seems to be to tack a .tar archive of modules and programs to the end of the kernel image, make a basic boot, unpack the tar file to a ram-based root filesystem then everything goes from userspace. If it's true that 2.5 will move to a completely modular kernel (as Alan Cox has hinted), this would be a much friendlier system than initrd.

      o SCSI changes
      As always?

      o driver model: driverfs
      Driverfs seems to aim towards merging all bus-type weirdness that lives under /proc and building one big tree with all bus:es in it. Most comments I've seen circle much around how much easier it would be to implement a proper ACPI power management system with this and that it clears up /proc.

      o reworking major/minor system
      The currrent model of drivers having major/minor numbers is going to change to allow larger numbers (and therefore, more devices). May be some hairy details involved in changing such a "standard" size. Consent seems to be that apps that depend on a specific size are broken anyway.

      o USB and WireLess API changes
      I don't use any of these so I haven't got much to say, anyone with more interest/info?

      o kbuild and CML2
      The new configuration language and makefiles, these have been discussed earlier on slashdot (see here [slashdot.org]).
      • Last year, didn't they talk about a raw filesystem mode that skipped the kernel buffering to allow databases to have raw unbuffered access to the hard drives?

        And I seem to vaguely recall hearing about a new kind of IP mode to allow a single server to host tens of thousands of connections in a much more efficient manner than TCP allows. This would be useful for instant messanger and peer to peer clients.

        Anyone know anymore about either of these two projects? If I remember it right it was from an article about the top Linux people getting together at a linux world and having a couple of days of meetings.
    • A new scheduler that improves interactive performance+preemptible kernel and other improvements.

      This should make 2.5/2.6 "feel" much faster.

  • Congratulations! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Foehg ( 48006 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:14AM (#2986269)
    Good to see the patches, mirror list, and changelog linked to, not just the full kernel. We knew you could do it! Keep it up, guys!

  • Think before you grab it (Score:4, Informative)

    by Nighttime ( 231023 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:14AM (#2986270) Homepage Journal
    See that middle number of the kernel version? Note that it is of the form 2n-1 where n>0, otherwise known as an odd number. Now, in the Linux world this means that it is a development kernel. D-E-V-E-L-O-P-M-E-N-T. In other words, extreme beta.

    So, unless you wish to contribute to the kernel development or want a range of unknown problems, stick with the even middle-numbered kernels.

  • This is GOOD news (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The BitKeeper works, and this release is here to show us.

  • Thumbs up (Score:4, Interesting)

    by serps ( 517783 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:16AM (#2986282) Homepage

    Not being anything remotely resembling a kernal hacker, it was great to see and compare some of the (proposed) changes between 2.4.x and the new 2.5 fork at the recent linux.conf.au [linux.conf.au]. The speaker, Rusty Russell, took us through the netfilter and scheduler code (2.4.13 vs 2.5.3) and it was a real eye-opener. I don't claim to be a C wizard, but I can tell elegance when I see it, and some of the code overhauls certainly have that ring to them.

  • I'm interested ... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tyrius ( 212849 )
    After seeing so many posts on the preemptible patch [slashdot.org] being including into Linus' tree, I would have thought that everyone would be dying to try the first dev release with it incoporated. Give it test drive and see if that is really a useful feature.
    Or does everyone here REALLY run Win XP ??

    • Re:I'm interested ... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There's also wellworking preemptible patch for 2.4.xx kernels so no need to use 2.5.x stuff.

      • Re:I'm interested ... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by mirko ( 198274 )
        I have actually been using this one for months on a 2.4.16 kernel tree.
        The pre-empt kernel patch is actually the most interesting feature in Linux as it suddenly turns a server OS with a sluggish UI into a really responsive workstation with still impressive network performance.
        So it is quite good news to hear that it will be possible to determine whether we want our kernel user or services oriented by just checking a box in the Linux-compilation-tcl box.
        • Actually, it turns out that having a pre-emptable kernel helps with server operations too. When the client request comes in, or the I/O operation completes the pre-empt patch lets the operation be serviced quicker. This makes the server more responsive to client requests and lets it read or write files as quickly as the hardware allows.

          This patch has been needed for a long, long time, and with the new O(1) schedualler linux is now as scalable as any other OS in the world. I am really interested in seeing how Linux 2.4.6 will do on an 8 way or 32 way machine. Are there anymore limitations left in scaling linux to high numbers of processors and large amounts of RAM? If so, how hard will it be to fix these issues, without affecting a user on a single processor box? :)

          I don't think we need to fork to support both the high end and low end with a single kernel.

  • Werid day... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:26AM (#2986315)
    Today there is a release of some sort in 4 kernel trees (see freshmeat.net):
    2.0.40-rc2
    2.2.21-pre2
    2.4.18-pre7-ac3
    And, of course, 2.5.4.

    Granted, only one was a full revision bump, but to see updates in so many trees is neat.
    • patch-2.4.18-pre7-ac3.bz2 came out on 04-Feb-2002 08:04 - freshmeat.net has only just put it up...

      However, Linux 2.5.3-nsa1 [nsa.gov] did come out today so you are right. 4 kernel trees out today!

    • The first three have been out for quite some time. Open your eyes. Maybe look at http://kernel.org once in awhile.

      --R

    • Re:Werid day... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by dramaley ( 20773 )
      What are the 2.0 kernels still being developed for? I'm not trying to troll, i'm seriously curious. I run 2.4 on my workstations and 2.2 on my firewall (a system based around 2.4 isn't small enough to easily fit on a floppy). Could someone give an example of an application where a 2.0 kernel would be better than a 2.2 or a 2.4?
      • What comes to my mind is embedded applications that don't need the more advanced features of the modern trees but are so space deprived that the smaller the better.

  • Ratings (Score:1, Funny)

    by pkplex ( 535744 )
    How come there are ratings for each post? And why would someone want to spend so much time rating them all?

    • Re:Ratings (Score:2, Funny)

      by MjDascombe ( 549226 )
      Those are the first two big questions about /. posting : shortly to be followed by "Is there any sence/reasoning behind how things are rated?"

  • wow (Score:1, Troll)

    by xtstrike ( 538546 )
    Quote

    --------
    I usually stick to stable stuff
    --------

    Wow, there is a stable version of linux?? gimme gimme :-) - or is it Windows you are talking about here? :p

  • I'm sick of it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by __aahlyu4518 ( 74832 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:52AM (#2986420)
    Sick of these minor release announcements on development branch kernels... Not because of the announcement itself, but because of all the people yelling and screaming that they don't want to know about it... Stop bitching and skip the article and move on and leave the thread clean for those that DO like to read about it and read INTERESTING comments...

  • Collective scream... (Score:5, Funny)

    by powerlinekid ( 442532 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @09:55AM (#2986430)
    7:58 - Slashdot post that new kernel is out

    7:59 - "Bleeding edge" kernel hackers start downloading it

    8:30 - download finally is over, start unpacking it

    8:35 - ooh and ah over new features in config

    8:40 - start compiling, so far so good

    8:55 - kernels done, reboot

    8:56 - system is as fast as ever and that leet hardware is now supported

    8:59 - file system gets fscked due to some small oversight

    9:00 - a large scream is heard through country

    9:10 - screaming stops

    9:20 - hacker finally remembers that its the 2nd #, not the 3rd that means the kernel is unstable

    9:30 - i laugh

    • Re:Collective scream... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Kynde ( 324134 )
      8:40 - start compiling, so far so good

      ...and that's as far as you'd get on an x86. Although those _actually_ interested in developement kernels would have no trouble locating a suitable patch posted to kernel mailing list by Andrew Morton.

      Also vesa frame buffers users will have difficulties linking it together, because of few bus_to_virt instead of phys_to_virt

      (Patches for the x86 headers below...)

      --- linux-2.5.4/include/asm-i386/processor.h Sun Feb 10 22:00:29 2002
      +++ 25/include/asm-i386/processor.h Sun Feb 10 22:21:53 2002
      @@ -435,14 +435,7 @@ extern int kernel_thread(int (*fn)(void
      /* Copy and release all segment info associated with a VM */
      extern void copy_segments(struct task_struct *p, struct mm_struct * mm);
      extern void release_segments(struct mm_struct * mm);
      -
      -/*
      - * Return saved PC of a blocked thread.
      - */
      -static inline unsigned long thread_saved_pc(struct task_struct *tsk)
      -{
      - return ((unsigned long *)tsk->thread->esp)[3];
      -}
      +extern unsigned long thread_saved_pc(struct task_struct *tsk);

      unsigned long get_wchan(struct task_struct *p);
      #define KSTK_EIP(tsk) (((unsigned long *)(4096+(unsigned long)(tsk)->thread_info))[1019])
      --- linux-2.5.4/arch/i386/kernel/process.c Sun Feb 10 22:00:28 2002
      +++ 25/arch/i386/kernel/process.c Sun Feb 10 22:26:35 2002
      @@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ asmlinkage void ret_from_fork(void) __as
      int hlt_counter;

      /*
      + * Return saved PC of a blocked thread.
      + */
      +unsigned long thread_saved_pc(struct task_struct *tsk)
      +{
      + return ((unsigned long *)tsk->thread.esp)[3];
      +}
      +
      +/*
      * Powermanagement idle function, if any..
      */
      void (*pm_idle)(void);

    • The filesystem corruption bug only occured ONCE, in ONE kernel version.
      The 2.5.x series don't cause any corruptions at all.

      Just in case you didn't know....
    • I'm not a dork, I'm a geek. Ask my girlfriend.

      My apology for my ignorance, but I always thought a dork without a girlfriend is a geek, and a geek with a girlfriend is considered (by her) a dork.
      • My girl is weird. Everytime I tell her I'm a dork, shes goes "No baby, you're a geek." The funny thing is, she couldn't tell the difference between a computer and a toaster oven (yet, she probably could compile a kernel... )
    • 8:40 - pressed return
      (3.1415926535898...)
  • Just in time for my 30th birthday

    And my 14th, and thousands of other peoples' birthdays. What better present than a new kernel :)
  • They extrude a new one every few days - what great big new feature does 2.5.4 provide that we should all care about?

    Or is slashdot just desperate for news on Monday morning?

    - A.P.

  • ChangeLog got hacked? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is it just me not knowing/noticing something, or e-mail address of Dave M. has magically changed from davem@redhat.com to davem@pizda.ninka.net?

    For people that do not read Russian: 'pizda' in Russian stands for 'C-word' and 'ninka' is a short form of female name.
    • Dave's wife has name Nina, she is Polish and she uses account on similarly named computer (pierdol.ninka.net) to post the news. So you see the real email on real computer named so in DNS. And the p**** word means in Polish the same as in Russion.

      For me, this really is not funny.
  • I'm glad to see a change Log that I can understand!.

    I's detailed and clear.

  • ChangeLogs in adult filter??? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    On the top of the changelog, there are plenty of changes marked with

    <davem@pizda.ninka.net>

    The problem is that the word 'pizda' is one of the most rude curses in the Polish language (used to name women vagina). This is problably some kind of humor of Dave Miller (whose wife is Polish) but ... it makes very, very bad look.

    After all, in case some 'adult filter' is implemented for Polish language, it will filter out the Linux change log.
  • Still no signs of ALSA (and CML2 for that matter) making it into the 'official' development kernel yet.. This is really a thing I'd like to see in it.. But it's nice that Linus already accepted two controversial patches (O(1)-scheduler and the pre-emptible kernel patch)..

  • Extremly offensive language in 2.5.4 ChangeLog (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The changelog for the kernel-v2.5.4 contains a
    few patches posted from "davem@pizda.ninka.net"

    In Russian the word "ninka" is a female name
    while the word "pizda" is a very dirty slang for a female genitals. To a Russian this email address sounds very offending!

    You know Linus cannot be proficient in all world languages. Therefore some ethics on the side of
    Linux contributors is very much appreciated.

    +Leo+

  • Details can be found here [mandrakeforum.com]. The isos can be downloaded from here [linux-mandrake.com] and all bug reports can be discussed here [linux-mandrake.com].

    Very few 'really ugly' bugs have been found in the first beta, and we have been able to concentrate on hardware recognition, improving the *drake* tools, and updating the packages. For more details about what has changed since the beta1, and what should be tested, please wait for the articles in the "test this" serial.
  • This has mostly nothing to do with this post, but bear with me. For a while now, my kernel 2.4.something has become silent, ie: it does not write to kern.log or syslog, have i missed a compilation option or does it just not like to talk to me anymore? anyone have a problem like this before? g. I know i'm stupid, but @ least i have no problem admitting it.
    • Are both klogd and syslogd running? Make sure they are, and I think klogd needs to be started after syslogd. I had this problem for a while until I discovered klogd wasn't running (or at least not talking to syslogd: restarting both fixed the problem).

  • Major breakage in this kernel. (Score:5, Informative)

    by worldwideweber ( 116531 ) on Monday February 11, 2002 @11:36AM (#2986977) Homepage Journal
    There was a change to the API in this kernel release which breaks a bunch of drivers for the moment. Specifically, all drivers that allocate buffers using the kmalloc/__get_free_pages and virt_to_bus will not link. Right now, I can see atleast two groups of drivers affected: some USB, and the PCI sound drivers.

    Even if you don't see the above problem, this kernel will not compile (atleast on most i386 systems) without the following patch:

    --- linux-2.5.4/include/asm-i386/processor.h Sun Feb 10 22:00:29 2002
    +++ 25/include/asm-i386/processor.h Sun Feb 10 22:21:53 2002
    @@ -435,14 +435,7 @@ extern int kernel_thread(int (*fn)(void
    /* Copy and release all segment info associated with a VM */
    extern void copy_segments(struct task_struct *p, struct mm_struct * mm);
    extern void release_segments(struct mm_struct * mm);
    -
    -/*
    - * Return saved PC of a blocked thread.
    - */
    -static inline unsigned long thread_saved_pc(struct task_struct *tsk)
    -{
    - return ((unsigned long *)tsk->thread->esp)[3];
    -}
    +extern unsigned long thread_saved_pc(struct task_struct *tsk);

    unsigned long get_wchan(struct task_struct *p);
    #define KSTK_EIP(tsk) (((unsigned long *)(4096+(unsigned long)(tsk)->thread_info))[1019])
    --- linux-2.5.4/arch/i386/kernel/process.c Sun Feb 10 22:00:28 2002
    +++ 25/arch/i386/kernel/process.c Sun Feb 10 22:26:35 2002
    @@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ asmlinkage void ret_from_fork(void) __as
    int hlt_counter;

    /*
    + * Return saved PC of a blocked thread.
    + */
    +unsigned long thread_saved_pc(struct task_struct *tsk)
    +{
    + return ((unsigned long *)tsk->thread.esp)[3];
    +}
    +
    +/*
    * Powermanagement idle function, if any..
    */
    void (*pm_idle)(void);

    -
    -

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