Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Operating Systems Software Linux

Linux 2.6.0-test11 Kernel Released 253

Posted by simoniker from the dam-straight dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Linus Torvalds has released his final 2.6.0-test kernel, calling it the 'Beaver In Detox'. Following this release, Linus says that 2.6 development will be led by Andrew Morton. The kernel's name refers in jest to the previous release, which Linus had named "Stoned Beaver". It contains a fix for the aic7xxx driver, proper error handling in do_fork(), some firewire fixes, and correction of a few skbuff leakage points. Download it from a kernel.org mirror."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Linux 2.6.0-test11 Kernel Released More

Linux 2.6.0-test11 Kernel Released

Comments Filter:

  • Fork it all (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:01PM (#7573857)
    proper error handling in do_fork()

    So you could say the previous version was forked up?

  • names (Score:2, Funny)

    by bersl2 ( 689221 )
    So will the release of 2.6.0 now be called "Beaver in Rehab?"

    • Re:names (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Given the Gnu/Linux philosophy, 2.6.0 should be called Open Beaver.

      Simon

    • Re:names (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:09PM (#7573917)
      Haven't you seen Half Baked? No one needs rehab for getting stoned.

      On a side note, Linus "went on to note that he'll be too busy eating for the next few days to check his email." I know it's Thanksgiving and all, but no one eats a whole weekend away unless they're...

      No way, dude! Far out! Linus has the munchies, man!

  • Names make a difference! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:08PM (#7573910)

    Some may scoff at changing a release name to suit customers and corporate supporters, but it is a simple and useful thing to do.

    I suggest the next release should go a step further. Something smooth, something that rolls off of the tongue, something like "Clean Shaven Beaver"

  • For those who don't RTFA... (Score:3, Informative)

    by HoldmyCauls ( 239328 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:09PM (#7573913) Journal
    No word on a resolution for the problem with pre-empt, at least none that can be seen with a search for "preempt" in the page. :-P

    • For those who didn't read the parent... (Score:5, Funny)

      by blixel ( 158224 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:13PM (#7573943)
      No word on a resolution for the problem with pre-empt, at least none that can be seen with a search for "preempt" in the page. :-P

    • The pre-empt problem: (Score:5, Informative)

      by ciaran_o_riordan ( 662132 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:20PM (#7573982) Homepage
      A full discussion of the pre-empt problem can be found here:
      http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/1679 [kerneltrap.org]

      This is probably what has been happening to me.
      I tried up to -test9, but after a few (2-10) hours, my cpu and disk access would shoot up and RAM usage would slowly increase. I dropped to a tty, typed the username "root", but the cpu load was so hight that login timed out before I was even prompted for a password!
      So I had to kill the power on my machine while I could hear that my disk was fully active. I was not a happy camper.

      • The _load_ was too high? Holy shit...

        I've had machines usable with load averages WAY over fifty; I think the highest I've ever personally recorded was about 600 (at that, the machine wasn't really usable -- 15 minutes for chars typed to appear on screen). Oh. And that was with 2.4 or early 2.5... not 2.6 :)

      • weird, I've been running 2.6.0-test9 w/pre-empt on my linux box, it does quite a bit of server stuff, plus I use it as a workstation for a couple hours a day maybe, no problems at all

      • Re:The pre-empt problem: (Score:5, Informative)

        by Daniel Serodio ( 74295 ) <dserodio@gm a i l.com> on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @08:28PM (#7574338) Homepage
        If you really, absolutely must kill the power, use the "Magic SysRq" key! Alt+PrintScreen+S will sync the filesystems, and Alt+PrintScreen+U will remount them read-only.

        See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt.
      • I've been running Gentoo with gaming-sources (has pre-emptive patch)... I get the same problem.... particularly when running OpenOffice, and compiling fishyfudge in background. It happened right in the middle of the "emerge" process and my disk was doing stuff, when it happened.. I too was severely bugged.

        • Re:Thank you (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Nucleon500 ( 628631 )
          I really wish some of the "save oops to disk (or high memory, or floppy)" patches went into the mainline kernel. Lets face it - everyone runs X, and nobody has a serial console, so most people won't see the oopses. And even if they do, few people want to copy them down by hand. This really limits the amount of useful bug reports the kernel developers are getting.

          After these patches become mainstream, somebody could make an automated system to ask the user to describe the problem, then send a bug report

          • Or: Linux has crashed - would you like to upload your core file to ftp.kernel.org to aid the developers? Yes/Yes ?

            No
            Uploading ..............





            Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!LameneLameness filter
          • Lets face it - everyone runs X, and nobody has a serial console, so most people won't see the oopses.

            Er, the majority of my linux boxes not only don't run X, they don't even have it installed. And my desktop /does/ have a serial console, (as do my servers) I know I'm not alone in the first, and I really doubt I'm in that rare of company on the second.

            • Congradulations, you run servers. But the majority of desktop users (who are more likely to run testing kernels anyway) do run X and don't have serial consoles. I do think an oops dumping system that didn't require no X or a serial console would get a lot more dumps back to the kernel developers.
          • The reason the oops dumper is a bad idea is this possible sequence of events:

            1) Kernel bug causes it to accidentally write random garbage all over itself. The oops dumper is part of the code affected.
            2) The kernel crashes and invokes the oops dumper.
            3) The corrupted oops dumper happily trashes your entire disk.

            You'll NEVER convince a core kernel developer that this is a good idea. The ONLY good thing a kernel can do when it determines that it has been corrupted is simply STOP RUNNING.

            • Using the VFS layer, which is likely dead anyway, isn't a good idea, but there are still safe ways. There are some patches that use their own minimal system to write to swap partitions on IDE disks. Safer still, there could be an option (not default) to dump to a floppy using a self-contained system. Probably safest would be to write the dump somewhere in RAM that won't be erased during a warm boot, and save that memory on the next boot until userspace can save it somewhere.

              When the kernel crashes, it d

  • Let me get this straight (Score:3, Funny)

    by niko9 ( 315647 ) * on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:09PM (#7573920)
    BSD is always dying, and now the Tux has hit rock bottom on sex and hard drugs?

    Linux must be a fan of the Sex Pistols.

  • There's no way this isn't going to sound like an absolute fanboy post but oh well -- how cool is this guy? Doesn't seem at all smug, great sense of humor, and not afraid to tell the world he's got a turkey affinity...not to mention some freudian obsession with beavers all of a sudden. He seems more people-esque instead of acting like a mega-deity (which he is), which is awesome.

    Man, if I had my choice in operating systems, I'd want this guy coding it! Oh wait, I do...and sure enough, he does. /me fades

  • Stop this filth (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrEd ( 60684 ) <tonedog@ha[ ]ail.net ['ilm' in gap]> on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:16PM (#7573962)
    It's no wonder that the Linux Kernel development process isn't being taken seriously, what with the childish drug references and sexual innuendo being spouted. We need a wholesome, filth-free name to call the 2.6.0 release. I propose 'squeaky clean beaver'.

  • Newbie comment (Score:5, Informative)

    by Murmer ( 96505 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:18PM (#7573971) Homepage
    If you're a new to all this, and you're a little intimidated by all the options you get from running "make menuconfig" or "make xconfig", here's a tip - if you're running Knoppix, or have one of your current kernels around in /usr/src, you can pull over your old configuration files from /usr/src/kernel and just copy them in the new kernel's source directory, if you're willing to compile the source.

    Then run xconfig, make sure you've got console support compiled in (this point is key) and off you go. make, make install.

    It's worth saying again, no matter how many times it's been said, that Linus and his band of merry coders are doing incredible work. On older machines, like my humble P2/266 laptop, a recompile actually feels faster, a lot faster in fact. If you're running older hardware, it's worth it to give these test kernels a try for that alone, if nothing else.

    • Re:Newbie comment (Score:5, Informative)

      by FueledByRamen ( 581784 ) * <sabretooth@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:46PM (#7574128)
      Actually, what you really should do, instead of "make xconfig" after pulling over the old config file, is "make oldconfig". It's a version of the (original, text-based) config that only asks you about configuration items that weren't defined in the file - like if a new feature (and thus a configuration item) is present in the newer kernel. BTW, the name for the kernel config file is .config (it's invisible - note the dot)

  • Hmmm.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Durin_Deathless ( 668544 )
    It looks like they are going to ship the kernel without the latest framebuffer things. Last time I made a non -mm kernel, the framebuffers were completely hosed, and I don't think the changes have been merged yet. Am I looney or correct on this?

    • Re:Hmmm.... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by fishbowl ( 7759 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @11:01PM (#7574930)
      You are correct. I've given up, and now I assume that FB consoles are something that nobody but me wants or uses. Others are happy with 80x25 consoles and use some sort of XTerm. I prefer 160 column framebuffer consoles, and this is in fact one of the main reasons I run linux.

      I thought it was only broken for my radeon card though. I also thought I was the only person still using a radeon 8500LE who wants to use consoles at fbset 1280x1024-75. This has not worked in any 2.6 kernel, whereas it does work well on 2.4. I've reported it. I've tried the patches that were posted, but it doesn't fix the problem I've reported. I gave up.

      • Re:Hmmm.... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by evbergen ( 31483 )
        Well, the kernel guys have a point in that such things should run in userspace, simply because they can.

        If X can run in user space, so can a simple set of high resolution graphics-based virtual terminals.

        Personally I think the whole terminal/console handling should be in userspace. Sure, if the vt process dies, you're screwed, but it's easier managed and restarted if it lives outside the kernel. The net risks of having to cycle your box may actually be lower, and support for new frame buffers could move a

  • Sorry Tux, Here comes Bux. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bill, Shooter of Bul ( 629286 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:39PM (#7574089) Journal
    Looks like Tux has been replaced in Linus' heart. Thats Great! I've always prefered Beaver meat to Penguin. Plus, you can make the coolest hats out of Beaver pelts. Now we just need a name for the little fellow. How about Bux?

  • At least Linus (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nonillion ( 266505 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @07:43PM (#7574113)
    At least Linus didn't call it the "SCO, fuck your mama" build ;)

    • But he did! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jared_hanson ( 514797 )
      I think you need to reread the name:

      Beaver In Detox

      Now, let your mind slip a little bit further into the gutter, and I think you will see that he did name it what you said. It's just a little more thinly veiled.

      I think his reason for making it vague was that SCO needs to have everything in the open to see things (think GPL code). By making it more vague, they are less likely to be in on the joke.
    • I bet he's saving that for 2.6.0 final.
    • Think SCO's gonna try to force a renaming of it to "Stolen Beaver"
  • Beaver with Botox

    I just don't wanna know.

  • The importance of publishing test releases (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @09:22PM (#7574526)
    When you put 1 milion monkeys with keyboards in a room, open source occurs (taken from the Bazaar and the Cathedral), or a result of similar quality.

    Since most open source development is not done by professionals nor professional organizations, there is no formal QA process. As such, Linux is in dire need of testing. Especially with all the unproven claims of stability made in its regard.

    It is therefore very important that as wide a variety of people as possible download it and hose their systems so that bugs get reported in newsgroups where people will get laughed at for not reading every bit of manual out there.

    I think that the people posting complaints about this story were either ignorant of the open source development process, or just trolling.

    Thank you.

    • Re:The importance of publishing test releases (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      *Right* .. since the Linux kernel is so piss poorly written thats why its the only threat to microsoft ....

      I am running test10 with no problems at all, but yet, i go to use an 'official' release of any microsoft product and get nothing but security flaws, theres your 'formal QA proccess' at work for you.

      I do agree that Linux needs to publish test releases, its the only way to iron out any problems. Its better than a handful of developers with closed source code, then what you get is Windows and consistent
    • Since most open source development is not done by professionals nor professional organizations, there is no formal QA process. As such, Linux is in dire need of testing. Especially with all the unproven claims of stability made in its regard.

      Have you looked at the email addresses of the kernel contributors. Most of them seem to be @intel.com, @ibm.com, @hp.com, @redhat.com, @sgi.com etc. etc.

      Maybe ten years ago they were teenagers, but mostly they are now professional developers who are paid to work on t
  • of this release compared to Windows XP?

    Sorry, could help it :-)

  • this test goes to 11? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @10:08PM (#7574714)
    why don't they just make the tests bigger and make the highest one 10?

  • Is fdomain driver still actively maintained? (Score:3, Informative)

    by pedro ( 1613 ) on Wednesday November 26, 2003 @11:49PM (#7575147)
    My only need for scsi is for my venerable old hp scanjet 4 and a cd burner, so this ancient future domain isa card works just dandy.
    Unfortunately, the driver segfaults under 2.6.0-x. It worked a treat with 2.4.
    Anyone else had this issue? Should I make a formal bug report? Is it a hassle to do so?

  • non-patched distro kernel (Score:3, Interesting)

    by G3ckoG33k ( 647276 ) on Thursday November 27, 2003 @01:56AM (#7575612)
    I know several distros have their kernels heavily patched (e.g. RedHat). Does anyone know if there is a distro which leaves the kernel totally untouched? Or, perhaps RedHat and a few others are unique in their capacity to actually fiddle with it.

    • Re:non-patched distro kernel (Score:4, Informative)

      by Azar ( 56604 ) on Thursday November 27, 2003 @02:20AM (#7575697) Homepage
      Slackware is a completely vanilla kernel. Most others (but not all) tweak the kernel one way or another.
    • You can download and install a vanilla kernel in Gentoo and the Slackware kernel is unpatched out of the box apart from the occasional security issue like ptrace.

      As you say, most other distros are patched to within an inch of their life.
    • The RedHat SRPM is a totally vanilla kernel tar ball with patch files for all of their changes (and the ones that they apply from other sources).

      Just "rpm -i kernel*.src.rpm" and then look in /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES for your kernel tar ball and patch files. The order in which the patches are applied is all laid out in /usr/src/redhat/SPEC/kernel.spec, and you can apply them with "rpm -bp /usr/src/redhat/SPEC/kernel.spec"

    • Obligatory Gentoo... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MarcQuadra ( 129430 ) *
      In Gentoo you can 'emerge vanilla-sources' instead of 'gentoo-sources' for a plain-jane vanilla kernel. To work with developmental vanilla kernels you just 'emerge development-sources'.

      If you're into manually tweaking kernels and packages I highly recommend Gentoo, you'll learn tons about Linux just by installing it.

  • Torrent (Score:5, Informative)

    by teoruiz ( 726541 ) on Thursday November 27, 2003 @03:45AM (#7575986) Homepage
    As usual, I set a torrent here [the-geek.org].

Slashdot Top Deals

Solutions are obvious if one only has the optical power to observe them over the horizon. -- K.A. Arsdall

Close