Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL)  Release Notes

  (Release 5.4 )

Introduction

 This document covers the following topics regarding Oracle Enterprise  Linux 5.4 (OEL 5.4).

For the latest updates please refer to the online version of release notes available at:

http://oss.oracle.com/el5/docs/

NOTE:  Upgrade of Oracle Enterprise Linux from a beta release is not supported.  Further, in-place upgrade between major versions of  Oracle Enterprise Linux is not supported. Oracle does not recommend to upgrade from earlier major versions of Oracle Enterprise Linux though anaconda provides an option do to this upgrade.  A fresh installation is strongly recommended rather than a system upgrade between major versions.

Changes from Upstream Release

The following rpms are modified from the upstream . All changes are trademark and look/feel related unless otherwise noted below under the specific RPM.
Path of the Distribution changed from RedHat to Enterprise on the install CDs.
Additional kernel shipped with Oracle Enterprise Linux with fixes added by Oracle mentioned in kernel and driver update section. This kernel must be installed manually.
ocfs2 related fix.

The following packages are removed

           Replaced by oracle-logos
           Replaced by enterprise-release
           Replaced by enterprise-release-notes-5Server
              Replaced by up2date               Replaced by up2date The following documentation packages are removed

New Packages added by Oracle

  Oracle Enterprise Linux  has these additional  packages

New Packages added in this release

       The following packages were added upstream for this release (5.4) which were not in the previous update release  (5.3)


Kernel  and Driver Updates

This section covers  significant changes in the kernel in this release.

 Bug Fixes  added  by Oracle


Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 ships with two sets of kernel packages. One with  bug fixes added by Oracle [kernel-2.6.18-164.0.0.0.1.el5]  and another unmodified kernel [kernel-2.6.18-164.el5].  The default installation installs the kernel without fixes added by Oracle.The  kernel with  bug fixes added by Oracle needs to be manually installed. Following are the steps required  to install this kernel

1. mount Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 CD 1 or DVD

2. copy the rpms from <mount_point>/Server/oracle_updated to your system

3. install the required  kernel using the rpm command, e.g.
             # rpm -ihv kernel-2.6.18-164.0.0.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm

Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 ships with ocfs2 packages  version 1.4. ocfs2 1.2 is not shipped with OEL 5.4.

Fixes/Additions from the upstream distribution provider


Driver Updates


The following portions of OpenFabrics Alliance Enterprise Distribution (OFED) have been updated to the upstream version 1.4.1-rc3

  • Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) headers
  • Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol
  • Sockets Direct Protocol (SDP)
  • SCSI RDMA Protocol (SRP)
  • IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB)

Additionally, the following OFED drivers have been updated to the upstream version 1.4.1-rc3:

  • cxgb3 and iw_cxgb3 drivers for the Chelsio T3 Family of network devices
  • mthca-based InfiniBand HCA (Host Channel Adapter)
  • qlgc_vnic driver



Network

  • igb driver updated to version 1.3.16-k2. This update also enables GRO support for the igb driver.
  • igbvf driver updated to provide Virtual Function support for Intel 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers.
  • ixgbe driver for Intel 10 Gigabit PBetaCI Express network devices  updated to version 2.0.8-k2. This update also enables GRO support for the ixgbe driver.
  • bnx2 driver  updated to version 1.9.3
  • tg3 driver  updated to version 3.96.. This driver update adds support for 5785F and 50610M devices.
  • cnic driver has been added, providing Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) support for bnx2 network devices.
  • bnx2x driver updated to version 1.48.105.
  • bnx2i driver has been added, providing iSCSI support for bnx2x network devices.
  • cxgb3 driver  updated to enable iSCSI TCP Offload Engines (TOE) and Generic Receive Offload (GRO) support.
  • Intel® I/O Acceleration Technology (Intel® I/OAT)  updated to version 2.6.24.
  • forcedeth ethernet driver for NVIDIA nForce devices updated to version 0.62.
  • sky2 driver updated.
  • enic driver updated to version 1.0.0.933.
  • e1000e driver updated to the upstream version 1.0.2-k2.
  • bonding driver updated to the latest upstream version. With this updated driver,  if IPv6 has been previously disabled (install ipv6 /bin/false line in the /etc/modprobe.conf file)  the bonding kernel module will fail to load. The install ipv6 /bin/false line needs to be replaced with options ipv6 "disable=1" for the module to load properly.

Storage

  • bnx2 driver updated to  support iSCSI .
  • bnx2i version included in this release does not support IPv6
  • md driver updated to provide support for bitmap merging.
  • scsi driver  includes the upstream scsi_dh_alua module which enables  explicit asymmetric logical unit access (ALUA) support with this release. To utilize the scsi_dh_alua module when using dm-multipath, specify alua as the hardware_handler type in multipah.conf.
  • rdac_dev_list structure now includes md3000 and md3000i entries.
  • resolved panic during iSCSI iBFT installations.
  • cxgb3 driver updated to  support  iSCSI TOE devices ( cxgb3i driver include doesnot support IPv6).
  • new mpt2sas driver which supports the SAS-2 family of adapters from LSI Logic.
  • aacraid driver  updated to version 1.1.5-2461.
  • aic7xxx driver now features an increased maximum I/O size.
  • cciss driver has been updated to include upstream fixes affecting memory BAR discovery, the rebuild_lun_table and the MSA2012 scan thread.
  • fnic driver updated to version 1.0.0.1039.
  • ipr driver updated to support MSI-X interrupts.
  • lpfc driver updated to version 8.2.0.48.
  • MPT fusion driver updated to version 3.04.07rh v2.
  • megaraid_sas driver updated to version 4.08-RH1.
  • mvsas driver  updated to version 0.5.4. This  adds support for Marvell RAID bus controllers MV64460, MV64461, and MV64462.
  • qla2xxx driver updated to version 8.03.00.10.05.04-k, and now supports Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet adapters. qla24xx and qla25xx firmwares included in the qla2xxx driver  updated to version 4.04.09.
  • qla4xxx driver with improved driver fault recovery.
  • new qlge driver to provide ethernet support for QLogic FCoE 10GB adapters.

General
  • i5400 driver updated with added support for Error Detection And Correction (EDAC).
  • i2c driver for the iic-bus interface  updated to support  the AMD SB800 Family of products.
  • i2c-piix4 driver updated to support  the Broadcom HT1100 chipset.
  •  hpilo driver has been updated.
  • dm9601 for Davicom Ethernet Adaptors  updated.


Technology Preview Features

The following Technology Preview features are currently not supported under  Oracle Enterprise Linux  5 and may not be functionally complete.



These features are  not suitable for production use. However, these features are included  to provide the feature with wider exposure.

Known Issues

pirut and system-config-packages  cannot be used to manage, install, and uninstall software packages. Follow the steps describe below to resolve the issue

Use the following command for mounting the DVD media inserted in /dev/cdrom

# mount -r -o loop -t  iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt

Use following command to mount iso image file

# mount -o loop <iso image file name>  /mnt


[dvd]
name=OEL5DVD
baseurl=file:///mnt/Server
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///mnt/RPM-GPG-KEY file:///mnt/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
# yum clean all
# yum update



Unbreakable Linux Support

Oracle Enterprise Linux offers an option to keep your operating system up to date with latest operating system patches using up2date.  To be able to  use this option you need to have Unbreakable Linux  Support. For more information  please visit http://linux.oracle.com

Note: Prior to using up2date, import the RPM-GPG-KEY for Oracle Enterprise Linux:

rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY

Known Issue

If updating from OEL 5 GA or RHEL 5 GA using up2date, you may encounter the following error:

Unresolvable chain of dependencies:
xen-3.0.3-64.el5                      requires xen-hypervisor-abi = 3.1

This happens because a kernel-xen package update is needed by the xen package, but 'kernel*' is part of the up2date pkgSkipList.  To get around this, add 'xen;xen-devel;' to the the pkgSkipList line in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date and then run up2date.  You can update the xen and kernel-xen packages together later via 'up2date --force xen kernel-xen'.