Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) Release Notes
(Release 5.3 )
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This document covers the following topics regarding Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3 (OEL 5.3).
* Changes from upstream release
* New packages added by Oracle
* New packages added in this release
* Kernel and Driver Updates
* Technology Preview Features
* Unbreakable Linux Support
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.
* anaconda
Path of the Distribution changed from RedHat to Enterprise on the install CDs.
* anacron
* basesystem
* booty
* brltty
* bug-buddy
* clustermon
* conga
* crash
* eclipse
* efax
* filesystem
* firefox
* firstboot
* freeipmi
* gnbd-kmod
* gnome-desktop
* gnome-session
* gpm
* gstreamer
* gzip
* httpd
* initscripts
* iptraf
* java-1.6.0-openjdk
* jpackage-utils
* kdeadmin
* kdeartwork
* kdebase
* kdelibs
* kernel
Additional kernel shipped with Oracle Enterprise Linux with fixes added by
Oracle mentioned in kernel and driver update section. This kernel need
to be installed manually.
* kexec-tools
* libvirt
* libwvstreams
* libxml2
* libxslt
* memtest86+
* mkbootdisk
* mkinitrd
* mvapich
* nmap
* perl-XML-Simple
* piranha
* pirut
* procmail
* python-virtinst
* redhat-artwork
* redhat-lsb
* redhat-rpm-config
* rgmanager
* rhgb
* rhpl
* sblim
* setroubleshoot
* sgml-common
* sgpio
* sos
* specspo
* squirrelmail
* stunnel
* system-config-bind
* system-config-date
* system-config-httpd
* system-config-kickstart
* system-config-netboot
* system-config-network
* system-config-nfs
* system-config-printer
* system-config-samba
* system-config-services
* system-config-soundcard
* system-config-users
* systemtap
* subversion
* tftp
* tog-pegasus
* tux
* wireshark
ocfs2 related fix.
* xorg-x11-server
* xulrunner
* zsh
The following packages are removed
* redhat-logos
Replaced by oracle-logos
* redhat-release
Replaced by enterprise-release
* redhat-release-notes-5Server
Replaced by enterprise-release-notes-5Server
* rhn-client-tools
Replaced by up2date
* rhnsd
Replaced by up2date
* yum-rhn-plugin
The following documentation packages are removed
* Deployment_Guide
* Virtualization
* Global_File_System
* Cluster_Administration
New Packages added by Oracle
Oracle Enterprise Linux has these additional packages
* enterprise-release
* enterprise-release-notes
* ocfs2 (1.2 and 1.4)
* ocfs2-tools
* oracle-logos
* oracleasm
* oracleasm-support
* oracle-validated
* up2date
New Packages added in this release
The following packages were added upstream for this release which
were not in the previous update release
* cmirror
* cmirror-kmod
* compat-libcom_err
* e4fsprogs
* fipscheck
* gcc43
* java-1.6.0-openjdk
* ktune
* libcmpiutil
* libvirt-cim
* mpitests
* mvapich2
* mvapich
* nedit
* perl-Archive-Zip
* perl-Config-General
* sgpio
* wacomexpresskeys
Kernel and Driver Updates
This section covers significant changes in the kernel in this release.
Bug Fixes added by Oracle
* Add entropy module option to e1000 and bnx2 [ORA 6045759]
* shrink zone patch [orabug 6086839]
* xen pv/bonding netconsole support [orabug 6993043]
* convert ENETUNREACH to ENOTCONN [orabug 7689332]
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3 ships with two sets of kernel packages. One with
bug fixes added by Oracle and another unmodified kernel. 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 5.3 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-2.6.18-128.0.0.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3 ships with two sets of ocfs2 packages version 1.2
and version 1.4. ocfs2 1.2 is installed by default. ocfs2 1.4 are
shipped in directory Server/oracle_updated and need to be installed
manually.
Fixes/Additions from the upstream distribution provider
* autofs4 is backported from linux kernel version 2.6.27.
* the MAX_ARG_PAGES limit that is set in the kernel has been
increased to 25 percent of the stack size.
* Buffer size limit for on-memory buffers for relayfs has been
increased to 4095MB from 64MB.
* Kernel module pata_si1680 added to provide driver for Dell Remote
Access Controller 4 (DRAC4).
* Added support for Dell Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) //cards
to the kernel which enables support for following devices
- Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile Broadband CDMA/EVDO Mini-Card
- Dell Wireless 5500 Mobile Broadband HSDPA Mini-Card
- Dell Wireless 5505 Mobile Broadband HSDPA Mini-Card
- Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile Broadband CDMA/EVDO ExpressCard
- Dell Wireless 5510 Mobile Broadband HSDPA ExpressCard
- Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile Broadband CDMA/EVDO Mini-Card
- Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile Broadband CDMA/EVDO Mini-Card
- Dell Wireless 5720
- Dell Wireless HSDPA 5520
- Dell Wireless HSDPA 5520
- Dell Wireless 5520 Voda I Mobile Broadband (3G HSDPA) Mini-Card
* Added support for DSR/DTR hardware flow control by updating the
driver for 8250 based serial ports.
* Kernel updated to enable oprofile to identify processors based on
Next-Generation Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem) and support the
CPU power state, C3, on the Next-Generation Intel
Microarchitecture (Nehalem).
* The soft lockup detector can now be configured to trigger a kernel
panic instead of a warning message.
* Added large memory configuration support to the Machine Check
Exception (MCE) kernel subsystem.
* NMI watchdog code updated to allow users to disable the NMI source
which enables users to safely configure kernel parameter
kernel.unknown_nmi_panic without causing kernel panic.
* powernowk8 driver updated on x86 architecture to verify that the
number of supported CPUs (supported_cpus) equals the number of
online CPUs (num_online_cpus).
* Added support for kprobe_booster on x86_64 architectures. This
will allow faster probing of kernel events.
* For x86_64 architecture kernel updated to support _PTC
(Processor Throttling Control), _TSS (Throttling Supported
States) and _TPC (Throttling Present Capabilities) objects.
* Added support for the iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT) // which
allows for booting from iSCSI devices..
* The iSCSI target capability, delivered as part of the Linux Target
(tgt) framework, is fully supported in this release.
* Added support for block device encryption using the Linux Unified
Key Setup (LUKS) specification.
* The openssl packages upgrade the OpenSSL** library to a newer
upstream version. This version of OpenSSL library is currently
undergoing the Federal Information Processing Standards validation
process (FIPS-140-2). To maintain the ABI compatibility with the
openssl packages of previous release, the FIPS mode is disabled by
default.
* Rebased cups with full Kerberos support
* Rebased ksh, lm-sensors, net-snmp, gdb, OpenIPMI,openldap,openmotif, python-urlgrabber,
rpm, tog-pegasus, vnc,yum,yum-utils
* Added support for
o private futexes
o preempt-notifiers implementation
o tracepoint/markers infrastructure
o response oriented wake up behavior to scheduler
o PCI domain
o RAID 4/5/10 in dmraid
* Fixed gettimeofday for HPET, PMTimer, TSC
* Increased stack size for ia32 application
* Open Fabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) / opensm updated to
the upstream version 3.2. The format of the opensm.conf file
has changed in this release. Any modification done to your
existing opensm.conf file has to be migrated to
/etc/ofed/opensm.conf.rpmnew and the current file
/etc/ofed/opensm.conf file need to be replaced the the new
migrated one.
o Due to this change applications build on top of the
following OFED stack might require recompilation or even
source-level code changes :
+ dapl
+ compat-dapl
+ ibsim
+ ibutils
+ infiniband-diags
+ libcxgb3
+ libehca
+ libibcm
+ libibcommon
+ libibmad
+ libibumad
+ libibverbs
+ libipathverbs
+ libmlx4
+ libmthca
+ libnes
+ librmdacm
+ libsdp
+ mpi-selector
+ mpitests
+ mstflint
+ mvapich
+ mvapich2
+ ofed-docs
+ openib
+ openib-mstflint
+ openib-perftest
+ openib-tvflash
+ openmpi
+ opensm
+ perftest
+ qlvnictools
+ qperf
+ srptools
+ tvflash
Driver Updates
Network
* bnx2 updated to version 1.7.9.
* e1000e updated to version 0.3.3.3-k2.
* igb updated to version 1.2.45-k2 to support for 82576 based devices.
* ixgbe updated to version 1.3.18-k4.
* myri10ge updated to version 1.3.2-1.269.
* netxen updated to version 3.4.18.
* bnx2x updated to version 1.45.23 to support 57711 hardware.
* Added niu driver to support 10Gbps ethernet devices on Sun
CP3220 systems.
* Driver for ZyDas Wireless devices zd1211rw updated to match the
last non-mac80211 .
* The following drivers were backported from Linux Kernel 2.6.25:
o ipw2100 and ipw2200
o bcm43xx
o ieee80211 support component for wireless devices
* The following drivers were backported from Linux Kernel 2.6.26:
o ath5k for Antheros wireless devices
o rt2x00 for Ralink wireless devices
o rtl8180 and rtl8187 drivers for Realtek wireless devices
o iwlwifi adding 802.11n support to iwl4965 wireless devices.
Storage
* 3w-xxxx updated to version 1.26.03.
* 3w-9xxx updated to version 2.26.08.
* megaraid_sas updated to version 4.01-rh1.
* qla2xxx updated to support ISP84XX type cards.
* ibmvscsi drivers for emulating virtual SCSI (vSCSI)
devices updated to support virtualized tape devices.
* lpfc updated to version 8.2.0.33.2p.
* cciss updated to version 3.6.20-RH2.
General
* Added support for Cintiq 20WSX and Intuos3 4x6 Wacom
graphics tablets through linuxwacom drivers.
* dm-multipath updated to have inbox support for IBM DS4000.
* ixgbe updated to support the /82598AT/ dual-port adapter
and the /82598 CX4/ adapter.
* Added hp-ilo driver to support HP Integrated Lights Out
(iLO) technology.
* radeon_tp driver is now fully supported in this release
which enables the /ATI R500/R600/ chipsets.
* jsm updated to support Digi Neo PCI Express 4 HiProfile
I/O adapters.
* powernow_k8 included as a loadable module in this release.
* ccid Updated to support USB Smartcard keyboards.
* Added uvcvideo drivers to support USB video devices.
Technology Preview Features
The following Technology Preview features are currently not supported
under Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 and may not be functionally complete.
* ALUA Mode on EMC Clariion
* ext4
* AIGLX
* TrouSerS and tpm-tools
* FreeIPMI
* eCryptfs
* FireWire
* Stateless Linux
* ktune
* SGPIO Support for dmraid
* gcc 4.3
* Kernel Tracepoint Facility
* Device failure Monitoring of RAID sets
* Software based Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
These features are not suitable for production use. However, these
features are included to provide the feature with wider exposure.
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 <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'.