Oracle Linux Release Notes
(Release 5.5 )
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This document covers the following topics regarding Oracle Linux 5.5.
* Changes from the upstream release
* New packages added in this release
* New packages added by Oracle
* Kernel and Driver Updates
o Unmodified Kernel
o Optional Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle
- Bug Fixes
- Installation
o Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel
- Introduction
- New features
- Installation
- Known Issues
* Technology Preview Features
* Known Issues
* 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: An upgrade of Oracle Linux from a beta release is not supported.
Further, an in-place upgrade between major versions of Oracle Linux is
not supported. Oracle does not recommend an upgrade from earlier major
versions of Oracle Linux even 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
* bug-buddy
* clustermon
* conga
* crash
* cyrus-imapd
* 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
* jsch
* kdeadmin
* kdeartwork
* kdebase
* kdelibs
* kernel
Additional kernel containing additional fixes by Oracle (see Kernel and
Driver Update section)
* kexec-tools
* libvirt
* libwvstreams
* libxml2
* libxslt
* memtest86+
* mkbootdisk
* mkinitrd
* nmap
* nss
* 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
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 in this release
The following packages were added upstream for this release (5.5)
which were not in the previous update release (5.4)
* FreeRADIUS 2.0
* PostgreSQL 8.4
* Samba3x
* gPXE
* gsl
* ctdb
* python-dmidecode
* tunctl
* xz
New Packages added by Oracle
Oracle Linux has these additional packages
* enterprise-release
* enterprise-release-notes
* ocfs2 (1.4)
* ocfs2-tools
* oracle-logos
* oracleasm
* oracleasm-support
* oracle-validated
* up2date
Kernel and Driver Updates
Oracle Linux 5.5 ships with following three sets of kernel packages
* Unmodified Kernel [kernel-2.6.18-194.el5].- installed by default
* Kernel with bug fixes added by Oracle [kernel-2.6.18-194.0.0.0.3.el5] - install manually (see below)
* Unbreakable Enterprise kernel [kernel-2.6.32-100.0.19.el5 - install via ULN (see below)]
Unmodified Kernel
This section covers significant changes in the default kernel in this release.
Optional Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle
Fixes/Additions from the upstream distribution provider
* Introduced support for Intel's new platforms, code-named
Boxboro-EX and Boxboro-MC, AMD's new processor family, code-named
Magny-Cours.
* Added new kernel flag CONFIG_DETECT_HUNG_TASK to enable detecting
tasks stuck in D-state. When set to "y" tasks stuck in the D-State
are detected; when set to n it is off. The default value for this
flag is y.
* Added new flag CONFIG_BOOTPARAM_HUNG_TASK_PANIC .When set to y, a
kernel panic is triggered when a task is detected to be stuck in
the D-State. The default value for this flag flag is n.
* The recommended minimal memory requirement on x86 and x86_64 is
now 1GB per logical CPU.
* Valgrind has been updated to version 3.5.0, providing enhanced
support for a wide range of system architectures
* Intoroduced unpriveleged mode for SystemTap's to allow non-root
users to use SystemTap.
* GDB updated to version 7.0.1 supporting wide and multibyte
characters on target with enhanced C++ support.
Driver Updates
Network
* Added Solarflare driver (sfc) .
* Enabled ath9k driver for Atheros 802.11n wireless LAN adapters .
* The following drivers are updated
o vxge driver for Neterion's X3100 Series 10GbE PCIe devices .
o be2net driver for ServerEngines BladeEngine2 10Gbps network
devices.
o enic driver for Cisco 10G Ethernet devices to version
1.1.0.100.
o qlge driver for QLogic 10 Gigabit PCI-E ethernet devices to
version 1.00.00.23.
o tg3 driver for Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet devices .
o igb driver for Intel Gigabit Ethernet Network.
o ixgbe driver for Intel 10 Gigabit PCI Express Network devices.
o e1000 driver for Intel PRO/1000 network devices.
o netxen driver for NetXen Multi port (1/10) Gigabit Network
devices.
o bnx2x driver for Broadcom Everest network devices to version
1.52.1-5.
o bnx2 driver for Broadcom NetXtreme II network devices to
version 2.0.2
o bnx2i driver for Broadcom NetXtreme II iSCSI .
o r8169 driver for RealTek 8169 ethernet devices.
o iwlwifi drivers for Intel wireless network adapters to add
support for iwl6000 and iwl1000 devices, and enhanced
support for iwl5000, iwl4965 and iwl3945 devices.
o rt2x00 drivers for wireless devices.
Storage
* Updated qla2xxx driver for QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs to version
8.03.01.04.05.05-k
* Updated hptiop driver for HighPoint RocketRAID 3xxx/4xxx
controllers to support for RR44xx adapters.
* Updated lpfc driver for Emulex Fibre Channel HBAs to version
8.2.0.63.3p.
* Updated mpt2sas driver that supports the SAS-2 family of adapters
from LSI to version 02.101.00.00.
* Updated mptque base driver for devices using LSI Fusion MPT
firmware to version 3.4.13rh.
* Updated megaraid_sas driver for LSI MegaRAID SAS controllers to
version 4.17-RH1.
General
* Updated the hpilo driver for HP iLO/iLO2 management processors.
* Updated the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA).
* Updated the i2c device driver for the iic-bus interface to add
support for the SB900 SMBus controller.
* Updated the mlx4 driver for Mellanox ConnectX HCA InfiniBand
devices to version 1.4.1
Optional Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle
This kernel includes bug fixes added by Oracle on top of unmodified kernel.
Bug Fixes
* Fix qla not to query hccr [orabug 8746702]
* update rds to 4.0-ora-1.4.2-10 [orabug 9168046]
* Revert return code check to avoid EIO [orabug 9448515]
* Check to see if hypervisor supports memory reservation change [orabug 7556514]
* Add entropy support to igb [orabug 7607479]
* Convert ENETUNREACH to ENOTCONN [orabug 7689332]
* Add xen pv/bonding netconsole support [orabug 6993043]
* Shrink zone patch [orabug 6086839]
* Fix aacraid not to reset during kexec [orabug 8516042]
* Fix failure of file creation from hpux client [orabug 7579314]
* FP register state is corrupted during the handling a SIGSEGV [orabug 7708133]
Installation
This kernel needs to be manually installed. Use following steps to install this kernel
1. mount Oracle Linux 5.5 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-2.6.18-194.0.0.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel
Introduction
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is based on the upstream kernel 2.6.32-21
stable source tree with additional performance improvements, including:
* improved IRQ balancing
* reduced lock contention across the kernel
* improved network I/O via receive packet steering and RDS improvements
* improved virtual memory performance
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is available for the x86_64 architecture.
New Features
* Tickless kernel
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is tickless. In the tickless kernel,
timer interrupts are performed on demand rather than at a predetermined
frequency. This allows CPUs to stay in a low power state when the system
is idle, reducing overall power consumption
* OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED?) 1.5.1
OFED implements Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and kernel bypass mechanisms
to deliver high-efficiency computing, wire-speed messaging, ultra-low microsecond
latencies and fast I/O for servers, block storage and file systems.
* OCFS2 1.6
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel includes OCFS2 1.6 kernel module. Following
are the new features included:
+ JBD2 support
+ Extended attributes
+ POSIX ACLs
+ Security attributes
+ Metadata checksums
+ Indexed directories
+ REFLINKs
* Task Control Groups (TCG)
TCG can track and group processes into user-defined cgroups so that the operating
system can treat them as whole and perform scheduling, accounting, and resource allocation
accordingly. For example, using TCG, you can associate a set of CPU cores and memory
nodes to a group of processes that make up an application or a group of applications.
This enables subsetting larger systems, more fine grained control over CPU and memory,
and isolation of applications.
* Performance Counters for Linux (PCL)
The performance counter subsystem keeps track of hardware and software events
without affecting performance and enables you to do tracing and performance analysis.
includes the a tool called perf for analysis.
* Latencytop
Latency can be defined as follows: an applications wants to run and execute
code, but is blocked by the kernel because some required resource is not
available. LatencyTOP is a Linux tool for software developers (both kernel
and userspace), aimed at identifying where system latency occurs, and what
kind of operation or action is causing the latency to happen. By identifying
this, developers can then change the code to avoid the worst latency hiccups.
* SSD Detection
The kernel block layer will detect devices that claim to be fast, solid state
storage and tune itself accordingly. The result of this detection can be found in:
/sys/block/xxx/queue/rotational
Where xxx is the block device. Echoing a 0 or a 1 into this file will force the
value to off or on. When assuming a device is an SSD, the block layer will try
harder to immediately dispatch the IO to the device.
* IO affinity
IO affinity ensures processing of a completed IO is handled by the same CPU that
initiated the IO. It can have a fairly large impact on performance, especially
on large NUMA machines.
IO affinity is turned on by default, but it can be controlled via the tunable in
/sys/block/xxx/queue/rq_affinity
example: echo 1> /sys/block/sda/queue/rq_affinity will turn it on.
* Receive packet steering (RPS)
RPS distributes the load of received packet processing across multiple CPUs. This
solution allows protocol processing (e.g. IP and TCP) to be performed on packets
in parallel. This removes a bottleneck when a single core is saturated processing
network interrupts.
* fallocate()
fallocate() is a new system call which will allow applications to preallocate space
to any file(s) in a file system. Applications can get a guarantee of space for
particular file(s) - even if later the system becomes full. Using this method of
allocation can dramatically speed up the creation of large files such as those
used for virtual machine images.
Installation
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and other packages are available on the
Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). Login to the Unbreakable Linux Network(ULN)
and subscribe to the Oracle Linux 5 Latest channel to get updates to the
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. The initial set of packages are also available
on public-yum.oracle.com.
Installation steps
1. Install the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and dependent packages (required):
# up2date kernel
2. Optional but recommended.
Install additonal packages needed for Oracle Database Installation:
# up2date oracle-validated
OR
Install additional recommended packages (superset of packages installed by oracle-validated):
# up2date oracle-linux
Note: If the ofa kernel module is needed, install this module using the following steps:
Upgrade to the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel using one of the methods above
Reboot your system and check that you are booting the Unbreakable Enterprise
Kernel (uname ?r should say 2.6.32-100.0.19.el5)
# update ofa-`uname -r`
List of packages included
o kernel
+ updated to 2.6.32 stable tree.
o mkinitrd
+ updated to check for filesystem labels.
o nash
+ updated to check for filesystem labels.
o device-mapper-multipath
+ updated for compatibility with 2.6.32.
o ofa
+ OFED stack is updated to 1.5.1 and contains a number of patches to
the RDS driver. These all focus on removing spinlocks and optimizing
the code for use on larger systems.
o irqbalance
+ updated to use the new list of msi irqs for each PCI device and bind
them to a CPU that is NUMA local to the card itself.
+ patched to more strictly honor the NUMA affinity information provided
by the card.
o kexec-tools
+ resolve bug in mkdumprd which requires all modules to be present and working.
o net-snmp
+ remove spurious error message
o mcelog
+ suppress spurious error message
o util-linux
+ Compatibility with 2.6.32 hwclock.
o oracle-linux
o qla2xxx-firmware
+ Firmware removed from kernel drivers and moved to new package.
o latencytop
+ New diagnosability tool.
o oraclelinux-release
+ Add release files.
Known Issues
* CONSOLE: Console appears to hang while booting on certain systems (orabug 10094052)
On some hardware, the console may appear to hang during the boot process
after starting udev. But the system does boot up properly and is accessible.
A workaround to this problem is to add ?nomodeset? as a kernel boot parameter in /etc/grub.conf:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-100.0.10.el5.x86_64 ro root=/dev/sd0 nomodeset
* GUEST: Cannot boot a hardware virtualized guest that uses paravitualized drivers (PVHVM)
Currently, this configuration does not boot properly. Please do not install this
kernel in a hardware virtualized guest that uses paravirtualized drivers (PVHVM).
Installing the kernel in a hardware virtualized guest without paravirtualized drivers
(HVM) or in a paravirtualized guest (PV) works without problems.
* NFS: Error message displayed while mounting an NFS filesystem (orabug 10070721)
The following error may be encountered while mounting an NFS filesystem:
"SVC: FAILED TO REGISTER LOCKDV1 RPC SERVICE (ERRNO 97)."
This is an informative message and can be ignored
* Serial console not working for a paravirtualized guest (orabug 10059184)
Please use the following steps to configure the serial console in a paravirtualized
guest (PV) using the Unbreakable Enterprise kernel (updates are in the guest):
1.change the kernel boot parameter 'console=xvc0' to 'console=hvc0' in the /etc/grub.conf:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-100.0.19.el5 ro root=/dev/sd0 console=tty0 console=hvc0
2. add an 'hvc0' entry to /etc/inittab:
co:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty hvc0 9600 vt100-nav
3. add an 'hvc0' entry to /etc/securetty
* Unable to start X (orabug 10056679)
On some hardware startup of X environment may fail after upgrading to Unbreakable
Enterprise Kernel with following Error:
Fatal server error:
Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify busIDs for all
framebuffer devices.
To workaround this issue reconfigure X using command "X -configure" and use generated
configuration file to start X environment.
* Higher memory is required for crashkernel option
With unbreakable Enterprise Kernel higher memory setting is required for crashkernel
option in /etc/grub.conf file. Booting with crashkernel=128M@16M will result in
following error:
crashkernel reservation failed - memory is in use
Minimum value for crashkernel option is 128M@32M. Based on the system configuration
higher value may be required. If kdump service loading fails increase the second
value (32M). If system hangs or crashes with out of memory during dumping core
increase the first value (128M)
* Multipathd path checker unable to recognise restored paths (orabug 10121864)
The path checker fails to recognise the restored storage path, thus fail to restore
the device-mapper multipaths and shows status as faulty. Need to restart mutlipathd
for path checker to recognise restored storage paths.
* Error message on boot, "Unable to set hardware clock" (bug 10104470).
This error at boot can be safely ignored. If this error is encountered at runtime
(while attempting to set the hardware clock) please install the provided util-linux
RPM.
* Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel does not recognise /dev/hd* devices (orabug 10055889)
Unbreakable Enterprise kernel does not recognise /dev/hd* entries in hardware
virtualized guests. Make sure to use sables for all /dev/hd* devices in /etc/fstab
before updating the kernel. This kernel package will not install if / or /boot partition
is using devices like /dev/hd* in /etc/fstab.
Technology Preview Features
The following Technology Preview features are currently not supported
under Oracle Linux 5 and may not be functionally complete.
* Brocade BFA Fibre-Channel/FCoE driver
* FreeIPMI
* TrouSerS and tpm-tools
* eCryptfs
* Stateless Linux
* AIGLX
* FireWire
* ktune
* SGPIO Support for dmraid
* GCC 4.4
* Kernel Tracepoint Facility
* Device Failure Monitoring of RAID sets
* Software based Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
* iSER Support
* cman fence_virsh fence agent
* glibc new MALLOC behaviour
These features are not suitable for production use. However, these
features are included to provide the feature with wider exposure.
Known Issues
1. pirut and system-config-packages cannot be used to manage, install,
and uninstall software packages. Follow the steps describe below to
resolve the issue
* Mount the DVD iso of the desired update of Oracle Linux Release 5.
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
* Create yum repository configuration file /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo
with following contents
[dvd]
name=OEL5DVD
baseurl=file:///mnt/Server
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///mnt/RPM-GPG-KEY file:///mnt/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
* Clear and update the yum cache
# yum clean all
# yum update
* Run pirut/system-config-packages to manage software packages
2. Following packages can not co-exists due to file conflict
* freeradius and freeradius2
* postgres and postgresql84
* samba and samba3x
3. 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'.
Unbreakable Linux Support
Oracle 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 Linux:
rpm --import */etc/pki/rpm-gpg*/RPM-GPG-KEY