Oracle Linux Release Notes
(Release 5.6)
Updated Jun. 2011
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
This document covers the following topics regarding Oracle Linux 5.6.
* Changes from the upstream release
* New packages added in this release
* New packages added by Oracle
* Kernel and Driver Updates
o Red Hat Compatible Kernel
o Red Hat Compatible Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle
+ Bug Fixes
+ Installation
o Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (x86_64 architecture only)
+ Introduction
+ New features
+ 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 to do this upgrade. A fresh installation is strongly recommended
rather than a system upgrade between major versions.
Changes from the Upstream Release
The following RPMs are modified from the upstream release. 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
* autofs
* basesystem
* booty
* bug-buddy
* clustermon
* cmirror-kmod
* conga
* cyrus-imapd
* device-mapper-multipath
* eclipse
* efax
* eruby
* filesystem
* firefox
* firstboot
* freeipmi
* gfs-kmod
* gnbd-kmod
* gnome-desktop
* gnome-session
* gpm
* gstreamer
* gzip
* httpd
* ibutils
* initscripts
* iptables
* iptraf
* iscsi-initiator
* iscsi-initiator-utils
* java
* jpackage-utils
* jsch
* kdbg
* kdeadmin
* kdeartwork
* kdebase
* kdelibs
* kernel
Additional kernel containing additional fixes by
Oracle (see Kernel and Driver Update section)
* kexec-tools
* kvm
* libvirt
* libwvstreams
* libxml2
* libxslt
* mcelog
* memtest86+
* mkbootdisk
* mkinitrd
* net-snmp
* nmap
* nss
* numactl
* openib
* pango
* perl
* perl-XML-Simple
* piranha
* pirut
* procmail
* psacct
* python-virtinst
* redhat-artwork
* redhat-lsb
* redhat-rpm-config
* rhgb
* rhpl
* rhpxl
* rpm
* 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
* tftp
* tog-pegasus
* tux
* unzip
* util-linux
* wireshark
ocfs2 related fix.
* xorg-x11-drv-evdev
* xorg-x11-server
* xulrunner
* yum-rhn-plugin
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
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 (5.6)
which were not in the previous update release (5.5)
* bind97
* c-ares
* certmonger
* dropwatch
* ebtables
* hplip3
* ipa-client
* ipa-gothic-fonts
* ipa-mincho-fonts
* ipa-pgothic-fonts
* ipa-pmincho-fonts
* libldb
* libtalloc
* libtdb
* libtevent
* mod_revocator
* php53
* python-pycurl
* sssd
* xmlrpc-c
New Packages added by Oracle
Oracle Linux has these additional packages
* oraclelinux-release
* enterprise-release
* enterprise-release-notes
* irqbalance
* latencytop
* ocfs2 (1.4)
* ocfs2-tools
* oracle-logos
* oracleasm
* oracleasm-support
* oracle-validated
* up2date
Kernel and Driver Updates
Oracle Linux 5.6 ships with following three sets of kernel packages
* Unbreakable Enterprise kernel [kernel-uek-2.6.32-100.26.2.el5
o Only available on x86_64 (64bit) platform
o This kernel will be installed by default
* Red Hat compatible Kernel [kernel-2.6.18-238.el5].
o This kernel is installed by default.
* Red Hat compatible Kernel with bug fixes added by Oracle
[kernel-2.6.18-238.0.0.0.1.el5]
o This kernel, available on x86 and x86-64 , can only be
installed manually (see below for details)
Note: Both Unbreakable Enterprise kernel and Red Hat compatible kernel
are installed on 64 bit (x86_64) platform and the system boots with
Unbreakable Enterprise kernel by default. If needed /etc/grub.conf
can be modifed to make the system boot with Red Hat compatible kernel
by default.
Red Hat compatible Kernel
This section covers significant changes in the Red Hat compatible kernel
in this release.This kernel is the default kernel when you install
Oracle Linux on a 32 bit platform.
Fixes/Additions from the upstream distribution provider
* The tpm_tis driver is automatically loaded at boot time.
* Added support for ITE-887x chips
* Updated qeth driver to add support for the OSX and OSM OSA CHPID
types.
* Updated High Definition Audio (ALSA-HDA) drivers.
* System Tap updated to version 1.3. to provide an integrated
compile-server client, automatic structure prettyprinting, faster
and improved stack backtraces, and new sample scripts.
* Updated Kernel Probes (kprobes) implementation
* Updated Per-task statistics interface (taskstats)
* Added support for TCP cubic congested control
* Added support for the one packet scheduler in the networking stack
* Added networking tuning parameters, ip_local_reserved_ports and
ip_local_port_range. These parameters allow users to reserve ports
for third-party applications, and blacklist known offending ports.
* Added parameter /proc/sys/vm/vm_devzero_optimized to skip
ZERO_PAGE mmap of /dev/zero device
* Enhanced iSNS, in the iSCSI Initiator, and the iSNS server
Driver Updates
Support for the following drivers is added to the installer in this
release:
* The Brocade BNA Ethernet Controller driver.
* The cxgb4 driver.
* The 3w-sas driver.
Network
* I/O AT (I/O Acceleration Technology) and DCA drivers have been
updated.
* Added support for zd1211 driver for the ZyDAS ZD1211(b)
802.11a/b/g USB WLAN device .
* Updated qlcnic driver to the latest upstream version
* Updated be2net driver for ServerEngines BladeEngine2 10Gbps
network devices to version 2.102.512r
* Updated bnx2 driver to version 2.0.8
* Updated bnx2x driver to version 1.52.53-4
* Updated forcedeth ethernet driver for NVIDIA nForce devices to the
latest upstream version
* Updated e1000e driver to version 1.2.7-k2
* Updated enic driver for Cisco 10G Ethernet devices to version 1.4.1.2
* Updated igb driver for Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapters to support
PCI-AER
* Updated ixgbe driver to version 2.0.84-k2
* Updated netxen driver to version 4.0.73
* Updated qlge driver to version 1.00.00.25
* Updated Solarflare driver (sfc) to version 2.6.36-4c1
* Updated tg3 driver to version 3.108+
* Updated vxge driver for Neterion's X3100 Series 10GbE PCIe devices
to version 2.0.8.20182-k
Storage
* Updated cciss driver for HP Smart Array controllers to version
3.6.22.RH1
* Updated qla4xxx driver to version 5.02.03.00.05.06-d1
* Updated bnx2i driver to version 2.1.3.
* Updated lpfc driver to version 8.2.0.87
* Updated ipr driver to version 2.2.0.4
* Updated 3w-sas driver to version 3.26.00.028-2.6.18RH
* Updated 3w-xxxx driver to version 2.26.08.007-2.6.18RH
* Updated cxgb3i driver for Chelsio host bus adapters (HBAs) .
* Updated megaraid_sas driver to version 4.31
* Updated mpt2sas driver to version 05.101.00.02
* Updated qla2xxx driver to version 8.03.01.05.05.06-k
Red Hat compatible Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle
This is the Red Hat compatible kernel with critical bug fixes produced by Oracle
Bug Fixes
* Fix filp_close() race [orabug 10335998]
* Fix missing aio_complete() in end_io [orabug 10365195]
* Make xenkbd.abs_pointer=1 by default [orabug 67188919]
* Check to see if hypervisor supports memory reservation change
[orabug 7556514]
* Enable entropy for bnx2,bnx2x,e1000e,igb,ixgb,ixgbe,ixgbevf
[orabug 10315433]
* Add xen pv netconsole support [orabug 6993043] [bz 7258]
* shrink_zone patch [orabug 6086839]
* Fix aacraid not to reset during kexec [orabug 8516042]
* Patch rds to 1.4.2-20 [orabug 9471572, 9344105]
* Fix BUG_ONs to not fire when in a tasklet -RDS
* Fix lockup of the tx queue - ipoib
* Do not call set_page_dirty() with irqs off - RDS
* Properly unmap when getting a remote access error - RDS
* Fix locking in rds_send_drop_to() - RDS
* Fix qla not to query hccr [Orabug 8746702]
* Too many getattr and access calls after direct I/O [orabug 9348191]
* PVHVM guest with PoD crashes under memory pressure [orabug 9107465]
* PV guest with FC HBA hangs during shutdown [orabug 9764220]
* Support 256GB+ memory for pv guest [orabug 9450615]
* Fix overcommit memory to use percpu_counter [orabug 6124033]
* Make configurable timeouts for kcs of ipmi [orabug 9752208]
* Fix memory corruption - ipoib [orabug 9972346]
* Patch removes limit on number of retries an aio can submit
[orabug 10044782]
* Do not call loop_unplug for not configured loop device [orabug
10314497]
Installation
This kernel needs to be manually installed. Use following steps to
install this kernel
1. mount Oracle Linux 5.6 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-2.6.18-238.0.0.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel ( x86_64 architecture only)
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 and is the default kernel after installation.
Note: Starting this release Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel package name
has changed from kernel to kernel-uek.
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.
Known Issues
* Hardware virtualized guest with kernel-uek-2.6.32-100.35.1.el5uek and
higher
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel version kernel-uek-2.6.32-100.35.1 adds
support for paravirtualized drivers in a harware virtualized guest on
Oracle VM. Starting this kernel version hardware virtualized guests
which are not configured to use paravirtualized drivers will need an
additional kernel boot parameter "xen_emul_unplug=never" in
/etc/grub.conf:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-100.35.1.el5uek ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 xen_emul_unplug=never
With kernel-2.6.32-100.35.1 and higher, the default is to present only
paravirtualized drivers when running in a hardware virtualized guest on
Oracle VM. Adding this kernel boot parameter makes the kernel also present
the emulated drivers as it did before (e.g. the 8139cp network driver may
no longer load if this parameter is not set).
Older version of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel do not have support for
hardware virtualized guest that uses paravirtualized drivers (PVHVM).
* kernel-uek-headers on Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)
Package kernel-uek-headers is available in "Enterprise Linux 5 Addons
(x86_64)" (el5_x86_64_addons) channel on ULN. To install
kernel-uek-headers subscribe to el5_x86_64_addons channel and install
kernel-uek-headers using following command
# up2date kernel-uek-headers
or
# yum install kernel-uek-headers
To replace kernel-uek-headers with kernel-headers
* make sure system is not subscribed to el5_x86_64_addons channel
* remove package kernel-uek-headers using following command
rpm -ev --nodeps kernel-uek-headers
* Install kernel-headers package using following command
# up2date kernel-headers
or
# yum install kernel-headers
* 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 a higher value may be required. If kdump service
loading fails increase the second value (32M). If the system hangs or
crashes with out of memory during dumping core increase the first
value (128M)
* 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 lables 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
* 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
* Intel Patsburg device controllers
* ipa-client
* kerberos security for CIFS
These features are not suitable for production use. However, these
features are included to provide the feature with wider exposure.
Known Issues
1. The versions of kpartx and device-mapper-multipath installed by default,
while required for the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, do not work with the
Red Hat compatible kernel.
The instructions for installing the versions of kpartx and
device-mapper-multipath to go with the Red Hat compatible kernel via ULN
are as follows:
* Make sure you are subscribed to the Oracle Linux 5 Latest channel or at
least the Oracle Linux 5 Update 6 Patch channel on ULN
* Download the RPMs using the following command:
# up2date --get kpartx-0.4.7-42.el5 device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-42.el5
RPMs will be downloaded to /var/spool/up2date
* Boot the system with RHAT compatible kernel.
* Flush out the DM multipath devices
# multipath -F
* Stop the multipath deamon
# service multipathd stop
Stopping multipathd daemon: [ OK ]
* Install/downgrade the kpartx and device-mapper-multipath rpms
# rpm -Uvh --force kpartx-0.4.7-42.el5.x86_64.rpm device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-42.el5.x86_64.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:kpartx ########################################### [ 50%]
2:device-mapper-multipathwarning: /etc/multipath.conf created as /etc/multipath.conf.rpmnew
warning: /etc/udev/rules.d/40-multipath.rules saved as /etc/udev/rules.d/40-multipath.rules.rpmsave
########################################### [100%]
# rpm -e device-mapper-multipath-libs
* Restart the multipath deamon
# service multipathd start
Starting multipathd daemon: [ OK ]
* Run the multipath -ll command to lists all the multipath devices
* Ensure that device-mapper-multipath and kpartx are not automatically
updated with newer versions by adding the following to the pkgSkipList
entry in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date
device-mapper-multipath*;kpartx*;
2. pirut and system-config-packages cannot be used to manage, install,
and uninstall software packages. Follow the steps below to resolve the
issue
* Mount the DVD iso of the desired update of Oracle Linux Release 5.
Command for mounting the DVD media inserted in /dev/cdrom
# mount -r -o loop -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt
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
3. Following packages can not co-exists due to file conflict
* freeradius and freeradius2
* postgres and postgresql84
* samba and samba3x
4. If updating from Oracle Linux 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