kernel-lt and kernel-ml

And Nux! said "Let there be light" and there was kernel-l(igh)t.

Actually the 'lt' in kernel-lt stands for long term. That is, the kernel-lt package set is based on the long-term, stable branch from the Linux Kernel Archives as opposed to the mainline branch, upon which the  kernel-ml package set is based.

All this started with an innocent-looking request on the ELRepo mailing list:

"Guys, is there a possibility to have the TLS kernels in their own repo 
or would it be just spreading too thin? Maybe some hardlinks as to not 
waste space.. I'm not using the lts kernel but I'm thinking many do and 
they don't want to have the lts kernel updated by the "latest" one."

After a long discussion (of nearly 40 posts) it was decided that the ELRepo Project would provide a long-term kernel, as 'kernel-lt', from the elrepo-kernel repository. Currently the following kernel versions are available:

EL6
kernel-ml 3.6.x
kernel-lt 3.0.x

EL5
kernel-lt 3.0.x

In conclusion we must state our usual disclaimer:

We provide these kernels for hardware testing in an effort to identify
new/updated drivers which can then be targeted for backporting as kmod packages. Meanwhile, these kernels may provide interim relief to people with non-functional hardware. We stress that we consider such kernels as a last resort for those who are unable to get their
hardware working using the RHEL-{5|6} kernel with supplementary kmod packages.

These packages are provided "As-Is" with no implied warranty or
support. Using the kernel-lt may expose your system to security,
performance and/or data corruption issues. Since timely updates may
not be available from the ELRepo Project, the end user has the
ultimate responsibility for deciding whether to continue using the
kernel-lt packages in regular service.

The packages are intentionally named kernel-lt so as not to conflict
with the RHEL-{5|6} kernels and, as such, they may be installed and
updated alongside the regular kernel. The kernel configuration is
based upon a default RHEL-{5|6} configuration with added functionality enabled as appropriate.

If a bug is found when using these kernels, the end user is encouraged
to report it upstream to the Linux Kernel bug tracker [1] and, for our
reference, to the ELRepo bug tracker [2]. By taking such action, the
reporter will be assisting the kernel developers, Red Hat and the Open
Source Community as a whole.

[1] http://bugzilla.kernel.org/
[2] http://elrepo.org/bugs/

ELRepo statistics - August 2012

Here's the entire history of ELRepo as of August 2012:

ELRepo archives

At ELRepo, we prune older packages to save disk space and keep the repo size from growing forever. Then, from time to time we receive requests for the ones that have been removed.

In response to those requests, we have created a new repository "archive". Any packages  in the elrepo and extras repositories that are older than 21 day old are duplicated there. Not all mirrors carry the archive repo. Currently there are 4 mirrors and they are marked on the mirror list found on our Download page.

RHEL 6.3 beta announced

Red Hat announced the release of RHEL 6.3 beta today. We, at ELRepo, must now get busy testing out our kmod and other packages.

Nvidia driver that fixes a security vulnerability released

Nvidia announced today a release of an updated version (295.40) of the Nvidia Unix driver that fixes a security vulnerability (see http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=178006 and Nvidia knowledgebase for details). Here is a brief description:

"The vulnerability makes it possible for attackers with read/write access to the GPU device nodes to access arbitrary system memory, NVIDIA recommends that users of the NVIDIA Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD drivers with Geforce 8 or newer, G80 Quadro or newer, or any Tesla GPU update their drivers to version 295.40 or later."

We (Phil Perry, maintainer of the nvidia driver packages) released the ELRepo packages with this driver version 295.40 for both EL5 and EL6.

*EL5*
kmod-nvidia-295.40-1.el5.elrepo.i686.rpm

kmod-nvidia-PAE-295.40-1.el5.elrepo.i686.rpm
kmod-nvidia-295.40-1.el5.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
nvidia-x11-drv-295.40-1.el5.elrepo.i386.rpm
nvidia-x11-drv-295.40-1.el5.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
nvidia-x11-drv-32bit-295.40-1.el5.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

*EL6*
kmod-nvidia-295.40-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kmod-nvidia-295.40-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
nvidia-x11-drv-295.40-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
nvidia-x11-drv-295.40-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
nvidia-x11-drv-32bit-295.40-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

All Nvidia driver users are advised to update to this version as soon as possible.

It Seems Like Yesterday . . .

It seems like yesterday when we read Linus Torvald's claim that he could "no longer comfortably count as high as 40". [1]

The implication was that a linux-2.6.39.x source tarball would be the last of the Linux Version 2, Patch Level 6 series and that Linux Version 3, Patch Level 0 would soon be appearing over "the horizon".

Earlier today the ELRepo Project announced the release of their latest kernel-ml package set for Enterprise Linux 6, kernel-ml-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo, which also provides a NONPAE kernel version for the 32-bit architecture. [2]

Announcing the release of the kernel-ml-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo
packages into the EL6 elrepo-kernel repository:

http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-ml

The following files are currently syncing to the mirrors:

x86
kernel-ml-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kernel-ml-devel-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kernel-ml-headers-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.i386.rpm
kernel-ml-NONPAE-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kernel-ml-NONPAE-devel-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
perf-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm

x86_64
kernel-ml-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
kernel-ml-devel-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
kernel-ml-headers-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
perf-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

noarch
kernel-ml-doc-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm
kernel-ml-firmware-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm

src
kernel-ml-3.3.0-1.el6.elrepo.src.rpm

 Time just seems to fly by!

[1] https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/5/29/204
[2] http://lists.elrepo.org/pipermail/elrepo/2012-March/001135.html

One size fits all? compat-wireless fits many

The ELRepo Project received a request to package compat-wireless as "This is a must have for ELREPO!".

The kmod-compat-wireless has been built and was made available from the el6 testing repository. It includes a large number (106) of kernel modules as listed in note #1806 of the RFE. They are mostly drivers for wireless devices (surprise! :-) ) but some are for wired.

We are now looking for testers. You can check to see if your device is supported. Download this file containing device aliases:

http://elrepo.org/people/attic/aliases-wireless.txt

Find your vendorID:deviceID pairing by running:

lspci -nn | grep -i net

Suppose your ID pair is  14e4:4727, run this command:

grep -i 14e4 aliases-wireless.txt | grep -i 4727

If it returns a line like:

alias:          pci:v000014E4d00004727sv*sd*bc*sc*i*

then the kmod includes the driver.

The kmod-compat-wireless package can be found in http://elrepo.org/linux/testing/el6/ .

x86_64 (64-bit): kmod-compat-wireless-3.3-0.2.rc6.1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

x86 (32-bit): kmod-compat-wireless-3.3-0.2.rc6.1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm

[Update on 2012-04-08]  The package has been updated to a newer version (  kmod-compat-wireless-3.3-2.n.el6.elrepo ) and is now available from the main repository.

[More update on 2012-08-28] If you are running RHEL/CentOS/Scientific Linux 6.3, please try installing the latest version in the elrepo-testing repo:

x86_64 (64-bit): kmod-compat-wireless-3.5.1-1.sn.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

x86 (32-bit): kmod-compat-wireless-3.5.1-1.sn.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm 

ELRepo growth (updated)

The number of monthly yum access to elrepo.org

While the number of EL5 users remains steady, access to EL6 continues to increase.

ELRepo logo sought

Every open source project needs a logo, right? A nice logo, that is. The ELRepo Project has yet to find one. :-)

Turns out none of us on the ELRepo Project team are good enough to create one that satisfies all other team members. We don't have artistic contributors. So, we decided to ask the world !

I put some of the logos we considered. Because we provide support primarily for hardware, bolts and nuts were imaged in these examples (except for the top one).

Of course, there is absolutely no fixed criteria. We will take any design suitable for the project. The logo can be on many things -- web page, T-shirts, mugs, etc. The background color may be different. The size may be different. Here are some factors unique to logo design:

• Simple
• Scalable
• Memorable
• Versatile

We would prefer files submitted as vector graphics but if you can only create bitmap images, that is fine, too.

Please help us find a logo we deserve !

First You Saw It, Now You Don't!

One week on from the announcement of the release of the kernel-ml-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo package set, an automagically generated system message informed of the availability of the linux-3.2.3.tar.bz2 sources at the Linux Kernel Archive. That new source tarball was downloaded and fed into the ELRepo kernel-ml package generator. After signing and uploading, the kernel-ml-3.2.3-1.el6.elrepo package set was announced.

No sooner had the dust started to settle, then another system message informed of the new linux-3.2.4.tar.bz2 source tarball. The loop was re-iterated and so the kernel-ml-3.2.4-1.el6.elrepo package set was announced.

So the kernel-ml-3.2.3-1.el6.elrepo package set? First you saw it, now you don't!

A Kernel-ml Consultation for Enterprise Linux 6

Users of the ELRepo Project will know that its slogan is: "For the community, by the community."

In the spirit of that slogan, a consultation has been started with respect to the kernel-ml packages for Enterprise Linux 6 --

It has recently been suggested to me that the ELRepo Project should
now provide a kernel-ml package set based on the long-term support
linux-3.0.x series rather than the linux-2.6.39.y series.

Having mulled it over for a while, it does make sense to me and so I
have "smiled" at that suggestion. Before I go ahead and implement it,
which will eventually result in the deprecation of the
kernel-ml-2.6.39-4.2.el6.elrepo package set, I would like to hear
opinions / comments from the ELRepo user-base.

Essentially there will be two packages sets available, based on the long-term support linux-3.0.x sources and on the current stable sources. (As of the date of this posting, linux-3.2.y)

Update: Having listened to our users' comments, the kernel-ml-3.0.19.el6.elrepo package set has been built and made available. This package set will be updated in line with the long-term support policy of the Linux Kernel Archives. The existing kernel-ml-2.6.39-4.2.el6.elrepo package set will remain available but its usage is now deprecated.

EL5 updated drbd84 packages released

Updated drbd84 packages version 8.4.1 have been promoted from testing to the main repository.

 http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-drbd84

This package provides an updated DRBD driver, version 8.4.1, and is kABI compatible with all kernels from 6.0 (kernel-2.6.32-71.el6) upwards.

It is built to depend upon the specific ABI provided by a range of releases of the same variant of the Linux kernel and not on any one specific build.

x86
drbd83-utils-8.4.1-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kmod-drbd83-8.4.1-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm

x86_64
drbd83-utils-8.4.1-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
kmod-drbd83-8.4.1-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

SRPMS
drbd83-kmod-8.4.1-1.el6.elrepo.src.rpm
drbd83-utils-8.4.1-1.el6.elrepo.src.rpm

You may update your system by:

yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=elrepo update kmod-drbd84 drbd84-utils

Once the package has been updated, remember to unload the older driver version from the kernel by restarting your DRBD resources and reloading the DRBD driver.

ELRepo growth in 2011

The number of monthly yum access to elrepo.org in year 2011.

The latest kernel-ml for RHEL 6 released

The latest kernel-ml  package for RHEL 6 and its clones (Scientific Linux 6, CentOS 6, etc) has just been released to the elrepo-kernel repository.

The full package list is --

kernel-ml-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kernel-ml-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.src.rpm
kernel-ml-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
kernel-ml-devel-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kernel-ml-devel-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
kernel-ml-doc-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm
kernel-ml-firmware-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm
kernel-ml-headers-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.i386.rpm
kernel-ml-headers-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
kernel-ml-NONPAE-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
kernel-ml-NONPAE-devel-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
perf-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
perf-3.2.2-0.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

In providing this kernel-ml package, our usual conditions apply --

These packages are provided As-Is with no implied warranty or support. Using the kernel-ml may expose your system to security, performance and/or data corruption issues. Since timely updates may not be available from the ELRepo Project, the end user has the ultimate responsibility for deciding whether to continue using the kernel-ml packages in regular service.

Enjoy!

A new year, a new blog

Let's get started. Random thoughts by not so random people of The ELRepo Project.