Tuesday, June 22, 2004 @ 9:50:10 AM Central Standard Time ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/RELEASE_NOTES Slackware 10.0 release notes. Mon Jun 21 23:54:30 PDT 2004 Hi everyone, This is Slackware 10.0, the third release of Slackware based on gcc3. Many things have been fixed and improved, but here are a few of the major changes: The installer utilizes the 2.4.26 kernel (this still provides the best performance on my own machines, and is also safer for partitioning hard drives). If you want to upgrade to the 2.6.7 kernel it is also included and the system will fully support it. See the README.initrd file in the testing/packages/linux-2.6.7/ directory for directions on upgrading the system to use 2.6.7 (or better yet, make it an alternate boot choice). GCC was upgraded to version 3.3.4, with version 3.4.0 in the /testing directory (because some source code out there is not yet compatible with gcc-3.4.0, but this is changing fast). Slackware now includes Sun's Java(TM) 2 Software Development Kit Standard Edition, Version 1.4.2_04 (thanks to Sun's redistribution license). The default sound system is now ALSA (the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture), which is also the default sound system in the Linux 2.6.x kernel. If you wish to use OSS instead, the modules are still available, but you'll need to remove the packages beginning with alsa- and remove the OSS modules from /etc/hotplug/blacklist. Both CUPS and LPRng are supported as printing systems. A number of command locations (like /usr/bin/lpr) are shared by these programs, and whichever package (cups or lprng) is installed last will "own" these symbolic links. While both systems work no matter which way the links are pointed, if you plan to use a spooling system you'll probably want to do two things. First, remove the one you're not going to use with removepkg. Next, reinstall the one you plan to use with installpkg. This will make sure the links are set correctly, and get the tools you won't be using out of the way. The system init files have been further streamlined while keeping their number small and structure easy to understand. IP addresses and other settings have been moved out of /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 into /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf. Most of the init scripts in /etc/rc.d that control network and other services may be enabled or disabled by setting them executable (or not) with chmod, and a new menu in the installer lets you choose the initial state for many of them. If you want your machine to come up on the network with no open ports at the first boot, that's easily possible. There is improved Linux hotplugging support. This takes over the job of configuring Cardbus cards (instead of pcmcia-cs, still used for non-Cardbus cards). However, this means that if you're used to configuring your card in /etc/pcmcia/, you'll need to set it up elsewhere. For example, the old way of configuring a Cardbus network card is by editing /etc/pcmcia/network.opts. Now you'll need to set up the IP in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf (or by running "netconfig") instead. To make matters more confusing, non-Cardbus PC cards continue to use /etc/pcmcia/network.opts! Even with the rough edges, the addition of Linux hotplug support is a major, major step forward. In most cases this new subsystem can probe for and detect every piece of PCI, Cardbus, and USB hardware connected to the machine and automatically load all the correct kernel modules. Very nice. NOTE: if the hotplugging subsystem causes problems at boot time, it can be skipped by passing the kernel a "nohotplug" flag on the kernel command line. It is highly recommended to use hotplug if possible. As more things are designed to use hotplug, trying to run without it becomes like trying to run with half a kernel (really, it is the user space portion of the kernel in many ways). If enabling hotplug causes your machine to crash or hang, odds are that it's loading a kernel module that your system doesn't agree with. If you can figure out which one it is (perhaps the logs will help), you'll be able to add it to /etc/hotplug/blacklist to prevent hotplug from trying to load it. If you run into this and determine that a module needs to be listed, let me know so it can be considered here as well. Speaking of PC card support, we're no longer using the driver modules that come with the pcmcia-cs sources and have moved to the ones included with the Linux kernel source. Besides providing better PC card support, this will make things easier for people who like to keep up with the latest kernels. Wireless support is substantially better thanks to improved tools and drivers (including the linux-wlan-ng driver for Prism2 cards in the extra package collection), and Eric Hameleers work on supporting USB, PCI, and Cardbus wireless cards (/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless). Support for USB keyboards is now integrated into the installer. If USB device detection causes problems (it shouldn't), it may be skipped by passing the kernel a "nousb" flag at boot. In the event that the keyboard doesn't work right away when the install CD is booted, wait. It will boot automatically after two minutes without a keypress, and then the kernel should find your keyboard. Have fun! Pat Volkerding <volkerdi at slackware.com> Message posted via: ===================== www.linuxpackages.net/forum www.linuxpackages.net Expanding the world of Slackware ===================== Robert (aka B_o_B) David Felix De Mars Lat. 45:09n Long. 93:18w http://b-o-b.homelinux.com _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? 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