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4. Driver Updates

4.1. All Architectures

General Driver/Platform Updates

  • The Intel High Definition Audio driver in ALSA has been updated.
  • High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) audio support on AMD ATI integrated chipsets has been updated.
  • The following Wacom graphics tablets are now supported through the linuxwacom drivers:
    • Cintiq 20WSX
    • Intuos3 4x6
  • the lpfc driver for Emulex Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters has been updated to version 8.2.0.33.2p. This applies several upstream changes, most notably:
    • the NETLINK_SCSITRANSPORT socket is now used
    • Resolved uninitialized node access.
    • fixed a bug that caused echotest failure when NPIV is enabled.
    • fcauthd 1.19 is now required for fibre channel authentication.
  • dm-multipath now has inbox support for IBM DS4000.
  • The ixgbe driver now supports the 82598AT dual-port adapter and the 82598 CX4 adapter.
  • the jsm driver has been updated to add support for Digi Neo PCI Express 4 HiProfile I/O adapters.
  • hp-ilo: driver added, providing support for HP Integrated Lights Out (iLO) technology.
  • The radeon_tp driver is now fully supported in this release. This driver enables the ATI R500/R600 chipsets.
    This driver also features the following capabilities:
    • Modesetting on R500/R600 chipsets
    • 2D acceleration on R500 chipsets
    • Shadow framebuffer acceleration on R600 chipsets
  • The powernow-k8 driver is now included in this release as a loadable module. This ensures that existing driver frameworks (such as the Red Hat Driver Update Model and Dell DKMS) can deliver powernow-k8 driver updates to users as RPM packages without requiring them to upgrade the kernel.
  • For this release, Red Hat is re-adding pnm2ppa in order to provide support for legacy printers. Note, however, that this support is deprecated and will be discontinued in future major releases.
  • The ccid driver has been re-based to add support for USB Smartcard keyboards.
  • the uvcvideo drivers for USB video devices has been added to the kernel in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3.

Network

  • The bnx2 driver for the Broadcom NetXtreme II network cards has been updated to version 1.7.9. This update fixes the ethernet ring buffer options on controllers that use bnx2 to fix a bug that caused the system to panic at boot.
  • The e1000e driver for Intel PRO/1000 ethernet devices has been updated to the upstream version 0.3.3.3-k2. With this update, the EEPROM and NVM of supported devices are now write-protected.
  • igb: driver for Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapters has been updated to version 1.2.45-k2, adding support for 82576 based devices.
  • the ixgbe driver for Intel(R) 10 Gigabit PCI Express network devices has been updated to version 1.3.18-k4.
  • the niu driver has been added to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, adding support for 10Gbps ethernet devices on Sun CP3220 systems.
  • the ipw2100 and ipw2200 drivers for Intel PRO Wireless devices has been backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 from Linux Kernel 2.6.25.
  • the bcm43xx driver for Broadcom Wireless devices has been backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 from Linux Kernel 2.6.25.
  • the ieee80211 support component for wireless devices has been backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 from Linux Kernel 2.6.25.
  • the zd1211rw driver for ZyDas Wireless devices has been updated to match the last non-mac80211 version from just prior to Linux 2.6.25.
  • the iwlwifi drivers have been updated to version from 2.6.26, adding 802.11n support to iwl4965 wireless devices. Several bug fixes included in post-2.6.26 versions of the driver were also incorporated into the backported driver.
  • the myri10ge driver for Myricom Myri-10G Ethernet devices has been updated to version 1.3.2-1.269.
  • the netxen driver for NetXen network cards has been updated to version 3.4.18.
  • The bnx2x driver for Broadcom Everest network devices has been updated to version 1.45.23, adding support for the 57711 hardware.
  • the forcedeth-msi driver has been updated to fix a bug that prevented proper link-up detection.
  • the ath5k driver for Atheros wireless devices has been backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 from Linux Kernel 2.6.26.
  • the rt2x00 drivers for Ralink wireless devices has been backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 from Linux Kernel 2.6.26.
  • the rtl8180 and rtl8187 drivers for Realtek wireless devices has been backported to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 from Linux Kernel 2.6.26.

Storage

  • 3w-xxxx: driver for 3ware SATA RAID Controllers updated to version 1.26.03. This applies several upstream changes, most notably:
    • Fixed a bug that caused data corruption when using a 3ware 7000 or 8000 series card in a system with greater than 2GB of RAM.
    • Anaconda no longer hangs on 64-bit architectures when using a 3ware 8006 series card in a system with greater than 4GB of RAM.
    • The irq handler is now freed when __tw_shutdown() is initiated. This prevents a possible null pointer de-reference if an interrupt was shared during shutdown.
    • RCD bit for caching mode page is now turned on.
    • ioctl resets and scsi resets are now serialized so they no longer collide.
  • 3w-9xxx: driver for 3ware SATA RAID Controllers updated to version 2.26.08. This applies several upstream changes, most notably:
    • The pci_unmap_single() call now functions correctly on systems with greater than 4GB of RAM
    • Fixed a bug that caused slow write performance.
    • The DMA mask setting now reverts to 32-bit if 64-bit fails.
    • Added support for the 3ware 9690SA SAS Controller Device.
  • megaraid_sas: driver updated to version 4.01-rh1. Several bug fixes are applied by this update, including:
    • MFI_POLL_TIMEOUT_SECS is now 60 seconds.
    • Fixed a bug that caused continuous chip resets and command timeouts due to frame count calculation.
    • Added support for the LSI Generation 2 Controllers (0078, 0079).
    • Added a command to shutdown DCMD in the shutdown routine to improve firmware shutdown.
    • Fixed a bug that caused unexpected interrupts in the hardware Linux driver.
  • the qla2xxx driver for QLogic Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters has been updated, adding support for ISP84XX type cards.
  • the ibmvscsi drivers for emulating virtual SCSI (vSCSI) devices has been updated, providing support for virtualized tape devices.
  • lpfc: driver updated to version 8.2.0.30. This update applies several bug fixes and enhancements, including:
    • Improved Enhanced Error Handling (EEH) for PCI adapters on PowerPC architectures
    • Increased the number of supported NPIV virtual ports
    • Improved driver logic to control I/O queue depth
    • Added support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) adapters
    • Booting from SAN for new hardware is now supported
  • the cciss driver for HP Smart Array controllers has been updated to version 3.6.20-RH2.