2.2. Kernel Generic Features

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8, the /proc/sysvipc/shm file (which provides a list of shared memory in use) now contains the RSS (Resident Set Size—portion of the process residing in the memory) and swap size information.

Support for the OProfile profiler on Intel's Sandy Bridge platform has been added by supporting all core events (except Precise Event-Based Sampling).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 adds support for the Wacom Bamboo MTE-450A tablet.

Support for the X-keys Jog and Shuttle Pro device has been added to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8.

The bonding module in the kernel now reports the current link-speed for any network interface controller. Previously, the bonding module only reported speeds of 10/100/1000/10000. This change provides accurate reporting of the link-speed in blade enclosure environments that may use non-standard speeds such as 9 Gbs.

The CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS parameter defines the maximum number of serial interfaces supported by the kernel. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8, the value of CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS parameter has been increased to 64 for systems which have more than 32 (and up to 64) console connections.

The blacklist option is now available for Kdump configuration. This option prevents modules from being loaded in initramfs. For more information, refer to the kdump.conf(5) manual page.

Support for the fnic and iscsi drivers has been added to Kdump's initial RAM disk (initrd).

Kdump on Xen HVM guests is now enabled in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 as a Technology Preview. Performing a local dump to an emulated (IDE) disk using an Intel 64 Hypervisor with an Intel CPU is the only supported implementation. Note that the dump target must be specified in the /etc/kdump.conf file.