Release Notes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7

Release Notes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 Release Notes for s390x

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Documentation

Don Domingo

Engineering Services and Operations Content Services

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Abstract

Some updates on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 may not appear in this version of the Release_Notes. An updated version may also be available at the following URL:


1.  Release Notes Updates

This section contains information about this release that is not included in the distribution version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 Release Notes.

  • If the ib_ehca InfiniBand driver is loaded in port auto-detection mode (using module parameter nr_ports=-1), the IP-over-InfiniBand network interfaces (ibX) might become available too late. When this occurs, the ifup ibX command issued from the openibd startup script will fail; consequently, the ibX interface will not become available.

    When this occurs, use the command rcnetwork restart to fix the problem.

  • In the IBM Redbook "Implementing InfiniBand in IBM System p (SG247351) manual, Table 6-3 (on page 220 of the PDF version) describes debug code bit definitions, where several HCA error indicator bits are also described.

    Note that with eHCA2 adapters, bits 46 and 47 of these error indicator bits might return false positives.

  • On HP ICH10 workstations, audio is only enabled through the front 3.5mm jacks. As such, to receive any audio output or use recording, you should plug in your headphones, speakers, or microphones to the front jacks. At present, the rear jacks, internal speaker, and master volume for this workstation do not work.

  • With this update, the default PCI detection and ordering mode for the following models have changed:

    • HP Proliant DL 580 G5

    • HP Proliant DL 385 G2

    • HP Proliant DL 585 G2

    These models use a device scanning and enumeration mode which is not the default for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 or 5. The mode used by these HP Proliant models could result in add-on cards being detected and added prior to onboard/internal devices. This unexpected ordering could cause difficulties when installing new instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, adding hardware, and maintenance.

    The numbering of network interface cards (NIC) for the aforementioned HP Proliant models may change when they are updated with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 kernel. The installer changes NIC numbering if the HWADDR=MAC ADDRESS parameter is not defined in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth[X] for each installed NICs. As such, Red Hat recommends that you ensure this parameter is defined in order to avoid any problems arising from an unexpected NIC enumeration.

    In addition, to avoid any NIC enumeration changes after updating these HP Proliant models to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7, add the kernel boot parameter pci=nobfsort to /boot/grub/grub.conf.

  • In /etc/multipath.conf, setting max_fds to unlimited will prevent the multipathd daemon from starting up properly. As such, you should use a sufficiently high value instead for this setting.

  • The front USB 2.0 port on Dell PowerEdge R805 systems cannot be detected in this release. This issue will be addressed in an upcoming kernel update.

  • Dell PowerEdge SC1435s systems may hang during boot-up. To avoid this, edit the terminal line in grub.conf and replace the string serial console with console serial.

  • autofs5 is now fully supported in this release (the distribution version of the release notes specifies autofs5 as a technology preview feature). This version of autofs resolves several long-standing interoperability issues in multi-vendor environments. autofs5 features the following enhancements over autofs:

    • direct map support, which provides a mechanism to automatically mount file systems at any point in the file system heirarchy

    • lazy mount and umount support

    • enhanced LDAP support through a new configuration file, /etc/autofs_ldap_auth.conf

    • complete implementation of nsswitch.conf use

    • multiple master map entries for direct maps

    • complete implementation of map inclusion, which allows the contents of specified maps to be included in autofs master maps

    At present, the autofs5 master map lexical analyzer cannot properly parse quoted strings in the mount point or map specification. As such, quoted strings should be written in the maps themselves.

    autofs is still installed and run by default in this update. As such, you need to install the autofs5 package manually if you wish to use autofs5 enhancements.

    You can have both autofs and autofs5 installed. However, only one of them should be used to provide automount services. To install autofs5 and use it as your automounter, perform these steps:

    1. Log in as root and stop the autofs service using the command service autofs stop.

    2. Disable the autofs service using the command chkconfig autofs off.

    3. Install the autofs5 package.

    4. Enable the autofs5 service using the command chkconfig autofs5 on.

    5. Start autofs5 using the command service autofs5 start.

    For more information about autofs5, refer to the following man pages (after installing the autofs5 package):

    • autofs5(5)

    • autofs5(8)

    • auto.master.v5(5)

    • automount5(8)

    You can also consult /usr/share/doc/autofs5-<version>/README.v5.release for more information.

  • The updated ixgbe driver does not support the Intel 82598AT (Copper Pond 10GbE).

  • GNU Compiler Collection Version 4 (GCC4), previously a technology preview feature, is now fully supported in this release with the following caveats:

    • GCC4 in this release is not fully ABI-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Applications compiled on with this release's version of GCC4 are expected to work on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (either directly or via compatibility libraries).

      However, applications compiled on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 may not run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

    • GCJ Java still remains a technology preview.

    • gcc 3.4.6 libstdc, which is a subset of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 version of GCC, is used in this release. Red Hat is not backporting some new features the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 version of GCC4. This is consistent with Red Hat policy, to avoid introducing possible incompatibilities into an existing version of a product(which would be problematic to ISVs).

    • Certain features could not be added to this release's version of GCC4, since the rest of the toolchain does not have the required support (e.g. glibc and binutils). As mentioned earlier, this is consistent with Red Hat policy to avoid introducing possible incompatibilities to an existing version of a product.

      Features that are not included in this release's version of GCC include:

      • 128-bit long double on ppc, ppc64, s390, and s390x architectures.

      • msecure-plt on ppc.

      • fstack-protector

      • --hash-style=gnu and --hash-style=both options.

  • Red Hat closely tracks the upstream Open Fabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) code base in order to provide a maximal level of enablement for this still evolving technology. As a consequence, Red Hat can only preserve API/ABI compatibility across minor releases to the degree that the upstream project does. This is an exception from the general practice in the development of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

    Because of this, applications build on top of the OFED stack (listed below), might require recompilation or even source-level code changes when moving from one minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a newer one.

    This generally is not required for other applications, built on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux software stack.

    The components affected are:

    • dapl

    • compat-dapl

    • ibsim

    • ibutils

    • infiniband-diags

    • libcxgb3

    • libehca

    • libibcm

    • libibcommon

    • libibmad

    • libibumad

    • libibverbs

    • libipathverbs

    • libmlx4

    • libmthca

    • libnes

    • librmdacm

    • libsdp

    • mpi-selector

    • mpitests

    • mstflint

    • mvapich

    • mvapich2

    • ofed-docs

    • openib

    • openib-mstflint

    • openib-perftest

    • openib-tvflash

    • openmpi

    • opensm

    • perftest

    • qlvnictools

    • qperf

    • rds-tools (future)

    • srptools

    • tvflash

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