Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

What's New in Red Hat and the Linux Kernel?

This section details what's new with your version of Red Hat Linux. As a distribution, Red Hat Linux has evolved over the past six years to always include new and up-to-date features of the Linux kernel and software tools. If you're an experienced hand, you'll find that this Red Hat Linux distribution continues with this tradition of improvement, especially in the form of updated software libraries, updated and improved management tools, the latest XFree86 X11 distribution, version 4.0.1, and of course, the latest stable series of the Linux kernel, version 2.2.16.

Linux has gone through a number of major changes in the past six years. Fans from the early years using the then stable 1.2.13 version of the Linux kernel remember having to recompile the kernel each and every time hardware was added to a system. The next major leap forward for Linux was the addition of loadable kernel modules. This made the task of adding new hardware much easier. The next leap was the movement of Linux binaries from the old a.out binary format to newer Executable and Linking Format (ELF) format, and the incorporation of new shared libraries for the now classic 2.0.38 stable kernel. Following the 2.2-series of the Linux kernel with its new shared libraries, multiprocessor support, additional filesystem support, improved memory handling, and various networking improvements brought the current 2.2.16 stable kernel.

Interestingly, and despite the advances being made in development of the upcoming 2.4-series of the Linux kernel, there are many Linux users still happily using versions 1.2.13 or 2.0.38 (hopefully with updated security and bug fixes). The good news for users of the 2.2-series Linux is that upgrading to the new 2.4 Linux kernel will not be as painful or introduce major incompatibilities with current filesystems and precompiled software as long as you follow a proper upgrade path. However, the new kernel has much to offer and includes some major improvements.

The Linux kernel binds numerous processes together to schedule tasks, allocate resources, manage memory and talk to hardware. When the new 2.4-series of Linux kernel is released, expect improvements to disk caching, raises to the limit on the number of active processes, new features to make server operations more efficient, support for new filesystems, and much wider support for Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices. Other improvements, according to kernel observer Joseph Pranevich (who prepares the "Wonderful World of Linux 2.4" at http://www.linuxtoday.com), include

Journaling Support?

Missing in the stock Linux kernel is support for a journaling filesystem or the new Macintosh HFS+ filesystem. Look for improvements shortly. Journaling, a unique method of storing files and filenames in the filesystem with certain advantages for file recovery and system failure, has been available for Linux since November 1999 through the Reiserfs filesystem. This filesystem purportedly offers speed and storage improvements when dealing with many small files on a filesystem, along with other features. Implementing the Reiserfs involves recompiling the kernel, using loadable kernel modules, and formatting new Linux partitions. You can learn more about Reiserfs by browsing to http://devlinux.com/projects/reiserfs.

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