Introduction%20the%20Linux%20Kernel%202.6

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Introduction the Linux Kernel 2.6

• For
• The Fraser Valley Linux Users Group
• By Alan Bailward
• ltalan_at_ufies.orggt

2
Overview

• What is a kernel
• What does this release mean
• Nifty new things
• Back-end changes
• Upgrading
• Question Time
• Resources

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What is a Kernel

• Core of the OS
• Controls all input and output
• In development since 1991
• Works in conjunction with your shell, tools and
  applications

4
What 2.6 Means

• The 2.6 designation means that this is a stable
  kernel
• Almost
• Currently (12/7/2003) at 2.6.0-test11
• Linus is anticipating the full release by the end
  of the year
• Already very stable and many are using it
• More industry strength features
• Improved user experience

5
Nifty New Things

• New menu systems (gtk and qt)

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Nifty New Things Cont...

• New build system
• No more compile messages! (unless you use V1)

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Back-end Changes

• Hardware Support
• better embedded support
• better NUMA (non-uniform memory access... think
  SMP) support
• Hyperthreading
• Scalability
• PAE (physical address extension to allow x86 to
  access up to 64G of ram)
• higher limits on PIDs and device major and minor
  numbers

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Back-end Changes 2

• Interactivity
• preemptible
• kernel operations can be interrupted
• improves responsiveness
• feels faster
• supposedly better than the 2.4 preempt patches
• threading
• start and stop 100,000 threads in 2 seconds (vs
  1458 before)

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Back-end Changes 3

• Modules renamed to .ko
• Stability improvements to the module subsystem
• ISA, EISA, PCI systems are modules
• Hotplug improvements
• New filesystem sysfs
• /sys
• joins /proc, /dev (devfs) and devpts
• has all known attributes of the device (irq, dma,
  power status, etc)

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Back-end Changes 4

• Better PnP
• USB 2.0 (high speed)
• Wireless support merged into single subsystem
• amateur radio AX.25
• wireless 802.11
• Infrared updates
• Bluetooth updates
• IDE updates and scalability improvements
• No more ide-scsi for CD writing!
• New Serial ATA drivers
• SCSI updates

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Back-end Changes 5

• Ext2/3 extended attributes
• meta-data and finer grained permissions
• catching up to windows in this respect!
• XFS added
• NFS improvements, r/w better but still
  experimental
• Quota support more scalable

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Back-end Changes 6

• Human Interface layer
• create a completely headless system
• complete modularity for video, keyboard, mouse,
  and all things human (ph34r the machines!)
• Touch screens
• Strange mice
• Braille devices
• Magic sysrq key now not only from a console
• ALSA (advanced linux sound architecture) merged

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Back-end Changes 7 (last one!)

• Networking updates
• many small changes here and there
• IPSEC support
• allows for transparent cryptography through ipv4
  and ipv6
• VLAN (for routers) support no longer experimental
• Network filesystem updates
• NFSv4 support
• CIFS (streamlined SMB)
• Many security updates
• alternate security modules begun
• User mode Linux
• APM/ACPI improvements

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The Gotchas

• Not all non-open source packages are updated yet
• May need patches for
• vmware
• nvidia
• My own personal experience
• mouse speed changed
• mouse buttons stopped working
• vga791 frame-buffer no longer worked
• have heard of problems with CD burning
• some apps aren't updated yet
• Gentoo changes with devfs and ptyfs

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Upgrading

• module-init-tools
• mkdir /sys
• ensure keyboard and video are loaded in
• pty filesystem

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Questions?
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Resources

• http//kniggit.net/wwol26.html
• http//kernel.org
• http//www.nyetwork.org/wiki/LinuxKernel
• http//forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t70838
• http//kerneltrap.org/node/view/799
• http//developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid02/0
  9/21/2024247
• http//thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html