March 2002

Linux Kernel 2.4.19-pre5 Patch Now Available Posted Saturday, March 30, 2002 @ 12:45 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.4.19-pre5 Linux Kernel Patch from here or any of the mirror sites, changelog is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.4.19-pre4 Patch Now Available Posted Friday, March 22, 2002 @ 1:13 AM by mayhem
You can now download the Linux 2.4.19-pre4 Kernel patch from here or any of the mirror sites, changelog is available here.
 
Slashdot: Lycoris Desktop/LX Review Posted Tuesday, March 19, 2002 @ 10:25 AM by mayhem
Lycoris Desktop/LX (formerly known as 'Redmond Linux') is viewed by many as the new big distribution in the "Linux on the Desktop" arena. OSNews features an extensive review of the latest Lycoris and outlines the good and the bad things of the distro. In short, Lycoris seems to suffer from the general GNU/Linux situation to not be ready to power a true desktop-oriented, easy to use distribution yet.
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.7 Released Posted Tuesday, March 19, 2002 @ 10:23 AM by mayhem
You can now download the Linux 2.5.7 Kernel from here or any of the mirrors, the changelog is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.7-pre2 Patch Now Available Posted Sunday, March 17, 2002 @ 12:04 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.7-pre2 Linux Kernel patch from here or any of the mirror sites, changelog is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.2.21-pre2 Patch Now Available Posted Friday, March 15, 2002 @ 11:28 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.2.21-pre2 Linux Kernel patch from here or any of the mirror sites, changelog 
2.2.21rc2
o	Fix Xeon crash on boot 				(Dave Jones)
o	Update keyspan maintainer			(Greg Kroah-Hartmann)
o	Fix visor oops add palm m125 support		(Greg Kroah-Hartmann)
o	Update whiteheat driver to fix SMP locking	(Greg Kroah-Hartmann)
o	Fix head.S asm for cpu type			(Mikael Pettersson)
 
The Linux Virus-Writing HOWTO Posted Thursday, March 14, 2002 @ 10:01 PM by mayhem
Is Linux intrisically virus-immune, secure by it's fringe obscurity, or somewhere in between? Read this early draft of a new document that's caused the LDP to waiver over the ethics of its publication. Is it the Prophet of Doom or just teaching security by showing us just how easy it is to break in on ourselves? "Use the information presented here in any way you like. I bet that Linux will only grow stronger."

Full Story: Linux Virus Writing HOWTO.
 
Linux Kernel Updates Posted Wednesday, March 13, 2002 @ 7:57 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.2.21-pre1 Linux Kernel patch from here, changelog is available here.

You can download the 2.4.19-pre3 Linux Kernel patch from here, changelog: 
pre3:

- -ac merge (including new IDE)				(Alan Cox)
- S390 merge						(IBM)
- More cciss fixes					(Stephen Cameron)
- Eicon SMP race fix					(Armin Schindler)
- w9966 driver update					(Jakob Kemi)
- Unify crc32 routine (removes lots of duplicated 
  code from drivers)					(Matt Domsch)
- Lanstreamer bugfixes					(Kent Yoder)
- Update scsi_debug					(Douglas Gilbert)
- MCE Configure.help update				(Paul Gortmaker)
- Fix SMB NLS oops					(Urban Widmark)
- AGP Config.in update					(Daniele Venzano)
- Fix small thinko in UFS set_blocksize return handling	(me)
- Avoid unecessary cache flushes on PPC			(Paul Mackerras)
- PPP deadlock fixes					(Paul Mackerras)
- Signal changes for thread groups			(Dave McCracken)
- Make max_threads be based on normal zone size		(Dave McCracken)
- ray_cs wireless extension fix				(Jean Tourrilhes)
- irda bugfixes and enhancements			(Jean Tourrilhes)
- USB update						(Greg KH)
- Fix through-8259A mode for IRQ0 routing on APIC 	(Maciej W. Rozycki/Joe Korty)
- Add Dell Inspiron 2500 to broken APM blacklist	(Arjan van de Ven)
- Fix off-by-one error in bluesmoke			(Dave Jones)
- Reiserfs update					(Oleg Drokin)
- Fix PCI compile without /proc support			(Eric Sandeen)
- Fix problem with bad inode handling			(Alexander Viro)
- aic7xxx update					(Justin T. Gibbs)
- Do not consider SCSI recovered errors as fatal errors	(Justin T. Gibbs)
- Add Memory-Write-Invalidate support to PCI		(Jeff Garzik)
- Starfire update					(Ion Badulescu)
- tulip update						(Jeff Garzik)
You can download the 2.5.7-pre1 Linux Kernel patch from here, changelog is available here.
 
Avocent Extends DS Series Platform Posted Wednesday, March 13, 2002 @ 12:42 AM by mayhem
Today Avocent Corporation announced that it will demonstrate its latest release of DSView software at CeBIT. Avocent's DSView software provides local or remote control of devices connected to any of Avocent's DS Series appliances, including the new DSR1161, DSR2161 and DSR4160.

The latest release of DSView includes a wealth of new features, including IP-based session sharing, which allows a single digital channel to be shared by multiple users or used privately by a single user. Other new features include auto video and mouse adjustment capabilities, enhanced keyboard macros for improved administration, and support for Microsoft's Windows XP.

More information available at Avocent's site here.
 
Slashdot: 23 Second Kernel Compiles Posted Monday, March 11, 2002 @ 1:26 AM by mayhem
As a fine testament to how quickly linux is absorbing technology formerly available only to the computing elite, an LKML member posted a 23 second kernel compile time to the list this morning as a result of building a 16-way NUMA cluster. The NUMA technology comes gifted from IBM and SGI. Just one year ago, a Sequent NUMA-Q would have cost you about USD $100,000. These days, you can probably build a 16-way Xeon (4X 4-way SMP) system off of ebay for two grand, and the NUMA comes free of charge!
 
Linux Kernel 2.2.21-pre4 Patch Now Available Posted Saturday, March 9, 2002 @ 5:54 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.2.21-pre4 Linux Kernel patch from here or anyone of the mirror sites, changelog: 
2.2.21pre4
o	Fix FAT breakage in pre3			(Dmitry Levin)
o	Add S/390 LCS driver (IBM opensourced it now)	(DJ Barrow,
							 Frank Pavlic)
o	Update COPYING file to match FSF update		(Dan Quinlann)
	| basically swap 19xx example for this century..
o	Fix a file name comment				(William Stearns)
o	Add realtek phy support to 2.2 sis900 driver	(Allan Jacobsen)
o	Fix MCE address reporting order, fix oops with	(Dave Jones)
	newer gcc due to bad asm constraints
o	Starfire update					(Ion Badulescu)
o	Always victimise the dcache a little when	(John Lash, me)
	short of memory
 
Slashdot: Linuxcare Founders Go Wireless Posted Friday, March 8, 2002 @ 7:48 PM by mayhem
LinuxCare founders Dave Sifry, Art Tyde and Dave LaDuke have started their second company: Sputnik. Basically, they have an ISO you can download that will turn a laptop with an 802.11b card into a wireless gateway. They also wrote a user-authentication scheme that reroutes all traffic to the gateway until the user logs in via a web form. This should sound familiar to people who stay in broadband capable hotels a lot. Using this authentication technique, the software allows you to choose who can and cannot use your gateway, and in you'll be able to charge strangers for access (with Sputnik handling the billing). This will likely get some isps a wee bit upset. NewsForge has an article detailing what they are doing. Update: Turns out the authentication wasn't written by Sputnik, my bad. They use NoCatAuth.
 
Alan Cox: The Battle for the Desktop Posted Friday, March 8, 2002 @ 7:38 PM by mayhem
There's a new interview with Alan Cox up. I think he's right on the money with how Linux is going to spread into businesses, but he seems to think Internet applications are going to be big with consumers... I can't really see it... but he's Alan Cox, so he must know :)
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.6 Released Posted Friday, March 8, 2002 @ 7:37 PM by mayhem
You can now download the Linux 2.5.6 Kernel from here or any of the mirrors, changelog is available here.
 
Slashdot: PS2 Linux Kit Shipping in May Posted Friday, March 8, 2002 @ 12:35 AM by mayhem
Sony announced through an e-mail that the Linux PS2 kits were available for pre-order. The kits should be shipped May 22nd. There's a FAQ and a order site.
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.6-pre3 Patch Now Available Posted Thursday, March 7, 2002 @ 7:33 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.6-pre3 Linux Kernel patch from here or anyone of the mirrors, the changelog is available here.
 
Optus Plans Download Limit Posted Tuesday, March 5, 2002 @ 6:39 PM by mayhem
OPTUS is preparing to follow Telstra's lead by introducing download caps on its cable internet accounts.

Sources say Optus has almost completed its framework for a new pricing structure, which is likely to be released in April.
"It's just the details that need to be worked out," one source said.

Optus@Home has long been viewed as the last refuge of home internet users who want large, fast downloads.

More information available here.
 
NewsForge: Interface Window Manager released Posted Saturday, March 2, 2002 @ 6:06 PM by mayhem
The first alpha version of the Interface Window Manager was released this week. Interface is a new window manager written in Objective-C and being optimized for use in a pure GNUstep environment.
 
NewsForge: AMD hammering out 64-bit advantages for Linux Posted Saturday, March 2, 2002 @ 6:04 PM by mayhem
Some have argued that the consumer market does not need 64-bit processors because the applications that run them are fast enough with last generation's 32-bit chips... My response to this argument is that many said the same thing when 16-bit chips were the norm and the 32-bit chip was the new kid on the block... When AMD made its demonstration before the public and press, the company included Hammer processors running 64-bit Linux and 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems side by side. Read more of this article here.
 
LinuxFreak: BeOS For Linux Posted Saturday, March 2, 2002 @ 6:02 PM by mayhem
The BlueOS guys have posted a few screenshots of their progress in porting the BeOS interface to Linux.
 
Slashdot: Linux Web Browsers Compared Posted Saturday, March 2, 2002 @ 3:24 AM by mayhem
The best Linux Web browsers have dramatically improved in the past few months: they are all stable, standards compliant and loaded with solid feature enhancements and additions. Using Red Hat 7.2 and the KDE desktop, the premier Linux browsers are Galeon 1.0.3, Mozilla 0.9.8 and Opera 6.0 TP3. The best Web downloads and installs were from Opera and Mozilla, which have minimal dependencies. Galeon is a small download but can be difficult to upgrade due to its Mozilla and GNOME dependencies.
 
Linux Kernel 2.4.19-pre2 Patch Now Available Posted Friday, March 1, 2002 @ 11:46 AM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.4.19-pre2 Kernel patch from here or anyone of the mirrors, changelog:
pre2:

- -ac merge						(Alan Cox)
- Huge MIPS/MIPS64 merge				(Ralf Baechle)
- IA64 update						(David Mosberger)
- PPC update						(Tom Rini)
- Shrink struct page					(Rik van Riel)
- QNX4 update (now its able to mount QNX 6.1 fses)	(Anders Larsen)
- Make max_map_count sysctl configurable		(Christoph Hellwig)
- matroxfb update					(Petr Vandrovec)
- ymfpci update						(Pete Zaitcev)
- LVM update						(Heinz J . Mauelshagen)
- btaudio driver update					(Gerd Knorr)
- bttv update						(Gerd Knorr)
- Out of line code cleanup				(Keith Owens)
- Add watchdog API documentation			(Christer Weinigel)
- Rivafb update						(Ani Joshi)
- Enable PCI buses above quad0 on NUMA-Q		(Martin J. Bligh)
- Fix PIIX IDE slave PCI timings			(Dave Bogdanoff)
- Make PLIP work again					(Tim Waugh)
- Remove unecessary printk from lp.c			(Tim Waugh)
- Make parport_daisy_select work for ECP/EPP modes	(Max Vorobiev)
- Support O_NONBLOCK on lp/ppdev correctly		(Tim Waugh)
- Add PCI card hooks to parport				(Tim Waugh)
- Compaq cciss driver fixes				(Stephen Cameron)
- VFS cleanups and fixes				(Alexander Viro)
- USB update (including USB 2.0 support)		(Greg KH)
- More jiffies compare cleanups				(Tim Schmielau)
- PCI hotplug update					(Greg KH)
- bluesmoke fixes					(Dave Jones)
- Fix off-by-one in ide-scsi				(John Fremlin)
- Fix warnings in make xconfig				(Ren・Scharfe)
- Make x86 MCE a configure option			(Paul Gortmaker)
- Small ramdisk fixes					(Christoph Hellwig)
- Add missing atime update to pipe code			(Christoph Hellwig)
- Serialize microcode access				(Tigran Aivazian)
- AMD Elan handling on serial.c				(Robert Schwebel)
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.6-pre2 Patch Now Available Posted Friday, March 1, 2002 @ 11:43 AM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.6-pre2 Kernel patch from here or anyone of the mirrors, changelog can be found here.