Oracle Linux 5.7 Release Notes

Updated July 2011

Introduction

This document covers the following topics regarding Oracle Linux 5.7.

For the latest updates please refer to the online version of release notes available at:

http://oss.oracle.com/el5/docs/

NOTE: An upgrade of Oracle Linux from a beta release is not supported. Further, an in-place upgrade between major versions of Oracle Linux is not supported. Oracle does not recommend an upgrade from earlier major versions of Oracle Linux even though anaconda provides an option to do this upgrade. A fresh installation is strongly recommended rather than a system upgrade between major versions.

Changes from the Upstream Release

The following RPMs are modified from the upstream release. All changes are trademark and look/feel related unless otherwise noted below under the specific RPM.


The following packages have been removed

The following documentation packages have been removed

New Packages added in this release

The following packages were added upstream for this release (5.7) which were not in the previous update release (5.6)

Packages added by Oracle

The following packages have been added to the release

Kernel and Driver Updates

Oracle Linux 5.7 ships with the following kernel packages

Note:Oracle Linux 5.7 includes both a 32 bit and a 64 bit Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. Both Unbreakable Enterprise kernel and Red Hat compatible kernel are installed and the system boots with Unbreakable Enterprise kernel by default. If needed /etc/grub.conf can be modifed to make the system boot with Red Hat compatible kernel by default.

Red Hat Compatible Kernel

This section covers significant changes in the Red Hat compatible kernel in this release.

Driver Updates from the upstream distribution provider

Network Storage

Red Hat Compatible Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle

This is the Red Hat compatible kernel with critical bug fixes produced by Oracle.

Bug Fixes

Installation

The Red Hat Compatible Kernel with Bug Fixes by Oracle must be manually installed. To install this kernel, follow these steps:

  1. Mount Oracle Linux 5.7 DVD
  2. Copy the rpms from mount_point/Server/oracle_updated to your system
  3. Install required kernel using the rpm command, e.g.
    # rpm -ihv kernel-2.6.18-274.0.0.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel

Introduction

The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is based on the upstream kernel 2.6.32-41 stable source tree with additional performance improvements, including:

Oracle Linux 5.7 includes both a 32 bit and a 64 bit Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is the default kernel after installation.

Driver Updates since Oracle Linux 5 Update 6

Network Drivers updates

Storage Drivers updates

Infiniband

Features

Technology Preview Features

The following Technology Preview features are currently not supported under Oracle Linux 5 and may not be functionally complete.

These features are not suitable for production use. However, these features are included to provide the feature with wider exposure.

Known Issues

  1. Hardware virtualized (HVM) guests with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel always use paravirtualized (PV) drivers
  2. Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel version kernel-uek-2.6.32-100.34.1 adds support for paravirtualized drivers in a HVM guest on Oracle VM. Starting with this kernel version, the default is to present only paravirtualized drivers when running in a hardware virtualized guest. To run kernel-uek --including the drivers-- fully hardware virtualized, an additional kernel boot parameter "xen_emul_unplug=never" must be added to the boot parameters in /etc/grub.conf:
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-100.34.1.el5uek ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00  xen_emul_unplug=never
    
    Adding this kernel boot parameter makes the kernel also present the emulated drivers as it did before (e.g. the 8139cp network driver).

  3. Using yum to upgrade previous update from Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)
  4. yum package need to be updated before upgrading previous update releases of Oracle Linux 5 to Oracle Linux 5 Update 7 using yum from ULN. Please use the following steps to upgrade:
       # yum update yum
       # yum update
    
  5. Default kernel after upgrade
  6. In certain upgrade scenerios after upgrade Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel may not be the default boot kernel. Update /etc/grub.conf to make latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel as the default boot kernel.
  7. kernel-uek-headers on Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)
  8. Package kernel-uek-headers is available in "Enterprise Linux 5 Add ons (x86_64)" (el5_x86_64_addons) channel on ULN. To install kernel-uek-headers subscribe to el5_x86_64_addons channel and install kernel-uek-headers using following command
      # up2date kernel-uek-headers
      or
      # yum install kernel-uek-headers
    
    To replace kernel-uek-headers with kernel-headers
  9. Missing kernel module ib_iser.ko
  10. Starting OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution 1.4.2-5 version (ofa package), ib_iser kernel module is not built as part of ofa package. If the ofa package installed on the system tries to load ib_iser.ko, the following message will be displayed on the console
     ib_iser: disagrees about version of symbol ib_fmr_pool_unmap 
     ib_iser: Unknown symbol ib_fmr_pool_unmap 

    These messages can be ignored as ib_iser.ko is no more needed.
  11. Upgrade failure for the full install of Oracle Linux 5
  12. If any of the following packages are installed on the system
    kmod-cmirror
    kmod-cmirror-xen
    kmod-gfs
    kmod-gfs-xen
    kmod-gnbd
    kmod-gnbd-xen
    
    Upgrade of Oracle Linux 5 system may fail with the following error
    An error occured while installing packages.
    Please examine /root/install.log on your 
    installed system for detailed information
    
    to workaround this problem, remove above packages before upgrade. These packages can be installed after the upgrade.
  13. Failed to stat /dev/mapper/* message during boot of paravirtualized guests
  14. Following messages during boot of paravirtualized guest can be ignored
      Failed to stat /dev/mapper/no
      Failed to stat /dev/mapper/block
      Failed to stat /dev/mapper/devices
      Failed to stat /dev/mapper/found
    
    These errors are expected as dmraid utility returns 'no block devices found' because an ioctl to get serial numbers on pv devices returns -EINVAL."
  15. Incorrect user/sys time in kernel-uek (11651839)
  16. Time utility might return incorrect system/user times in Oracle Linux guest running Unbreakable Linux Kernel. This issue is tracked by Oracle Bug 11651839.
  17. Spurious udev messages during restore of a failed path (11682171)
  18. When failed paths are restored in a multipath configuration, you may see udevd-work error messages in /var/log/messages. The failed paths do get restored despite these messages.
  19. Default NFS v4 mount options
  20. The default NFS mount option has changed to NFS v4. To mount an NFS volume using NFS v3 (the default using the Red Hat Compatible Kernel), use the following mount options:
    -o vers=3,mountproto=tcp
    
  21. Serial console not working for a paravirtualized guest (10059184)
  22. Please use the following steps to configure the serial console in a paravirtualized guest (PV) using the Unbreakable Enterprise kernel (updates are in the guest):
    1. change the kernel boot parameter 'console=xvc0' to 'console=hvc0' in the /etc/grub.conf:
    2.     kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-100.0.19.el5 ro root=/dev/sd0 console=tty0 console=hvc0
      
    3. add an 'hvc0' entry to /etc/inittab:
    4.     co:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty hvc0 9600 vt100-nav
      
    5. add an 'hvc0' entry to /etc/securetty
    .
  23. Setting serial console in a hardware virtualized (HVM) guest
  24. To set the serial console a hardware virtualized (HVM) guest use following settings in the guest:
  25. Console appears to hang while booting on certain systems (10094052)
  26. On some hardware, the console may appear to hang during the boot process after starting udev. But the system does boot up properly and is accessible. A workaround to this problem is to add nomodeset as a kernel boot parameter in /etc/grub.conf:
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-200.13.1.el5uek.x86_64 ro root=/dev/sd0 nomodeset
    
  27. Unable to start X (10056679)
  28. On some hardware startup of X environment may fail after upgrading to Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel with following Error:
        Fatal server error:
        Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify busIDs for all
        framebuffer devices.
    
    To workaround this issue reconfigure X using command "X -configure" and use generated configuration file to start X environment.
  29. Higher memory is required for crashkernel option
  30. With Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel higher memory setting is required for crashkernel option in /etc/grub.conf file. Booting with crashkernel=128M@16M will result in following error:
        crashkernel reservation failed - memory is in use
    
    Minimum value for crashkernel option is 128M@32M. Based on the system configuration a higher value may be required. If kdump service loading fails increase the second value (32M). If the system hangs or crashes with out of memory during dumping core increase the first value (128M)
  31. Default IO scheduler
  32. For the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, the default IO scheduler is the 'deadline' scheduler.
    For the Red Hat Compatible Kernel, the default IO scheduler is the 'cfq' scheduler.
  33. sched_yield() settings for CFS
  34. For the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, kernel.sched_compat_yield=1 by default.
    For the Red Hat Compatible Kernel, kernel.sched_compat_yield=0 by default.
  35. High IO loads on NFS using mmap may fail (11071875)
  36. In some instances, large IO loads on NFS that use mmap may fail and cause the kernel to panic with a message like:
        kernel BUG at mm/truncate.c:469!
    
  37. NFS: Error message displayed while mounting an NFS filesystem (10070721)
  38. The following error may be encountered while mounting an NFS filesystem:
        "SVC: FAILED TO REGISTER LOCKDV1 RPC SERVICE (ERRNO 97)."
    
    This is an informative message and can be ignored
  39. Warning message when kdump starts
  40. When kdump starts, you may see the following warning message:
        WARNING: No modules scsi_mod found for kernel 2.6.32-200.13.1.el5uek.x86_64, continuing anyway
    
    This warning can be ignored. The kdump service does get started and a vmcore does get generated.
  41. Unable to remove direcory during boot
  42. Following message during boot can be ignored as selinux does not allow to recreate login subdir and hence directory should not be removed for dovecot:
    Error :
      "rm: cannot remove `/var/run/dovecot/login': Is a directory "
    
  43. Warning during kernel install
  44. Following warnings during kernel install can be ignored:
    WARNING: No module ehci-hcd found for kernel 2.6.32-200.10.3.el5uek, continuing anyway
    WARNING: No module ohci-hcd found for kernel 2.6.32-200.10.3.el5uek, continuing anyway
    WARNING: No module uhci-hcd found for kernel 2.6.32-200.10.3.el5uek, continuing anyway
    
  45. Upgrade ocfs2 and oracleasm kernel modules
  46. ocfs2 and oracleasm kernel modules will not be automatically updated during upgrade of Oracle Linux 5 as package name for these modules contains kernel version in it. These packages need to be updated manulaly after the upgrade.
  47. device-mapper-multipath package for Red Hat compatible kernel
  48. Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel requires kpartx and device-mapper-multipath RPMs that are newer than those provided for the Red Hat compatible kernel. By default device-mapper-multipath-0.4.9-23.0.9.el5 and kpartx-0.4.9-23.0.9.el5 are installed. These updated versions of kpartx and device-mapper-multipath are supported with the Red Hat compatible kernel. The original RPMs for the Red Hat compatible kernel (kpartx-0.4.7-46.el5 and device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-46.el5) are also included on the Oracle Linux 5.7 ISO in directory Server/oracle_updated.

    The instructions for installing the versions of kpartx and device-mapper-multipath to go with the Red Hat compatible kernel via ULN are as follows:


  49. Workaround to use pirut and system-config-packages to manage packages
  50. Pirut and system-config-packages cannot be used to manage, install, and uninstall software packages. Follow the steps below to resolve the issue

  51. Conflicting packages
  52. Following packages can not co-exists due to file conflict

  53. Unresolved dependency during update using up2date
  54. If updating from Oracle Linux 5 GA or RHEL 5 GA using up2date, you may encounter the following error:
      Unresolvable chain of dependencies:
      xen-3.0.3-64.el5    requires xen-hypervisor-abi = 3.1
    
    This happens because a kernel-xen package update is needed by the xen package, but 'kernel*' is part of the up2date pkgSkipList. To get around this, add 'xen;xen-devel;' to the the pkgSkipList line in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date and then run up2date. You can update the xen and kernel-xen packages together later via 'up2date --force xen kernel-xen'.

Oracle Linux Support

Oracle Linux offers an option to keep your operating system up to date with latest operating system patches using up2date. To access Linux updates via Unbreakable Linux Network, you must purchase a Linux support subscription.For more information please visit http://linux.oracle.com

Note: Prior to using up2date, import the RPM-GPG-KEY for Oracle Linux:

rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY