Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Release Notes
Release Notes for SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2
Release Notes for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2
Version 10.2.1, 13. May 2008
Abstract
These release notes are generic for all SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 based products. Some parts may not apply
to a particular architecture/product. Where this is not obvious, the respective architectures are listed explicitly. The
instructions for installing this Service Pack can be found in the README file on CD1. There are also translations of
this file.
A startup and preparation guide are found under the docu directory on the media. Any documentation (if installed)
can be found below /usr/share/doc/ in the installed system.
This Novell product includes materials licensed to Novell under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL
requires that Novell make available certain source code that corresponds to those GPL-licensed materials. The source
code is available for download at http://www.novell.com/linux/source. Also, for up to three years from Novell's
distribution of the Novell product, upon request Novell will mail a copy of the source code. Requests should be sent by
e-mail to sle_source_request@novell.com or as otherwise instructed at http://www.novell.com/linux/source. Novell
may charge a fee to recover its reasonable costs of distribution.
1. Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 1
2. New Features ................................................................................................................. 2
3. Driver Updates ............................................................................................................... 6
3.1. Network Drivers ................................................................................................... 6
3.2. Storage Drivers .................................................................................................... 6
3.3. Other Drivers ....................................................................................................... 7
4. Other Updates ................................................................................................................ 8
5. Installation-Related Notes ............................................................................................... 10
6. Update-Related Notes .................................................................................................... 12
6.1. General Notes .................................................................................................... 12
6.2. Update from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 .................................................. 12
6.3. Update from SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 ....................................................... 13
7. Technology Previews ..................................................................................................... 16
8. Deprecated Functionality ................................................................................................ 18
9. Known Issues ............................................................................................................... 19
10. Resolved Issues ........................................................................................................... 22
11. Technical Informations ................................................................................................. 23
12. More Information and Feedback ..................................................................................... 25
iv
Chapter 1. Purpose
This SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2 serves several purposes:
• Provide enhancements to the SLES 10 code base (see Chapter 2, New Features).
• Provide all maintenance fixes (see Chapter 3, Driver Updates) released since GA of SLES 10.
• Provide an easy update (see README) of your system or individual packages to the latest Service Pack
level. This is especially useful if you cannot use online update mechanisms.
• Provide an easy fresh install (see README) using the latest kernel, drivers, and installer updates.
• Include PTFs (special fixes for customers) which were folded back into the SLES 10 common code
base making them part of the maintained code base.
• Provide useful additional information and documentation (see Chapter 5, Installation-Related Notes).
Through joint testing and maximum care, we try hard not to break any ISV certification with a Service
Pack, but we recommend checking with your ISV about your application's certification status.
With the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 2, the now obsoleted Service Pack 1
enters limited support status for the following 6 months, during which time Novell will continue to provide
security updates and L3 support to maintain its customer's operations safe during the migration window.
At the end of the six-month parallel support period, on November, 15th 2008, support for Service Pack
1 will be permanently discontinued.
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Chapter 2. New Features
• 915resolution was added to change the resolution of the 845G, 855GM, 865G, 915G, 915GM, 945G,
945GM, 965G and 965GM chipsets
• Docking station support for Santa Rosa chipsets were added
• Complete iSCSI support was added to autoyast2
• Add support for --dynamic-list, AMDFAM10h, SSE5 and all POWER6 instructions to binutils
• Updated crash to version 4.0-4.8 and increased the number of supported CPUs to 16384
• Added support of dhcpFailOverPeer objects to dhcp
• Allow online resize of root filesystem on Ext3
• Enable krb4 support in evolution
• eDirectory NMAS support was added to FreeRADIUS
• Added optional SSE5 instructions to gcc
• Full RFC3484 (getaddrinfo/IPv6) support, AF_IUCV and support for up to 4096 CPUs added to glibc
• Added 'start this script before' support to insserv
• Added kdump package and YaST2 frontend with support for saving dumps over network and to filter
kdump images.
• When doing a network install, check if the IP address of the machine to be installed is already in use
by another machine. This check can be suppressed with parameter "forceip=1" either on the command
line or in the configuration file.
• Added support for LUKS and LVM over iSCSI to mkinitrd
• New PAM module 'pam_faildelay' was added to change the delay on failure per application
• Added sblim-cim-client, a CIM Client Class Library for Java applications
• Added StrongSwan 4.1.10, an OpenSource IPsec-based VPN Solution for Linux
• Added support for SGS Thomson Microelectronics Fingerprint Reader including a YaST2 module for
configuration
• Added audit support to hwclock
• iSNS support was added to the YaST2 iSCSI modules
• Support for bridge devices, ficon devices and VLANs was added to the YaST2 network module
• The default disk label for disks larger than 2 TB is now GPT
• It is now possible to install on NFS as root partition
• The YaST2 storage module is now able to online resize ext3
• Python bindings for YaST2
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New Features
• The maximum number of raw devices can be specified as boot option (max_raw_minors=XX, where
1 <= XX <= 65536)
• Add a new kernel which is designed to run on top of a virtual machine interface layer (VMI). The
VMI interface layer is part of the package kernel-vmi which is available as x86 package only (not for
x86_64). This package can be installed via your favorite update tool once the system has a registered
update channel.
• A hardware handler for the DM-MPIO framework to enable explicit ALUA support (ALUA: T10
Asymmetric LUN Access or T10 ALUA) was added.
• Support for Autofs version 5 was added additional to the standard version 4.
• The Open-iSCSI stack was updated to enhance the iSCSI boot/install capability so that it is not limited
to a single integrated network interface any more. This update changed the sysfs layout.
• Support added for SB700 S/PATA
• Integrated support for AMDFam11h (Griffin)
• Integrated support for NFS locking of a clustered filesystem
• Support for mount counting and last check timestamping for fsck -a on reiserfs was added.
• AppArmor was updated to the latest version.
• Wide UTF-8 character support was enabled for Aspell.
• The following packages were added for better support of XEN management tools: gtk-vnc, virt-viewer
• The HPI STONITH module of heartbeat was enabled.
• Support for Intel(R) iAMT was added.
• IPA Fonts were added.
• The Firmware for Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Cards was added.
• Added Unicode text editor 'yudit' to edit and convert text of different languages.
• Improved support for LVM and Device-Mapper based mirroring.
• SuSEfirewall2 now autodetect bridge interfaces and permit traffic.
• zSeries: AF_IUCV Protocol Support: Enables IUCV communication via the BSD socket interface
between Linux VM guests or between a Linux guest and CMS. More info: Device Drivers, Features,
and Commands - SC33-8289-04, Chapter 21. AF_IUCV protocol support.
• zSeries: Kernel NSS support: Saves memory when running multiple Linux server with the same kernel
under z/VM by allowing to save the kernel in a Named Saved Segment in z/VM. More info: Device
Drivers, Features, and Commands - SC33-8289-04, Chapter 13. Shared kernel support.
• zSeries: ETR (external time reference) Support: Enables Linux images to synchronize with parallel
Sysplex or GDPS by providing z/OS compatible external timer reference and maintaining data
consistency groups for XRC data mover. More info: The ETR support introduces a new kernel parameter
"etr" that is used to set the initial state for the online attribute of the two ports. The syntax of the parameter
is "etr=[on | off | port0 | port1]". The default is "off". The ETR support introduces a number of sysfs-
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New Features
attributes. There are two time synchronization ports etr0 and etr1, which can be accessed via sysfs under:
/sys/devices/system/etr
• zSeries: Dynamic CHPID reconfiguration via SCLP: Allows to react to hardware changes and to
configure path for the LPAR from the Linux system. More info: Device Drivers, Features, and
Commands - SC33-8289-04, Chapter 2, Configuring a CHPID on LPAR and Chapter 32, chchp and
lschp.
• zSeries: skb scatter-gather support for large incoming messages: Improves network throughput and
reliability (avoid memory allocation failures in network subsystem) with large MTU sizes and jumbo
frames. In particular this renders HiperSockets highly available even for large messages.
• zSeries: FCP performance data collection - adapter statistics: Provides more hardware performance
metrics which are available from the FCP adapter on IBM System z9 and z10.
• zSeries: Support for Processor Degradation: Generates uevents for all CPUs if the CPU-capability
changes. This can happen e.g. because the CPUs are overheating. The CPU-capability can be read via:
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuN/capability. More info: Device Drivers, Features, and
Commands - SC33-8289-04, Chapter 2, CPU capability change.
• zSeries: Provide Linux process data into z/VM monitor stream: Allows to consolidate monitor data from
multiple z/VM guest with z/VM monitor tools. More info: Device Drivers, Features, and Commands
- SC33-8289-04, Chapters 4, 14, 15, 16 and 32 (mon_fsstatd and mon_procd).
• zSeries: z/VM unit record device driver: Allows to access the z/VM reader from a running Linux system,
useful for tasks like preparing the z/VM reader from Linux to install or to dump to the z/VM reader.
More info: Device Drivers, Features, and Commands - SC33-8289-04, Chapter 18. z/VM unit record
device driver.
• zSeries: STSI change for capacity provisioning: Make the permanent and temporary capacity
information as provided by the STSI instruction of the IBM System z10 available to user space via
/proc/sysinfo.
• zSeries: Hotplug daemon for CPU and memory management: New daemon in s390-tools 1.6.3 that
manages CPU- and memory-resources based on a set of rules. Depending on the workload CPUs can be
enabled or disabled. The amount of memory can be increased or decreased exploiting the Cooperative
Memory Management (CMM1) feature. See: man -a cpuplugd. More info: Device Drivers, Features,
and Commands - SC33-8411-00, Chapters 36 (cpuplugd - Activate CPUs and control memory Use).
• zSeries: HiperSockets MAC layer routing support: Enables Layer-2 support in HiperSockets, including
IPv6 for Layer-2, on the new z10 hardware. Note that connecting Layer-2 and Layer-3 hosts is not
supported. To use it, echo 1 > layer2 attribute before setting the HiperSockets device online.
• zSeries: Support two OSA ports per CHPID: Exploits the next OSA adapter generation offering two
ports within one CHPID, giving you four ports per card ("Four-port exploitation on OSA-Express3 GbE
SX and LX"). The additional port number 1 can be specified with the qeth sysfs-attribute "portno". More
info: Device Drivers, Features, and Commands - SC33-8411-00, Chapters 9 (Specifying the relative
port number).
• zSeries: In kernel and software Support for CP Assist Instructions AES & SHA: Enables the crypto
driver and library to exploit the new z10 hardware encryption providing performance enhancements for
AES-192, AES-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512.
• zSeries: Linux CPU Node Affinity: Improve performance of the system by scheduling processes to the
optimal node where the CPU is associated, exploiting the new z10 CPU node topology. More info:
Device Drivers, Features, and Commands - SC33-8411-00, Chapters 2 (Examining the CPU topology).
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New Features
• zSeries: Large Page Support: Enables better system performance with large memory footprints like in
Java or database workloads by exploiting the new z10 hardware feature to be able to use large memory
pages (1 MB). See: Linux kernel source tree under Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt. More info:
Device Drivers, Features, and Commands - SC33-8411-00, Chapters 28.
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