Red Hat liberates low-end Linux (News.com) [LWN.net]

News.com looks at the upcoming Red Hat 9 release. "The Raleigh, N.C.-based company has just completed splitting its product line in two: the slow-changing premium Red Hat Enterprise Linux version for businesses and the free Red Hat Linux version for enthusiasts. Establishing the RHEL option for conservative customers freed up Red Hat to accept more flexibility with the RHL line, said Matt Wilson, manager of Red Hat's base operating system, in an interview Tuesday."

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Red Hat liberates low-end Linux (News.com)

Posted Mar 26, 2003 1:52 UTC (Wed) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] (5 responses)

I was intrigued by this item from the news.com story, since I was unaware of the issue:

But the change to NPTL means some older software won't work, including 3D graphics support for Nvidia and ATI graphics cards and some versions of Sun Microsystems' software for running Java programs, Red Hat said.

Can anyone say more about this issue? Is this simply an issue with breaking the binary-only drivers, or is there something more fundamental that the Nvidia and ATI folks won't be able to fix?

Red Hat liberates low-end Linux (News.com)

Posted Mar 26, 2003 2:36 UTC (Wed) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

Wine developers have been struggling with the new thread model for some time without any positive results. See a summary here.

On the other hand, I hope that the issues with the video drivers can be resolved much easier. The problem with Wine stems from the fact that it wants to emulate Windows threads, and that requires some hooks that POSIX threads don't provide. The video drivers most likely just want to use the standard threading functionality, so they simply need to be adapted to the new model.

Red Hat liberates low-end Linux (News.com)

Posted Mar 26, 2003 3:47 UTC (Wed) by Ross (guest, #4065) [Link]

NVIDIA needs a way to quickly access thread local variables. The new glibc scheme requires a function call for every access. Previously, they used the gs register, but the new glibc scheme also makes use of it. The fs register is also unusable because of it's use in WINE. Whatever the solution is, I hope it is not just a quick hack. A solution which allowed libraries to cooperate in their use of fs and/or gs would be nice.

Java issues

Posted Mar 26, 2003 13:47 UTC (Wed) by MarkSwanson (guest, #9328) [Link] (1 responses)

Oh no...

What versions of Sun's JDK won't work with the new NPTL/glibc?

If versions 1.4.1 or greater won't work, has Sun commented on which future
version will work with the NPTL/glibc?

No Java, no RedHat 9 for me. :-(

Java issues

Posted Mar 26, 2003 14:11 UTC (Wed) by MarkSwanson (guest, #9328) [Link]

OK, I found a response from Sun and pasted it below. It seems that 1.4.1
and above will work OK and NPTL specific enhancements are slated to be a
tiger task - I think tiger is Java 1.5 to be releases around December
2003. I hope RedHat mentions Java 1.4.1+ work in the release notes.

BugID: 4802778

JDK 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 run OK on NPTL, the workarounds we have in the JDK
for LinuxThreads are not necessary, but should be benign. NPTL has a
better design and more kernel support. It is expected to replace
LinuxThreads
and become the default pthread library, we should optimize JVM to
better support NPTL, both for reliability and performance. This RFE
is filed to track this effort. It will include isolating LinuxThreads
workarounds, and possibly using new features available in the library
or kernel.

Red Hat liberates low-end Linux (News.com)

Posted Mar 26, 2003 23:12 UTC (Wed) by ronaldcole (guest, #1462) [Link]

The glibc-2.3.2-4.80 "security fix" update certainly broke my Informix IDS-9.30.UC2 engine. Whether this has to do with the new thread model, I don't know yet. I can't figure out why Red Hat didn't just backport the RPC fix to the glibc-2.2.93-5 rpm!