
Red Hat Linux 7.3 Release Notes

Copyright © 2002 by Red Hat, Inc.
         _________________________________________________________

   Table of Contents
   [1]Anaconda/Installer Notes
   [2]Kernel Notes
   [3]Distribution General Notes
   [4]Package Reorganization

Anaconda/Installer Notes

Boot Loader

     * On an upgrade, anaconda now defaults to upgrading your current
       boot loader configuration without creating a new one. If you are
       still using LILO and wish to migrate to using GRUB, you will need
       to select the creation of a new boot loader configuration when
       asked during the upgrade process.
     _________________________________________________________________

Kickstart

     * There is a new directive named %include which can be used with
       kickstart. This allows you to include the contents of other files
       as a part of your kickstart configuration. These files should
       either exist in the installer's initial ramdisk (initrd) or be
       generated dynamically in the %pre section of the kickstart
       configuration.
       For more information about anaconda and kickstart configuration,
       refer to the documentation located at
       /usr/share/doc/anaconda-7.3/.
     _________________________________________________________________

Miscellaneous

     * The standalone upgrade mode (typing linux upgrade at the boot
       prompt) is no longer supported.
     * Installation from an NFS directory that contains all of the
       required ISO files is now supported. Additionally, if a file
       called updates.img exists in the directory from which you install,
       then it will be used for Anaconda updates.
       Refer to the file install-methods.txt in the Anaconda RPM package
       for detailed information on the various ways to install Red Hat
       Linux, as well as how to apply Anaconda updates.
     * ISO images now have an md5sum embedded in them. To test the
       checksum integrity of an ISO image, type linux mediacheck at the
       installation boot prompt. The installation program will prompt you
       to insert a CD and select OK to perform the checksum operation.
       This checksum operation can be performed on any Red Hat Linux CD
       and in any order. It is strongly recommended to perform this
       operation on any Red Hat Linux CD that were created from
       downloaded ISO images. This procedure only works with CD-based
       installations.
     * The log file summarizing your installation is now located in /root
       as /root/install.log instead of /tmp/install.log. Upgrade logs
       have also been relocated to /root/upgrade.log.
     _________________________________________________________________

Kernel Notes

Red Hat Linux 7.3 includes the 2.4.18 kernel as well as the following
additions and modifications:

     * Improved scheduler for lower latency and better SMP performance
     * Support for 802.11Q (VLAN)
     * Support for S.M.A.R.T. (TM) and other hard disk drive monitoring
       technologies; in certain cases, hard disk drives employing these
       technologies will be able to report failure to users ahead of time
     * LVM (Logical Volume Management) support
     * USB 2.0 support
     * LBA48/ATA133 support for drives > 137GB
     * Support for Cenatek Rocket Drive solid state disks
     * Older (pre-IDE era) CD-ROM drives are no longer supported.
     _________________________________________________________________

Distribution General Notes

     * There are observed issues upgrading Red Hat Linux 6.x, 7.0, 7.1,
       7.2, and 7.3 systems running Ximian GNOME. The issue is
       caused by version overlap between the official Red Hat Linux RPMs
       and the Ximian RPMs. Please be aware that this is a configuration
       unsupported by Red Hat. You have several choices in resolving this
       issue:
       1) You may remove Ximian GNOME from your Red Hat Linux system
       prior to upgrading Red Hat Linux.
       2) You may upgrade Red Hat Linux, and then immediately reinstall
       Ximian GNOME.
       3) You may upgrade Red Hat Linux, and then immediately remove all
       remaining Ximian RPMs, and replace them with the corresponding Red
       Hat Linux RPMs.
       You must resolve the version overlap using one of the above
       methods. Failure to do so will result in an unstable GNOME
       configuration.
     * KDE has been updated to 3.0.0 and includes usability enhancements
       as well as some new applications and features.
       Anti-aliased fonts may appear to be non-functioning after the
       upgrade to KDE 3.0.0. This issue is related to a feature addition:
       Due to the Qt 3.0 update, it is now possible to use anti-aliased
       and non-antialiased fonts at the same time in Qt applications.
       Since the default fonts for the KDE desktop environment are bitmap
       fonts and therefore can not be anti-aliased, just turning on the
       enable anti-aliased fonts button in KDE will not modify the look
       of all applications. To get anti-aliased fonts in menus, window
       titles, etc., change the fonts for these elements (for example, by
       replacing Helvetica with Helmet and Courier with
       Lucidatypewriter).
     * Red Hat Linux now includes a port of the Debian alternatives
       system, as a way to support multiple packages providing a
       particular service. Every binary/file that would be in common
       between the multiple packages is replaced with a symlink to /etc;
       this then resolves to the version of that file for the alternative
       in question. For example:
       /usr/sbin/sendmail -> /etc/alternatives/mta ->
       /usr/sbin/sendmail.sendmail
       These symlinks are added and managed by /usr/sbin/alternatives.
       See man 8 alternatives for more details
       Currently, Red Hat Linux offers Sendmail and Postfix as two Mail
       Transport Agent (MTA) alternatives. For print daemon alternatives,
       the choices are LPRng and CUPS.
       Note that the configurations for LPRng and CUPS are completely
       separate. If you switch from one printing system to another, you
       will have to reconfigure your printers. Similarly, postfix and
       sendmail have separate configuration files.
     * XFree86 has been updated to version 4.2.0. Included in this
       version is new support for the following graphics chipsets:
       ATI Radeon 7500 (2D/3D), Radeon 8500 (2D)
       ATI Radeon Mobility M6/M7 (2D/3D)
       Intel i830 (2D/3D)
       Matrox G550
       nVidia nForce
       3DLabs Permedia 4
       Older S3 (non-Savage, non-ViRGE) chipsets
       NOTE: The nVidia GeForce 4 chipset is not supported by the "nv"
       driver in XFree86 4.2.0. The XFree86 "vesa" driver, which uses a
       video card's VESA BIOS to initialize video modes, may work as a
       temporary workaround until official support is available in a
       future release.
     * Mozilla has been updated to 0.9.9. This release includes MathML
       support, javascript profiling, S/MIME support in mail and news,
       tabbed browsing, LDAP support in the address book, and a large
       number of bug fixes.
     * The Evolution mailer/calendar/contact manager has been added.
       Evolution includes POP, IMAP, and local mail support, iCalendar
       support for calendaring and scheduling, and integrated contact
       management and online tasklists.
     * MrProject, a project management tool, has been added. MrProject
       supports planning and tracking projects, including Gantt charts,
       dependencies, and resource allocations.
     * The GnomeMeeting video conferencing application has been added.
       GnomeMeeting is an H.323 compliant videoconferencing tool, which
       supports H.245 tunneling and also an audio-only mode.
     * Red Hat Linux now supports both Traditional and Simplified Chinese
       in addition to support for American English, French, German,
       Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.
     * Support for DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW drives has been included and
       is available in the dvdrtools package.
     * Formatting DocBook XML documents using the XSL stylesheet language
       is now possible. For more information, refer to the xmlto(1)
       manual page.
     * The DocBook document type definitions (DTDs) have been merged into
       one RPM package called docbook-dtds.
     * The gPhoto2 package has been added to the distribution. gPhoto2 is
       a software application and interface library for digital cameras.
       The gPhoto2 package also includes gtKam, a graphical digital
       camera interface that uses gPhoto2. Kamera, a Konqueror plugin for
       digital cameras, has been added, as well. The older gphoto
       application (0.4.3) is deprecated and may be removed in a future
       release.
     * The initscripts now disable DMA on IDE CD-ROMs by default. To
       enable it, make a /etc/sysconfig/harddisk<device> file that
       contains USE_DMA=1, where <device> is the device of your disk or
       CD-ROM (such as hdc).
     * /sbin/service now changes to the root directory before starting or
       stopping services. There are also changes in the way /sbin/service
       handles environment variables. For example, if an init script
       relies on special environment variables (PATH, etc.), the script
       needs to explicitly set these variables rather than expecting to
       inherit them.
     * The bcm5820 package has been replaced with the hwcrypto package.
       The hwcrypto package also includes support for the AEP 1000
       cryptographic accelerator.
     * The xscanimage program has been deprecated and may be removed in a
       future release of Red Hat Linux. The xsane program should be used
       instead.
     * The rp3 package has been removed; to configure dial-up access use
       the redhat-config-network package.
     * The ircii package has been replaced with the epic package. epic is
       mostly compatible with ircii scripts and includes more features
       than ircii.
     * The mkkickstart package has been removed. The ksconfig program
       should be used instead; you can also edit the
       /root/anaconda-ks.cfg generated by the installer.
     * The patchutils package of utilities for manipulating patch files
       is now included. Patch files are often used in software
       development.
     * The autoconf253 and automake15 packages are included, which
       updates autoconf to version 2.53 and automake to version 1.5 for
       those who need updated development environments.
     * The glibc-kernheaders package has been added and will replace the
       kernel-headers package.
     * The postgresql package has been updated. To preserve your data,
       dump the data using the pg_dumpall command before upgrading, then
       restore the data after the upgrade is complete. Refer to the
       pg_dumpall(1) man page for more information.
     * The Red Hat Network Panel Applet is included on GNOME desktop
       panels by default. This applet allows you to receive Red Hat
       Network notices and download updates for your Red Hat Linux
       system. Note that the Red Hat Network Panel Applet does not appear
       on your GNOME desktop panel if you have upgraded from a previous
       version of Red Hat Linux. To add this to your panel, choose the
       following:
       Main Menu => Applets => Monitors => Red Hat Network Alert
       Notification Tool
     _________________________________________________________________

Package Reorganization

The following applications and packages not previously mentioned have been
removed from Red Hat Linux 7.3:

     * enlightenment
     * ext2ed
     * fnlib
     * gnome-pim
     * isapnptools
     * kaffe
     * libodbc++
     * linuxconf
     * lout
     * mawk
     * p2c
     * ttfm
     * xmorph
     * xmailbox
     * xrn
     * xsysinfo

   The  following  applications  and  packages  are deprecated and may be
   removed from a future version of Red Hat Linux:

     * Netscape Communicator 4.7
     * XFree86 3.3.x
     * junkbuster

References

   1. file://localhost/tmp/html-ujXgMr#ANACONDA-INSTALLER-NOTES
   2. file://localhost/tmp/html-ujXgMr#KERNEL-NOTES
   3. file://localhost/tmp/html-ujXgMr#GENERAL-NOTES
   4. file://localhost/tmp/html-ujXgMr#DEPRECATED
