enable "RTC support" (from Robert G. Brown). Note that inserting RTC support actually doesn't afaik prevent drift, but according to a discussion [Robert G. Brown] remember from a year ago or so it can prevent lockup when the clock is read at boot time. A note from Richard Jelinek says also that activating the Enhanced RTC is necessary to get the second CPU working (identified) on some original Intel Mainboards.

You must rebuild all your kernel and kernel modules when changing to and from SMP mode. Remember to make modules and make modules_install.

REG) Here are some basic guidelines for posting patches. For information on how to generate patches, see the entry by RRR below. Ensure the patch does not have trailing control-M characters on each line. A number of broken tools used to encode patches add control-M for "DOS compatibility". This breaks many versions of patch, so be sure to configure your tools properly, or use unbroken tools, otherwise your patch will be silently deleted. Include the patch inline in your email, in plain text.

REG) Reasonably well. Kernel version 2.2 has much better scalability than version 2.0. People are running 4 processor Intel Xeon machines and 14 processor UltraSparc machines. Version 2.2 still has a global kernel lock, but this is often released quite quickly (for example, when the process blocks waiting for a resource and/or data), so the net result is that it is quite unlikely for two processors to compete for the global lock.

There are two kernels to consider. The new code is already in the development Linux Kernel. It was introduced in 2.5.11. The stable Linux Kernel, currently 2.4.20, still has the old driver. We are happy with the state of the code, but we still have to convince the Kernel Gods that it's good.

Well, the short answer is, it depends. Some distributions are using the RAID 0.90 patches, while others leave the kernel with the older md code. Unfortunately, I don't have a list of which distributions have which kernels. If you'd like to maintain such a list, please email me <<gleblanc@cu-portland.edu>> as well as the linux-raid mailing list.

ADB) Think again before you subscribe. Do you really want to get that much traffic in your mailbox? Are you so concerned about Linux kernel development that you will patch your kernel once a week, suffer through the oopses, bugs and the resulting time and energy losses? Are you ready to join the Order of the Great Penguin, and be called a "Linux geek" for the rest of your life? Maybe you're better off reading the weekly "Kernel Traffic" summary at http://www.kerneltraffic.org/.

ADB) At the bottom of each and every message sent by the linux-kernel mailing list server one can read:

ADB) Perhaps because there is no Linux Kernel Team, per se. Also because so many people contributed to the Linux kernel that it would be a tough task to setup and maintain such a page. Finally, although this is not a rule, most Linux kernel contributors prefer to keep a low profile, for various reasons.

ADB) You should probably read the definition of creeping featurism first. Related concepts, in increasing order of obfuscation: the KISS rule-of-thumb, the "Small is Beautiful" concept, Occam's Razor and Complexity Theory. A good book to read on these concepts as they apply to OS design is "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

RRR) In the root directory of the Linux kernel source tree (e.g. /usr/src/linux/), you will find a file COPYING. The file states that the Linux kernel is placed under the GNU General Public License (version 2), a copy of which is provided. If still in doubt, post to the appropriate forums (such as gnu.misc.discuss) or ask a lawyer, but don't ask about it on the linux-kernel list.

ADB) Linus would be the best person to ask, but I don't know if he would have the time and patience to answer this question. There are some development issues that can be mentioned, though: PnP support in the kernel. Right now one can get PnP support using the isapnptools user space package and manually tuning the I/O, IRQ and DMA channel allocation, but future Linux kernels will do that for you.

You should be able to edit the .config file and then just type make at the top level. For example, to use Linux's graphical config editor: cd linux-2.6-xen0 # make xconfig (configure however you want) (on old version you need to specify ARCH=xen after make) # cd .. # make If there's already a .config present in the kernel tree we leave it well alone. If there's none present and a ./dist/install/boot/config-2.6-xen0 exists then we copy that to .config.

Some versions of the Linux kernel do better with USB devices -- PalmOS devices in particular -- than others. 2.6.15 has been reported to cause difficulties in Kubuntu, while 2.6.17 is just fine.

Full functionality requires Linux 2.4.x or better. (Earlier versions may still work, but are no longer regularly tested.) A large fraction of the code should run on just about anything. While the current code is fairly Linux specific, it should be fairly easy to port the majority of the code to support, say, FreeBSD or Solaris, or Mac OS X, or even Windows (if you are into that sort of thing).

Archive user sent in the following instructions for creating DVDs on a linux system: To do this under linux from the command line: This requires a few common programs. Using any modern package distribution of linux installing these should be quite simple. Done! You should now have a folder called "DVD_folder" with your movie. You can create an ISO or BIN image with mkisofs:

ADB) Sure. Before you check the list archives, you can search DejaNews and AltaVista (simultaneously, if your browser allows you to open various windows). You can also follow some links on the Linux Documentation Project site.

ADB) Is Hyper123 supported by gcc, or at least is the Hyper architecture supported by gcc? Do you have a target machine with a well defined architecture? If you have answered yes to both questions proceed to REW's answer. If you have answered no to either or both, don't even bother getting started. This is a major project, not exactly the kind of thing you do over the weekend.

ADB) Because it doesn't need one. You can add that feature to the boot loader code, if you want to. The Linux kernel has no graphics primitives, just like any UNIX kernel.

ADB) There are no more known bugs in later kernel versions than in earlier kernel versions. However, the Linux kernel source code has been growing at a constant rate. As a general rule, large pieces of code tend to have undetected bugs. OTOH, the core code for the Linux kernel seems to have stabilized at around 16 thousand lines of C code, according to Larry McVoy. REW) I'd say more than 23 thousand lines in 2.1.x.

New architectures are implemented. This is usually OK, because the code that is specific to each architecture is (in theory, at least) separate from the others. Common code doesn't grow. New drivers are implemented. Again, this is OK, because each driver has different source files, and those are selectively compiled in the kernel executable or built as modules according to the specified kernel configuration. Old code gets adequately documented.

Since kernel threads are individual tasks with various shared parts, the question naturally arises: how are the threads associated with the parent and how are they accessed? There appear to be two ways: through the language or through the kernel. There exist several languages that support threads intrinsicly: Modula-3, Java, Python 1.4, Smalltalk/X, Objective-C/Gnustep and Ada. Each have language elements to program/access individual threads.

At any given time, there are several "stable" versions of Linux, and one "development" version. Unlike most proprietary software, older stable versions continue to be supported for as long as there is interest, which is why multiple versions exist. Linux version numbers follow a longstanding tradition. Each version has three numbers, i.e., X.Y.Z.

There are two kernels to consider. The new code is already in the development Linux Kernel. It was introduced in 2.5.11. The stable Linux Kernel, currently 2.4.20, still has the old driver. We are happy with the state of the code, but we still have to convince the Kernel Gods that it's good. Until it is incorporated, we will make frequent releases in patch form.

Disable anything that is remotely 'Experimental' or not necessarily needed. The following Linux options must be disabled to guarantee the most stable performance : Disable CONFIG_REGPARM. This option causes BIG problems when using LXRT, and renders it completely unusable alltogether. Enable your USB driver ( or disable USB in your BIOS ). The aim of using a Linux USB driver is to disable the BIOS USB driver. Enable your IDE chipset and choose the correct CPU.

Upgrade to 2.6 and a recent glibc. Debian Woody is too old for it to benefit from kernel 2.6. Expect massive performance improvements.

It really doesn't matter whether there are criterion to say if Linux is or isn't READY for the enterprise. The fact is that Linux is being USED in a great many close-to-mission-critical situations and in situations that require high performance, and that those administrators using it are happy with its performance. Moreover there are many situations where vendors recommend Linux over any other system for hosting their applications.

Linux does indeed support multiple processors. This support began in the 1.3/2.0 kernel, and is constantly being improved. In the 2.2/2.3 kernel releases SMP is a stable, usable feature. This doesn't mean it is perfect. There still isn't the granularity that some want to see. However, with the release of the 2.4 kernel (as we can see from the current experimental 2.3 line of kernel releases) SMP has become extremely efficient.