![[Tip]](./stylesheet-images/tip.png) | Latest Release Notes on the Web |
|---|---|
These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora. |
This section covers changes and important information regarding the 2.6.21 based kernel in Fedora 7. The 2.6.21 kernel includes:
Support for KVM virtualization.
Tickless support for x86 32bit, which greatly improves power management.
The devicescape wireless network stack, which includes support for several new wireless drivers.
New IDE drivers that use the same libata code as the SATA drivers.
![[Important]](./stylesheet-images/important.png)
IDE Device Names Changed The new IDE drivers now cause all IDE drives to have device names such as
/dev/sdXinstead of/dev/hdX.If the
/etc/fstabor/etc/crypttabfiles reference these devices by name, they must be migrated before the system can access those partitions.Support for version 2 of the Global File System (GFS2) has been integrated into the upstream kernel.
Some elements of the realtime kernel project.
Fedora may include additional patches to the kernel for improvements, bug fixes, or additional features. For this reason, the Fedora kernel may not be line-for-line equivalent to the so-called vanilla kernel from the kernel.org web site:
To obtain a list of these patches, download the source RPM package and run the following command against it:
rpm -qpl kernel-<version>.src.rpm
To retrieve a log of changes to the package, run the following command:
rpm -q --changelog kernel-<version>
If you need a user friendly version of the changelog, refer to http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges. A short and full diff of the kernel is available from http://kernel.org/git. The Fedora version kernel is based on the Linus tree.
Customizations made for the Fedora version are available from http://cvs.fedoraproject.org.
Fedora 7 includes the following kernel builds:
Native kernel, for use in most systems. Configured sources are available in the kernel-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm package.
The kernel-PAE, for use in 32-bit x86 systems with > 4GB of RAM, or with CPUs that have an 'NX (No eXecute)' feature. This kernel support both uniprocessor and multi-processor systems.
Virtualization kernel for use with the Xen emulator package. Configured sources are available in the kernel-xen-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm package.
The kdump kernel for use with kexec/kdump capabilities. Configured sources are available in the kernel-kdump-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm package.
You may install kernel headers for all kernel flavors at the same time. The files are installed in the /usr/src/kernels/<version>-[PAE|xen|kdump]-<arch>/ tree. Use the following command:
su -c 'yum install kernel-{PAE,xen,kdump}-devel'
Select one or more of these flavors, separated by commas and no
spaces, as appropriate. Enter the root password when prompted.
![[Note]](./stylesheet-images/note.png) | 32bit Kernel Includes Kdump |
|---|---|
The 32bit kernel is now relocatable, so kdump functionality is included. 64bit still requires installation of the -kdump kernel. |
| Default Kernel Provides SMP |
|---|---|
There is no separate SMP kernel available for Fedora on i386, x86_64, and ppc64. Multiprocessor support is provided by the native kernel. |
| PowerPC Kernel Support |
|---|---|
There is no support for Xen or kdump for the PowerPC architecture in Fedora. 32-bit PowerPC does still have a separate SMP kernel. |
Refer to http://kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/lkml/reporting-bugs.html for information on reporting bugs in the Linux kernel. You may also use http://bugzilla.redhat.com for reporting bugs that are specific to Fedora.
Fedora 7 does not include the kernel-source package provided by older versions since only the kernel-devel package is required now to build external modules. Configured sources are available, as described in the kernel flavors section.
| Custom Kernel Building |
|---|---|
For information on kernel development and working with custom kernels, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel. |