Linux 2.1 Kernel Patches

About the Kernel Patch Summaries

These summaries are written after each kernel release by examining the chunks of each patch file and figuring out what has changed. Occasionally, they are supplemented by notes that Linus (and others) posted to the linux-kernel mailing list.

The summaries from 2.1.0 to 2.1.51 were put together by Mark Evans <mevans@ecsnet.com>.

The summaries from 2.1.54 onwards were put together by Myrdraal@deathsdoor.com -- originally appearing on the Cutting Edge Linux website.

Yaroslav Rosomakho is now also writing some kernel summaries, including pre-patches!

Linux 2.2.0-pre9 - ftp / http / mirrors (20-Jan-99)
    [Patch Browser]

It appears that this may well be the last 2.2.0pre kernel! This kernel thinks it is 2.2.0-final.

• Documentation updates.
• SGI Visual Workstation support added. (These are the x86 systems from SGI.)
• IrDA support updates.
• NTP time code updated.
• x86 vfork syscall re-added. (I'm not really sure what is happening with this.)
• x86 IRQ code updates. (Probably little functional change; it's likely that most of this is so they can support the Visual Workstation's APICs nicely.)
• x86 assembly strstr function removed. (x86 will now use the C version.)
• m68k architecture updates.
• Minor SPARC architecture memory management code updates.
• DVD-RAM/ROM drive support added to the IDE CD-ROM driver.
• Minor console driver updates.
• Cyclades multiport serial driver updates.
• Minor PS/2 mouse driver detection code update.
• ISDN driver updates.
• Minor parport driver updates.
• Minor 3c59x net card driver updates.
• Allied Telesis AT1700 net card driver updates.
• fmv18x net card driver updates.
• Minor tulip net card driver update.
• ini9100u SCSI driver updates.
• Minor ad1848 sound driver update.
• Framebuffer console drivers updated.
• Minor /proc filesystem driver update.
• Kernel select/poll code updates.
• Minor VFAT filesystem driver update.
• Memory management updates.
• ipv4 updates.
• SunRPC net driver update.
• Xconfig updates.

---

Hoya,

there's now a 2.2.0-pre9 on ftp.kernel.org, and when you compile it it will call itself 2.2.0-final. The reason is fairly obvious: enough is enough, and I can't make pre-kernels forever, it just dilutes the whole idea. The only reason the tar-file is not called 2.2.0 is that I want to avoid having any embarrassing typos that cause it to not compile under reasonable configurations or something like that. Unreasonable configurations I no longer care about.

Every program has bugs, and I'm sure there are still bugs in this. Get over it - we've done our best, and nobody ever believed that there wouldn't be 2.2.x kernels to fix problems as they come up, and delaying 2.2.0 forever is not an option.

I have a wedding anniversary and a company party coming up, so I'm taking a few days off - when I get back I expect to take this current 2.2.0-final and just remove the "-final" from the Makefile, and that will be it. I suspect somebody _will_ find something embarrassing enough that I would fix it too, but let's basically avoid planning on that.

In short, before you post a bug-report about 2.2.0-final, I'd like you to have the following simple guidelines:

"Is this something Linus would be embarrassed enough about that he would wear a brown paper bag over his head for a month?"

and

"Is this something that normal people would ever really care deeply about?"

If the answer to either question is "probably not", then please consider just politely discussing it as a curiosity on the kernel mailing lists rather than even sending email about it to me: I've been too busy the last few weeks, and I'd really appreciate it if I could just forget the worries of a release for a few days..

But if you find something hilariously stupid I did, feel free to share it with me, and we'll laugh about it together (and I'll avoid wearing the brown paper bag on my head during the month of February). Do we have a deal?

I've seen people working on a 2.2.0 announcement, and I'm happy - I've been too busy to think straight, much less worry about details like that. If everything turns out ok, I'll have a few memorable bloopers in my mailbox but nothing worse than that, and I can sit down and actually read the announcement texts that people have been discussing.

ObFeatures:

• m68k sync
• various minor driver fixes (irda, net drivers, scsi, video, isdn)
• SGI Visual Workstation support
• adjtimex update to the latest standards
• vfat silly buglet fix
• semaphores work on alpha again
• drop the inline strstr() that gcc got wrong whatever we did
• kswapd needed to be a bit more aggressive
• minor TCP retransmission and delack fixes

Until Monday,

      Linus

---

Linux 2.2.0-pre8 - ftp / http / mirrors (18-Jan-99)
    [Patch Browser]

• Alpha architecture updates.
• x86 APM code updates. (BIOS bug workarounds, SMP poweroff support, bugfixes.)
• x86 process code updates.
• ?? x86 vfork syscall removed.
• x86 checksum code updates.
• Minor IDE CD-ROM driver updates.
• Minor IDE disk driver update.
• Minor loopback block device driver update.
• CD-ROM driver updates.
• BTTV driver updates.
• msp3400 sound processor driver updates.
• Minor TTY driver updates.
• PS/2 mouse driver updates.
• TV tuner driver updates.
• Minor 3c523 net card driver updates.
• Minor 3c59x net card driver updates.
• Minor acenic net card driver updates.
• Minor eepro100 net card driver updates.
• pcnet32 net card driver updates.
• IPV6 PPP support added.
• RedCreek net driver updates.
• Minor aic7xxx SCSI driver updates.
• IDE-SCSI emulation layer updates.
• Minor ncr53c8xx SCSI driver updates.
• Generic SCSI driver updates.
• Sound driver updates.
• Matrox framebuffer console driver updates.
• Filesystem buffer code updates.
• Minor dcache update.
• Minor kernel exec code updates.
• Minor ISO9660 filesystem driver updates.
• VFS updates.
• NFS updates.
• /proc filesystem driver updates.
• Kernel select() code updates.
• VFAT filesystem driver updates.
• Kernel fork() code updates.
• Memory management code updates.
• AVL trees re-added to memory management system. (This speeds things up when there are many VMAs.)
• ipv4 net code updates.
• Minor ipv6 net code update.
• IPX net code updates.
• SunRPC net code updates.
• Xconfig updates.
• ver_linux script updates.

Linux 2.2.0-pre7 - ftp / http / mirrors (13-Jan-99)
    [Patch Browser]

• Alpha architecture updates.
• Alpha RX164 support added. (Not too sure about this one.)
• Minor x86 ioport capability code updates.
• x86 process code changes for vfork.
• x86 won't print out those annoying "Process: blah (stack=..." messages anymore.
• Minor floppy driver update.
• BSD partition handling code updates.
• PC keyboard driver updates.
• Minor hp100 net card driver update.
• Minor tulip net card driver update.
• Minor AM53C974 SCSI driver update.
• Minor aic7xxx SCSI driver updates.
• gdth SCSI driver updates.
• Minor i91uscsi SCSI driver updates.
• SCSI code updated to be more 2.0 compatible.
• Minor wavefront sound driver update.
• More /proc filesystem updates.
• autofs updates.
• Kernel select() code updates.
• Minor UFS filesystem driver updates.
• Memory management code updates.
• Swap code updates.
• Menuconfig updates.
• Xconfig updates.

Linux 2.2.0-pre6 - ftp / http / mirrors (8-Jan-99)
    [Patch Browser]

• Documentation updates.
• x86 APM updates.
• x86 vfork syscall added.
• x86 process tracing code updated.
• Minor x86 processor detection code update.
• PowerPC COM1 NS16550 support added.
• Minor PowerPC architecture updates.
• Spelling corrections.
• Sony CDU-535 CD-ROM driver updates.
• Minor console driver update.
• TTY driver updates.
• zoltrix radio card driver updates.
• 3c59x net card driver updates.
• acenic net card driver updates.
• Minor ariadne net card driver updates.
• eepro net card driver updates.
• minor ne2 net card driver update.
• Sound driver updates.
• Matrox framebuffer console driver updates.
• Minor filesystem buffer code updates.
• Minor Coda filesystem driver update.
• Minor dcache updates.
• Minor root-on-NFS-filesystem code updates.
• UFS filesystem driver updates.
• Minor memory management updates.
• Network bridging code updates.
• ipv4 firework code updates. (Plugs security hole.)
• Minor Netrom net driver update.
• SunRPC net driver updates.
• Minor Xconfig update.
• Minor mkdep kernel script updates.
• ver_linux script added. (It tells you what versions of various user programs and libraries that you have.)

Linux 2.2.0-pre5 - ftp / http / mirrors (6-Jan-99 21:56)
    [Patch Browser]

• x86 process selection updates.
• Minor x86 SMP code update.
• m68k architecture updates.
• MIPS architecture updates.
• PowerPC architecture updates.
• Minor generic HD driver update.
• IDE disk driver size detection code update.
• IDE disk driver updates.
• OPTi 82C621 chipset EIDE controller driver updates.
• /proc code updates.
• Memory device driver updates.
• Minor serial driver update.
• Minor PLIP driver updates.
• SDLA driver updates.
• aic7xxx SCSI driver updates.
• Sound driver updates.
• Framebuffer console drivers updated.
• Filesystem buffer code updates.
• Memory management updates.
• dcache updates.
• FAT filesystem driver updates.
• Minor NFS updates.
• UFS filesystem driver updates.
• VFAT filesystem driver updates.
• Kernel scheduler updates.
• Net code updates.
• ipv4 updates.
• Xconfig updates.