Release Notes for Scientific Linux 6.4 Release Candidate 2 If no major bugs are reported by March 28 this Release Candidate will be released as Scientific Linux 6.4. Send comments/issues/test reports to [log in to unmask] during our pre-release period. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major Differences from SL6.3 OpenAFS OpenAFS kernel module package has changed. With SL6.0 we started packaging the OpenAFS client's kernel module according to the guidelines from TUV's Driver Update Program. Due to unanticipated changes with the 6.3 kernel, we've had to revisit the process. With the 6.4 release, we modified the packaging to provide a dedicated build of the module for each minor SL release, instead of one kernel module (kmod) for all SL6 kernels. Since the EL kernel ABI is supposed to be kept stable within a minor release, this should avoid the problems some SL users experienced. For those updating their system using yum, this change should be completely transparent. yum-conf-sl6x This is now installed by default. You may remove it to return to the historical behavior. yum-conf-sl-other This now features an entry for 'sl-addons' repo. For more information on sl-addons please view the README file within the addons repo itself. xorg-x11-server Features a new ABI, this was a security errata so it should be available to earlier releases. matahari Upstream has discontinued the matahari packages ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHANGED compared to Enterprise 6 Packages modified by Scientific Linux should contain 'sl' within their release string. Packages can be changed for a few reasons - removing trademarks, fixing errors, providing different behavior, or fixing build issues. Each of the changed packages below lists is reason for its change along with some historical information. httpd Changed the default index.html to remove upstream's branding. This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. plymouth Removed the red colors for text mode. This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. redhat-logos Changed all trademarked icons and pictures from upstream. Changed styles of items such as background, gdm, and kdm to change the tradedress style. This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. sl-bookmarks sl-bookmarks replaces redhat-bookmarks and removes upstream branding This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. sl-indexhtml sl-indexhtml replaces redhat-indexhtml and removes upstream branding This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. sl-release sl-release replaces redhat-release and removes upstream branding This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. sl-release-notes sl-release-notes replaces Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux-Release_Notes* This change went into effect with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. anaconda Add the Scientific Linux install classes DVD installs do not ask for the network unless needed This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. redhat-rpm-config Changed to recognize Scientific Linux as an Enterprise Linux This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. xorg-x11-server Changed to remove TUV's support URL This change went into effect with SL 6.3 and continues in this release. Changes to comps.xml The comps.xml file determines what packages are in groups. This determines what packages get installed automatically when you select a group during install, or when you use yum groupinstall. We have made the following changes to comps. We merged all of the comps.xml files from The Upstream Vendor into one file for each arch. If a group was in any of TUV comps.xml files, for that arch, then it was included in our comps.xml file. If a group was default for either of TUV comps.xml, then is was made default in our comps.xml file. If a package was in a group for either of TUV comps.xml files, then it was put in that group in our comps.xml file. Added the following groups: icewm misc-sl openafs-client repos spins ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Removed compared to Enterprise 6 rhn-client-tools We cannot provide RHN connections, so we have removed the RHN tools. People requiring RHN must use Enterprise Linux from upstream This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. rhnlib We cannot provide RHN connections, so we have removed the RHN tools. People requiring RHN must use Enterprise Linux from upstream This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. rhnsd We cannot provide RHN connections, so we have removed the RHN tools. People requiring RHN must use Enterprise Linux from upstream This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. rhn-setup-gnome We cannot provide RHN connections, so we have removed the RHN tools. People requiring RHN must use Enterprise Linux from upstream This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. subscription-manager We cannot provide RHN connections, so we have removed the RHN tools. People requiring RHN must use Enterprise Linux from upstream This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. yum-rhn-plugin We cannot provide RHN connections, so we have removed the RHN tools. People requiring RHN must use Enterprise Linux from upstream This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. vdsm Was accidentally released by TUV. This is a part of RHEV and not Enterprise Linux so it has been removed. This change went into effect with SL 6.2 and continues in this release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDED compared to Enterprise 6 We have added several packages to Scientific Linux that are not found anywhere on the Enterprise releases. These have been added for various reasons which are noted below. icewm This was added with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. Summary : Fast and small X11 window manager Added because we needed a lightweight modern window manager. There are some machines that just don't have much CPU and/or memory, and both KDE and GNOME can really slow these machines down. This is not installed by default. icewm icewm-l10n imlib - for dependencies gtk+ - for dependencies glib - for dependencies OpenAFS This was added with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. Summary : OpenAFS distributed filesystem Added because many educational and research centers around the world use AFS as some type of central file system. This is not installed by default. openafs openafs-authlibs openafs-client openafs-compat openafs-firstboot openafs-kernel-source openafs-kpasswd openafs-krb5 openafs-plumbing-tools openafs-server kmod-openafs revisor, livecd-tools, liveusb-creator This was added with SL 6.0 and moved into 'sl-adons' in 6.4. Summary : Scientific Linux Spin Creation Tools to create Scientific Linux "Spins" or "Sites" This was not installed by default. revisor revisor-cli revisor-gui revisor-isolinux revisor-rebrand revisor-reuseinstaller revisor-unity-scripts sl-revisor-configs livecd-tools liveusb-creator yum-autoupdate This was added with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. Summary : Automatically update your machine daily via yum. Added for those users who want their system automatically updated without having to worry about doing it by hand. This is installed by default. yum-autoupdate abattis-cantarell-fonts This was added with SL 6.1 and continues in this release. Summary : Cantarell, a Humanist sans-serif font family Added because our new graphical theme uses this font. This is not installed by default. abattis-cantarell-fonts External Repositories for yum This was added with SL 6.0 and continues in this release. Summary : Various External Yum Repositories These are not supported by Scientific Linux but are here for your convenience. This is not installed by default. adobe-release / yum-conf-adobe atrpms-repo / yum-conf-atrpms elrepo-release / yum-conf-elrepo epel-release / yum-conf-epel rpmforge-release / yum-conf-rpmforge rpmfusion-free-release / yum-conf-rpmfusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Info Web Site http://www.scientificlinux.org Download http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/ http://ftp1.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/ ftp://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/ ISO Download area i686: http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/i386/iso/ http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/i386/iso/readme x86_64: http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/x86_64/iso/ http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6.4/x86_64/iso/readme Mirror List http://www.scientificlinux.org/download/mirrors Mailing Lists [log in to unmask] - Users of Scientific Linux supporting each other [log in to unmask] - Development of Scientific Linux [log in to unmask] - Announcements concerning Scientific Linux [log in to unmask] - Announcements about Security Errata [log in to unmask] - Announcements about Scientific Linux related to mirroring -- Pat Riehecky Scientific Linux developer http://www.scientificlinux.org/