Springdale Linux 6.4 (former PU_IAS) is out

[uminala]

Original Message

QUOTE

Good afternoon, we just made Springdale/PUIAS 6.4 available on the main springdale.princeton.edu/www.puias.princeton.edu site. This release follows the 5.9 release in renames to Springdale - so new name, new logos.  Of course the big news is over 1000 package updates (~1300 or so) with many goodies and new features. For further information please check RH 6.4 release notes. One small note on an issue we've seen during internal testing.  New versions of nss libraries have in effect blocked ssl connections to sites/services using SSL certs with MD5 hash signatures.  For example if your ldap server is using such a certificate then sssd will stop working.  More info on: http://www.dlt.com/content/rhel-64-potential-authentication-issues but the solution that worked for us was  to put: export NSS_HASH_ALG_SUPPORT=+MD5 in /etc/sysconfig/init - though, of course, a better solution is to get a new certificate, one safe from collision attacks... Please don't hesitate to let us know of any issues. Thanks, Josko P. Thomas U. Ben B. Theresa A.

I must admit that they are particulary fast in pushing out new Point Releases

[tux99]

QUOTE (uminala @ Feb 28 2013, 08:36 PM)

I must admit that they are particulary fast in pushing out new Point Releases

I wonder if that's a good thing...

[uminala]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Feb 28 2013, 08:02 PM)

I wonder if that's a good thing...

I think so. Because, if i remeber correctly, you switched your Build Environment from SL to Centos because of faster Updates

[tux99]

QUOTE (uminala @ Feb 28 2013, 09:49 PM)

QUOTE (tux99 @ Feb 28 2013, 08:02 PM) I wonder if that's a good thing...  I think so. Because, if i remeber correctly, you switched your Build Environment from SL to Centos because of faster Updates

Hmmm, well, yes, ok, but... you got me!

No seriously, I think PUIAS has been a bit too fast, I mean how can they have done any significant testing?

I know CentOS has very strict testing procedures that they have fine-tuned over the years to make sure that their packages are 100% identical to the RH ones, so I trust them far more than PUIAS.

[uminala]

@tux99

But seriously, Here is a Post from thier Mailing list (same guy that did the release announcement) that should explain some things:

QUOTE

> How is Springdale 6.4 coming along? It's been almost a week since TUV > announced release 6.4, and even the usually lagging CentOS is making noises > in this direction... we are 95% done.  I have pushed it to some 100+ hosts locally for some further testing (dogfooding...) and we still need to triplecheck some things (have we really really but really covered everything, are there any spurious left overs to be removed and a dozen other little things). You can actually install it right now if you add /etc/yum/vars/releasever file with content 6.4 (and remember to remove it later after it was made default - or you'll be stuck on 6.4). What held us up is also what held up 5.9 a bit - Springdale renames of packages and images - plus a last evening's kernel security update (http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0567.html).  We didn't want to leave 6.3 without a patch so we released a kernel for old and new version. We will probably push it as default tomorrow afternoon (2pm-ish EST) but, as I said before, no need to wait - you can update to it right away. And let us know if anything broke - it's a big update. Josko

I think it can be discussed if Springdale is the Right chioce for a Server (even though i think they use it as one). But for a Desktop OS i think its Release Cycle may be ok. After my wife got her Exam i will certainly try it out (Nevertouch a System when you got some Hard Work in the Balance )

[redman]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Mar 1 2013, 12:58 AM)

I know CentOS has very strict testing procedures that they have fine-tuned over the years to make sure that their packages are 100% identical to the RH ones ...

The CentOS QA test team does have clearly outlined procedures.
IF development goes as planned, they can deliver, otherwise QA has nothing to test

[hadrons123]

I am trying the springdale 6.4 64bit Boot.iso for my lenovo y580 and it doesn't allow configuring the network wlan0 with intel wireless 2200 (released in 2012).
It stalls at trying to configure wlan0 and fails.

Is it related to the bug have mentioned about NSS?
Sorry, i understand that this is the wrong forum, just wanted to know if anyone else had the same problem.

[uminala]

QUOTE (hadrons123 @ Mar 5 2013, 12:21 PM)

I am trying the springdale 6.4 64bit Boot.iso for my lenovo y580 and it doesn't allow configuring the network wlan0 with intel wireless 2200 (released in 2012). It stalls at trying to configure wlan0 and fails. Is it related to the bug have mentioned about NSS? Sorry, i understand that this is the wrong forum, just wanted to know if anyone else had the same problem.

I dont want to be rude, but you posted that question 2 times on the springdale google group and now here. All on the same day. Looks like Spamming to me

Do you have the correct Modules installed?

Look here: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/Wireless

And just for the next time: Some infos about enabled repos and so on could be useful. And when you find the answer, please post it on the Mailing list aswell.

[hadrons123]

Ok. I posted on the mailing list, but I got a failure notice everytime from google goups. How am I supposed to know it got published, when my posts didn't appear on ML that time.?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/106654446/failure%20notice
Now I checked the ML and its published now.
The intel wireless modules are present. lsmod |grep wifi gives as iwlwifi is loaded.
When I select the url option to get the install image I have info window saying "Waiting for NetworkManager to configure wlan0" and after a few minutes it fails giving me a option to retry. But retries gives the same result.
I tried to take the dmesg output through the next tty3 but the basic utilities like ls, dmesg are not present in the boot CD.

Sorry for polluting this thread.

[uminala]

QUOTE (hadrons123 @ Mar 5 2013, 02:53 PM)

Ok. I posted on the mailing list, but I got a failure notice everytime from google goups. How am I supposed to know it got published, when my posts didn't appear on ML that time.? http://dl.dropbox.com/u/106654446/failure%20notice Now I checked the ML and its published now. The intel wireless modules are present. lsmod |grep wifi gives as iwlwifi is loaded. When I select the  url option to get the install image I have info window saying "Waiting for NetworkManager to configure wlan0" and after a few minutes it fails giving me a option to retry. But retries gives the same result. I tried to take the dmesg output through the next tty3 but the basic utilities like ls, dmesg are not present in the boot CD. Sorry for polluting this thread.

Maybe you could use a SL Live medium to test your wireless with it? or is the problem only present on Springdale?

[hadrons123]

SL has not released a 6.4 boot.iso CD yet. My system is relatively new to SL 6.3 and I have the same kernel panics for all RHEL clones in 6.3. I am fine with fedora, Arch linux, Debian on the same system. I miss my RHEL clone for more than a couple of months. I live in area with low broadband speed so, downloading the DVD is currently not an option.

[uminala]

Since my wife finished her exam (Best of Class, nice!) i installed Springdale 6.4. The only Issue i got was that plymouth wasnt running smooth. i disabled an Option at boot (dont know the exact name something like rhgb), booted and rebuild initrd after an update with another plymouth theme.

So far it is Stable and fast. No other Bugs found so far

[joutlan]

Viva Springdale! It's nice to have EL choices

[tux99]

Centos 6.4 is out now too:
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2013-March/019276.html

[fnj666]

My humble 2 cents: I have Scientific Linux, Springdale (PUIAS), and CentOS 6.x servers and workstations running, most of them since 6.0. I find them all rock solid dependable and stable. I have never had a single critical problem with any of them.

Springdale has been the fastest to catch up with RHEL point releases. CentOS next. As I recall, they were not quick at all with 6.1, but they were very close behind Springdale with 6.4. SL has been the slowest, yet I am perfectly happy with SL on my most critical servers. I do appreciate Springdale's rapid yet solid point releases where I have it installed on two workstations. Springdale does also have some handy extra packages in their repos that you have to resort to EPEL, rpmforge et al on the others (with well-known potential for problems from doing so).

In sum, no one could possibly go wrong using any one of these three superb clone distros for either servers or workstations.

[redman]

QUOTE (fnj666 @ Mar 9 2013, 11:52 PM)

Springdale does also have some handy extra packages in their repos that you have to resort to EPEL, rpmforge et al on the others (with well-known potential for problems from doing so).

Feel free to share your experience on this subject

QUOTE (fnj666 @ Mar 9 2013, 11:52 PM)

In sum, no one could possibly go wrong using any one of these three superb clone distros for either servers or workstations.

They are all based on RHEL so the basis is the same.
Of course there are differences, but they all are solid.

I do not look at the "who was first" competition when a new (point) release comes out since I'm more interested in the story behind the distro and the community. I prefer a stable release of updates and releases. SL does the trick without a problem. CentOS had too much "noise" in the past, not sure how they go these days. Springdale feels like the science twin-brother of SL since it comes from an university. Come to think of it, I might even give it a spin on my new testserver and check it out.

[joka]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Mar 9 2013, 02:58 AM)

Centos 6.4 is out now too:

I have updated CentOS 6.3 to 6.4 successfully on my EeePC 901.

New in RHEL 6.4 (and not mentioned in the release notes AFAIK) are kernel module and firmware for Ralink RT2860//2790 WLAN chips which makes ElRepo packages kmod-rt2860sta and rt2860-firmware obsolete and the update tricky if WLAN access is required:

CODE

yum update # This will download 6.4 packages, but transaction will fail because of conflict with ElRepos *rt2860* RPMs <Disable WLAN> yum remove kmod-rt2860 rt2860-firmware yum update

Same problem may occur when updating SL6.3 to 6.4