New Linux Kernel Approaches Release

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October 20, 1998 (5:21 PM EDT)

By Andy Patrizio,

Linux creator Linus Torvalds and his crew of developers are finalizing the Linux 2.2 kernel, the first significant update to the Linux kernel for end users in more than two years.

The 2.2 kernel replaces the 2.0.35 kernel, which is used in commercial Linux products such as Red Hat Linux and Caldera Open Linux. There have been more than 100 releases of a developer edition, all version 2.1.x, meant for developers.

Version 2.2 of the kernel adds hardware support for new technologies and peripherals that have shipped in the past two years, but still lacks some functions. Most notably, it lacks USB and DVD, although it's possible that non-kernel modules may be written to support these and other devices in the future.

Much of the improvements are for developers. For example, the PCI device reporting interface has been upgraded, making it easier for developers to write device drivers and for Linux to automatically recognize PCI devices.

Linux developers are anxiously awaiting the improvements. "I think there's still a few things that are yet to be done, but there's an awful lot of improvements that have been added," said Lynn Nielson, director of development for Caldera, a Linux distribution developer.

"[Linux 2.2] should help provide much better performance on almost all machines," added Bill Nottingham, a systems engineer with Red Hat, another Linux developer.

"It would be nice if the flashy features like USB or DVD were supported," Nottingham added, "but I understand why they are not in there." USB still has little support, and DVD is an emerging format; both can be added in subsequent patches.

Linux 2.2 will ship on a number of platforms, including Intel x86 and 64-bit platforms such as Sun's Sparc64 and Compaq's AlphaServer. It will also be on all Motorola chips, such as the 680x0 series and PowerPC family. This release will offer improved performance in SMP, which was first introduced in version 2.0 with support for up to 16 processors, but didn't handle things such as device access very well.

Two important areas of improvement are the sound and graphics subsystems. Both the sound and video subsystems have been rewritten to make it easier to configure and support new video devices.

Connectivity has also taken a big step forward with this release. Networking now supports a number of Ethernet and ISDN devices, as well as cable modems and V.90 modems. The Linux file system can read NTFS and FAT32 drives.

But the real improvement is in inter-Unix connectivity. Linux 2.2 reads the partition table formats used by FreeBSD, SunOS, and Solaris. It also has SysVFS support for any Unix based on System V, first developed by AT&T and now owned by SCO. Linux 2.2 will also support full RAID 0, 1, 4, and 5 modes.

Developers say Linux kernel development won't stop here. "Don't be disappointed if it's not in the kernel," said Nielson. "There are many maintainers out there who can write a package that's needed, and distribution vendors will do a lot of that work. Or users can download [Linux] and write themselves. That's the beauty and convenience of Linux."

No release date has been set for the 2.2 kernel, but it is expected by the end of the year. Caldera said it wants to test the kernel and decide whether to include it in the next full release of Caldera Open Linux, due in the first quarter of next year, or wait for a maintenance release in the second quarter.

Red Hat said it expects to include the kernel in the version of Red Hat Linux that follows the kernel release.