| RHEL 5.5 advances KVM, WiFi |
Feb. 11, 2010
 Red Hat released the first beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.5, providing memory allocation enhancements to the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor. RHEL 5.5 also introduces new storage and WiFi drivers, and supports new AMD, IBM, and Intel processors, says the company.
RHEL 5.4 was released in final form in August, offering full support for the KVM hypervisor for as the preferred virtualization solution. Other RHEL 5.4 enhancements included cluster improvements, new graphics drivers, laptop docking support, and ALSA audio infrastructure. RHEL 5.4 also added Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enablement, security and tools enhancements, and a host of general Linux kernel improvements.
With RHEL 5.5, KVM can now more flexibly allocate memory to guest systems with a new run-time memory allocation feature, says Red Hat. Using a "balloon driver," part of a guest's allocation can be reclaimed by the host and allocated to other guests. In addition, guests can request additional memory from the host, re-allocating memory assigned to other guests at run-time. KVM has also been enhanced with PCI passthrough improvements on AMD and Intel systems, enabling visualization and access to a computer's PCI devices as if they were physically attached to the guest operating system.
The RHEL 5.5 beta moves up to the 2.6.18-186.el5 kernel, and adds kernel support for Intel's upcoming processor platforms, code-named Boxboro-EX and Boxboro-MC, as well as AMD's upcoming "Magny-Cours" processor family. It also supports IBM's Power7 processor, which was announced earlier this week.
Other kernel improvements include a capability that detects kernel tasks stuck in the uninterruptible sleep state. In filesystem and storage management meanwhile, RHEL 5.5 improves CFQ I/O scheduler performance, and adds a new GFS2 mount option., says Red Hat.
WiFi updates
Red Hat has introduced a host of new drivers for storage devices, network devices, and Fibre-Channel adapters. There has been a particular focus on WiFi drivers, with updates to the Ralink rt2x00 drivers, as well as the iwlwifi drivers for Intel wireless network adapters, says the company. The release also adds support for the Atheros ath9k driver for its newer WiFi chips.
Tools updates include GNU Project debugger (GDB) 7.0.1 and an updated version of the SystemTap tracing and probing tool, says Red Hat. The Valgrind memory monitor, meanwhile, has been boosted to version 3.5.0. Updated applications meanwhile, include new versions of OpenOffice and Metacity, and the release advances the Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) server to version 2.0, says the company.
Availability
The beta version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 is available now for beta testing, says Red Hat, with testing scheduled to last until Mar. 16, and general availability expected after that. Release notes may be found here, and the beta announcement, should be here.
-- Eric Brown
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