01-23-04 11:53 PM
Red Hat Linux 9 Technical Changes
(or when the RELEASE-NOTES are just not enough)by
Dax.Kelson@GuruLabs.comCopyright 2003 Guru Labs, L.C.Note: Please
don't mirror this document, link directly here.IntroOver the past
eight years or so, I've been excited each time a new version of Red
Hat Linux gets released. During the past few years, people have even
been writing reviews of each release. As a general rule, I've been
dissatisfied by the superficialities, inaccuracies, and irrelevancies
in the reviews often times performed by someone who does not have
intimate knowledge of Red Hat Linux. A systems administrator needs an
in-depth review that covers - relative to the previous release:·
Architectural & behavioral changes · Installer changes ·
Changes to included software packagesNormally, with each new release
of Red Hat Linux, someone here at Guru Labs combs through it looking
for the above changes to update the Guru Labs Linux courses. This time
it was my turn, and I decided to simultaneously write a technical
review for the system administrators out there. I hope that the
results are satisfactory.Abbreviation notes:RHL = Red Hat LinuxRH =
Red Hat Inc.Architectural & behavioral changesThere were many changes
between RHL7.3 and 8.0, for example, the use of root=LABEL=/ in the
/boot/grub/grub.conf file, the replacement of Xconfigurator with the
redhat-config-xfree86 program, and the new dhclient DHCP client daemon
that skips trying to bring up interfaces that have no link. There are
not nearly as many behavioral changes from RHL8.0 to RHL9, yet the
ones that exist are significant. Kernel 2.4.20-8The kernel in RHL8.0
was based on the 2.4.18 kernel. Despite the name, the RHL 2.4.20-8
kernel is based on 2.4.20 plus bug fixes identified up through
2.4.21-pre4-ac4. During the past couple years, the RHL kernels have
included back ported functionality from development kernels that has
proven stable. The new RHL9 kernel is no exception. Major changes
since RHL8.0 include:· Addition of Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
for standards based threading support with impressive performance.
This is definitely a nice addition, however, I anticipate that sys
admins who add patches on-top-of the RHL kernel from 3rd party (UML,
FreeSWAN, etc) sources will have a more difficult time getting the
patches to apply and work cleanly. Presumably when the 2.6 kernel
comes out, the divergence of the RHL kernel will drop substantially. o
Certain applications using the old LinuxThreads API in a certain
manner may no longer work (was that vague enough?)§ In particular
if using Java, update to the latest version from Sun at: §
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html § The WIN32 API
translation software, WINE, suffers from this problem. Proper fixes
are in the works, however, workarounds exist. § Installing and running
Oracle 9i R2 has major issues since it includes two different older
embedded Java JVMs that don't work with NPTL. The solution is to stick
with RHL8.0 or the officially supported Red Hat Linux AS edition.·
ACPI support appeared in a beta (as well as in a 8.0 beta), but was
removed for the final shipping kernel. · Filesystem ACL and EA
support appeared in the betas, but was pulled for the final shipping
kernel. I was really looking forward to ACLs and EAs support in RHL
(Solaris had support since 2.5.1), maybe an errata kernel will re-add
the feature. o To see what software specifically supports ACLs and
EAs (beyond setfacl/getfacl/setfattr/getfattr), run: o rpm -e --test
libacl § Just a quick observation. The way text editors save
files normally, is to create a new file with a temporary random name,
and then move/rename the new file to name of the original. Using this
technique, if the file being edited has ACLs, the ACLs will be lost.
The Vim editor uses libacl to obtain the original ACLs, and then add
them back after the save. It is important that other applications
that save files in the same fashion are updated to use libacl.o rpm -e
--test libattr · The RHL 8.0 kernel included User Mode Linux
(UML) for Linux running on top of Linux (think VMware without the
virtual hardware). Due to patching difficulties (see the first bullet
point) the Red Hat Linux kernel doesn't include the UML patch. Since
UML is now part of the official 2.5 development kernel, expect it back
in Red Hat Linux when Red Hat ships the 2.6 kernel. · Nvidia has
released new drivers that will work with this RHL9 kernel. · In
this release of RHL9, for those using the very popular Wavelan IEEE
wireless ethernet 802.11b hardware, the default driver has switch from
the deprecated wvlan_cs to the orinoco_cs driver. My laptop has this
card built-in, and it works great with 4 different access points I've
attached to both with WEP and without. XFree86 4.3.0-2Red Hat Linux 9
now ships with the long awaited XFree86 4.3. It has updated video
drivers and many new changes. System administrators should be aware
that now there is the ability to turn off switching to text mode
virtual terminals via CTL-ALT-FunctionKey. This can come in handy when
locking down a system (such when a Linux box is used as a kiosk) when
used in conjunction with disabling CTL-ALT-BKSP (forceful kill of the
X server). To do this, edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config and add the
following:Section ServerFlags # prevent the use of CTL-ALT-F1, etc
Option DontVTSwitch On # prevent the use of CTL-ALT-BKSP Option
DontZap OnEndSectionFor end users there are more visible changes
apparent as well. For starters, XFree86 now has the Xcursor extension
for mouse cursor themes. It even supports animation and translucency.
Red Hat created a very nice looking mouse theme that is used by
default. I imagine it won't be long before the current authors of
Linux desktop themes start including mouse cursors as part of their
themes as well. Meanwhile, you can use the large collection of
Stardock CursorXP mouse themes by using the sd2xc.pl conversion
script. Go read Nicholas Petreley's Adding eye candy to your desktop
article for more details.A long overdue feature for XFree86 is the
ability to change root window screen resolution on the fly. This is
now possible with XFree86 version 4.3 thanks to work by Keith Packard
and others via the Xrandr (X Resize, Rotate and Reflection) extension.
A new command utility, xrandr, is available to perform actions from
the command line. For the point-n-click crowds, GUI utilities for KDE
and GNOME utility are under way as well. The xrandr utility has pretty
straightforward use, to display possible resolutions, use the -q
option, and change resolution with the -s option. For
example:[dkelson@mentor dkelson]$ xrandr -q SZ: Pixels
Physical Refresh*0 1400 x 1050 ( 474mm x 356mm ) *60 1
1280 x 1024 ( 474mm x 356mm ) 60 2 1280 x 960 ( 474mm x 356mm
) 60 3 1152 x 864 ( 474mm x 356mm ) 60 4 1024 x 768 (
474mm x 356mm ) 60 5 800 x 600 ( 474mm x 356mm ) 60 6 640
x 480 ( 474mm x 356mm ) 60Current rotation - normalCurrent
reflection - noneRotations possible - normalReflections possible -
none[dkelson@mentor dkelson]$ xrandr -s 4Finally, the included open
source ATI radeon 3D DRI driver has seen quite a few updates. The
driver now supports hardware TCL for faster 3D performance and
increased compatibility with cutting edge 3D apps. For example, now
the REALLY SLICK SCREENSAVERS work with no problems! You can download
an RPM package for Red Hat Linux 9 from the Guru Labs' downloads
page.Networking ChangesRed Hat Linux has long stored network
configuration settings under the /etc/sysconfig/ directory structure.
Network interfaces are normally configured in the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-interfacename file. This can be
done manually, or via front ends such as the GUI redhat-config-network
(the legacy name for this command is 'neat') program and the full
screen text (curses interface) command netconfig. The differences
between these two fronts ends is substantial. For example, netconfig
cannot configure PPP and Wireless connections while
redhat-config-network can. Configuring PPP on Red Hat Linux by hand
involves editing and creating many difference text files. Life is
short, and though I'm capable of setting up PPP by hand, I prefer to
use redhat-config-network. This has always meant using the X window
system - until now. With Red Hat Linux 9, a curses interface is
available, redhat-config-network-tui.Other networking changes
below:801.1q VLAN support in configuration filesThere are two main
standards for creating VLANs with ethernet switches, the standards
based 802.1q, and the cisco proprietary ISL. Starting with the Linux
kernel 2.4.14, 802.1q VLAN support has been built in. To the system, a
VLAN simply shows up as a regular network interface. A fully updated
Red Hat Linux 7.1 through 8.0 box has the necessary kernel support.
However, to configure VLANs requires the use of the vconfig command
which didn't come with 7.1 through 8.0 nor did those versions have an
official defined way to persistently define VLAN configuration in the
standard RHL network configuration files. RHL 9 includes the vconfig
RPM, and an official configuration method for defining VLANs. It is
important to note that RHL9 uses the DEV_PLUS_VID_NO_PAD naming mode,
which means that the VLAN network interface name will start with the
physical interface name followed by a period followed by the VLAN
number. For example the network interface eth2.101 would be VLAN 101
on eth2. The interface configuration file for the above example would
be /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth2.101 and would have the
standard entries inside of it.The last thing I'm going to mention is
that various network cards and network card drivers can have issues
with the larger ethernet frames seen on a trunk link (the VLAN header
increases the frame size). I've had excellent success with the Intel
PRO1000 MT Desktop Adapter using the default e1000 driver. This card
can be found for less than $50 USD online.Virtual network interfaces
changesVirtual interfaces such as ifcfg-eth0:1 didn't honor ONBOOT=no,
they were always brought up with parent interface. Performing a "fix"
now, would likely surprise many system administrators who unknowingly
have ONBOOT=no in their files. Generally speaking, system
administrators don't like being surprised therefore, a backwards
compatible change has been made. By adding ONPARENT=no to a
ifcfg-ethX:Y file, it will not be brought up together with it's
parent.Static Route configuration file changeHistorically defining
persistent static routes in RHL involved adding entries to the
/etc/sysconfig/static-routes file. In RHL8.0 this is mostly broken.
Now in RHL9 the /etc/sysconfig/static-routes is gone. Now there is a
separate file for each network interface that has defined static
routes. The file names
are:/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-interfacenameEach line should
be the arguments that are passed to the "/sbin/ip route add" command.
For example:198.168.2.0/24 via 10.2.3.200For IPv6 static routes, the
file names are:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route6-interfacenameIPv6
changesSecondary IPv6 addresses are configurable on tunnel interfaces
too. Very Secure FTP Daemon (vsftpd) now standaloneIn RHL8.0 vsftpd
was run from Xinetd, now in RHL9 it runs standalone and has it's own
SysV init script. The Washington university FTP Daemon (wu-ftpd) is no
longer included with RHL9. If you were depending on wu-ftpd, migrate
your configuration to vsftpd.The ifup command and profilesA little
known fact is that newer versions of RHL support multiple network
profiles. This is useful for machines that commonly plug into
different networks (think laptops). The easy way to create network
profiles is to use the redhat-config-network command. The question
then becomes, what happens when you type "ifup eth0"? The behavior
wasn't defined in previous versions, however, now in RHL 9 the
following behavior is defined;search path for:# ifup
$DEVis:/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/$CURRENT_PROFILE/ifcfg-$DEV/etc/sy
sconfig/networking/profiles/default/ifcfg-$DEV/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
/ifcfg-$DEVA
cool trick is to boot your RHL box directly into a profile from the
GRUB boot screen. To do this, create a separate /etc/boot/grub.conf
entry for each network profile, and in each entry add the kernel
argument netprofile=profilename. Configurable address 'scope' on
network interfacesIn the ifcfg-interfacename files, the SCOPE
configuration item now can be set to arbitrary values. This can be
useful (among other things) in fine grained selection of source
addresses for network connections originating from the machine
itself.IPTables 1.2.7aIncluded now in RHL9 is IPTables 1.2.7a versus
1.2.6a in RHL8.0. There are no major changes here, though those using
Differentiated Services, ECN or IPv6 will be happy. View the full list
of changes here.PHP module configuration now in separate filesThe
popular php server side scripting language has not changed versions
(4.2.2) from RHL8.0 to RHL9, however, changes in configuration file
layout has occured. The main php configuration file is the
/etc/php.ini as it has always been, now starting in RHL9, there is now
a /etc/php.d/ directory. The php language is extensible via modules,
and in RHL major modules (snmp,pgsql,ldap,mysql,odbc,imap) have been
split out into separate RPMS. Now in RHL9, the main configuration
files slurps in all configuration files found in the /etc/php.d/
directory, and these separate modules place their own configuration
files in that directory. This is is the same sort of change that was
made to Apache and the separate Apache modules configuration files
stored in /etc/httpd/conf.d/ directory in RHL8.0.Debuginfo RPMsWhen
creating RPMs using rpmbuild -ba specfile or rpmbuild --rebuild
foo.src.rpm, now a debuginfo RPM is automatically built along with the
primary RPM(s). These can come in handy when experiencing application
crashes. By installing the corresponding debuginfo RPM for a package,
detailed information useful for pinpointing the problem for a
developer can be obtained when the application crashes. For more info,
see the RELEASE-NOTES and the initial idea proposal.If you create your
own RPMs, and you wish turn off the automatic generation of the
debuginfo RPMs, the instructions in the shipped RELEASE-NOTES are not
correct. The proper entry in your ~/.rpmmacros file is:%debug_package
%{nil}Graphical Boot Support Coming?It appears that support for a
graphical boot is in the works. Some pieces have been put in place in
Red Hat Linux 9. If you modify the /etc/sysconfig/init file and change
BOOTUP=color to BOOTUP=graphical then early in the boot process via
the /etc/rc.sysinit file, the Red Hat Graphical Boot binary,
/usr/bin/rhgb, is run. I note that Red Hat should move it to /bin or
/sbin as it will be a binary required before /usr gets mounted. Before
you get too excited, note that the rhgb binary isn't included with
RHL9.The GNOME Display Manager (GDM) 2.4.1.3-5The GDM version 2.4 in
RHL8.0 and RHL9 is a significant improvement over the GDM version
shipped in RHL7.x. The gdmsetup program provides a slick GUI interface
for configuring it. One behavioral change in RHL9, is that previously
in RHL8.0 GDM was configured not to restart even if the X server was
killed with CTL-ALT-BKSP. This caused issues with PAM and the X
server. One fix was to cycle to run level 3 and back to run level 5. I
ran into this a few times while I was teaching some Linux Systems
Administration classes. Now however, thanks to the
AlwaysRestartServer=true entry in the /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf file,
this is no longer needed.On the first boot after installing RHL8.0,
because of the firstboot app, the X server could end up on VT 8. Now
the GDM conf has been modified to force VT 7.When using the GDM face
browser (to provide icons and list each user account ala Mac OS X and
WinXP), the system accounts are no longer shown by default.Bootup
Scripts and UnicodeAll the text processing utilities, grep, awk, sort,
etc all work significantly slower when using the Unicode UTF locale.
To speed the bootup, in the /etc/rc.sysinit and other SysV scripts,
because the configuration is using 7bit ASCII these utilities are now
invoked with LC_ALL=C utility to force the C locale.Launch SysV
daemons with an altered nice levelFor a given Sys V init script, you
can now easily control the nice value. To do so, create the file
/etc/sysconfig/scriptname (or edit the file if it already exists), and
add the line:NICELEVEL="X"Legal values of X range from -20 (highest
priority) to 19 (lowest).The introduction of Device LabelsThere has
been a longstanding issue in Linux in that in the face of OS changes
or hardware failures, storage devices can "move" to different
locations. For example, although IDE devices have their physical path
hardcoded into their device name, eg /dev/hdc3, SCSI devices are not.
Consider the scenario where a system with three SCSI drives
(sda,sdb,sdc) has a failure in sdb, on the next boot, the former sdc
will slide down and become sdb. Many different scenarios can produce
similar results (even with IDE).One approach in solving this problem
is to use filesystem labels. You'll notice that starting a couple
years ago, RHL started using filesystem labels in the /etc/fstab file.
Using filesystem labels doesn't solve the problem in all cases given
that some partitions don't have filesystems such as swap or raw
devices used in SAN environments and Oracle installations and lastly
some filesystem don't support support labels at all.The devlabel
system produced by engineers at Dell and now integrated into RHL9
solves this problem at a lower level that can be argued is more
convenient and elegant. It operates by the system administrator
defining a name by which a partition is to be known by. This "name" is
actually a symbolic link that devlabel maintains and updates at boot
time (devlabel is launched early on in the /etc/rc.sysinit file) or by
a system administrator after boot. Moreover it is integrated into the
hot-plug system so that hot-plug storage such as USB, Firewire, or
PCMCIA storage devices get persistent references. Imagine trying to
access files stored on a USB keychain storage device when you already
have your portable MP3/OGG player already attached. With devlabel, you
can define your MP3/OGG player to always be /dev/mp3oggplayer no
matter how many or in what order you attached other USB storage
devices.There are also very nice benefits to devlabel in a SAN
environment where a given disk drive is /dev/sdb on one host, but
/dev/sdd on another. By using devlabel in such a setting, all the
hosts can have a persistent and common view of the device
files.Hopefully other Linux distributions will be adopting devlabel as
well.Obtain more information by reading the Dell white paper, and by
reading the devlabel man page.Red Hat Configuration Utility ChangesIn
times past, RHL included the Linuxconf the central system
administration console. Another package that has never been included
that is similar in spirit is the Webmin package. In both cases, it is
alot of work to keep these externally developed and changing packages
synchronized with the changing RHL specific configuration files. In
the past there were many problems with Linuxconf being out of sync and
as such, RH dropped Linuxconf from the distribution. To replace
Linuxconf, RH has developed their own tools. There is a common naming
convention for these command that makes it very easy to see what
command are available using the command completion features of your
shell. For example to see the current list, run:[root@mentor root]#
redhat-config-<PRESS TAB TWICE>redhat-config-bind
redhat-config-packagesredhat-config-bind-gui
redhat-config-printerredhat-config-date
redhat-config-printer-guiredhat-config-httpd
redhat-config-printer-tuiredhat-config-keyboard
redhat-config-procredhat-config-kickstart
redhat-config-rootpasswordredhat-config-language
redhat-config-sambaredhat-config-mouse
redhat-config-securitylevelredhat-config-network
redhat-config-servicesredhat-config-network-cmd
redhat-config-soundcardredhat-config-network-druid
redhat-config-timeredhat-config-network-gui
redhat-config-usersredhat-config-network-tui
redhat-config-xfree86redhat-config-nfs[root@mentor root]#A new
addition in RHL 9 is the redhat-config-samba command that provides a
GUI interface for managing Samba.CUPS now the default print
spoolerI've been an avid CUPS fan since it first came out and have
been installing it myself on my own RHL boxes. Red Hat has been
shipping CUPS as an alternative to LPRng since RHL7.3, now in RHL9 it
is the default. The CUPS printing subsystem has many advantages over
its' competitors LPD and LPRng, chief in my mind, is the support the
Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) and PostScript Printer Definition
(PPD) files.The IPP protocol is the new standard for communicating
with a network printer. Windows 2000 and XP have built-in IPP support
and Win9x and NT have IPP support available as a download from
Microsoft. From a Windows client perspective, what this means is that
a Windows box can print to a printer shared by a Linux box via CUPS
without any additional software (no need to install the "Print
Services for UNIX" addon). IPP also has security clearly defined and
user x509 certificates can be created and print job submissions can be
done over SSL.All PostScript printers conform to some level (1, 2, 3
etc) of the specification. The spec defines how a print job can use
common printer features such duplexing, however, the spec cannot
define how to use some new fangled fancy hardware feature of a given
printer such as a stapler or choosing what sort of color matching
(Automatic, SWOP Press, SRGB Display, Fuji Proof, etc) to perform. For
these printer specific features, the printer manufacturer creates a
PPD file that describes how to enable and use these advanced features.
Think of a PPD file as a print driver. The icing on the cake is that
these PPD files are written in PostScript, an ASCII format, and as
such are platform neutral. If you have a PostScript printer (or a
non-Postscript printer but use the foomatic print system to generate a
'fake' PPD file) then when you create the print queue in CUPS, you can
define the PPD to use. The end result that on a per-print-job basis
all the printer settings can be tweaked and taken advantage of. To use
this ability, first install the printer using CUP's lpadmin command
(redhat-config-printer doesn't support PPD files yet). For example,
here at Guru Labs we have Tektronix Phaser 860 PostScript 3 printer,
to add the printer, as root I run the command:# lpadmin -p phaser860
-E -P /etc/tk860dp1.ppd -v http://phaser860.gurulabs.com:80/ipp/To see
what printer specific options are settable, run "lpoptions -l". Then,
when submitting a job with lpr, use the -o option. Also, you can use
KDE's printer system (even when running GNOME), kprinter for a GUI
print job submission tool that allows you to easily set your printer
options. View a screenshot of kprinter using the CUPS interface to a
PPD printer here.Tip: Here at Guru Labs, we run the following command
(all on one line) as root on all of our systems to get Mozilla to use
kprinter:# PERL -e 's/lpr/kprinter --stdin/g' -pi
/usr/lib/mozilla*/defaults/pref/unix.jsInstaller ChangesAs documented
in RELEASE-NOTES file use of boot floppies has changed. The most
substantial change is that to perform a network install requires two
floppies. Instead of using floppies to perform a network install,
consider creating a boot cdrom from the boot.iso file to launch a
network install; read the RELEASE-NOTES for the details. A nice
feature for authors of documentation (such as myself) is the ability
to take screenshots during the installation via SHIFT+PrntScrn. The
images are placed in /root/anaconda-screenshots/. Previously, large
hoops had to be jumped through to get screenshots of the installation
process.Finally, the installer no longer offers the fdisk utility as
an option for partition table manipulation. Now, the recommendation is
only the Disk Druid utility. This makes sense since even if you used
fdisk, you still had to use Disk Druid to define the mount points and
filesystem format. Note that fdisk is still accessible via the bash
shell running on CTL-ALT-F2. Notable changes to included software
packagesOpenSSH 3.5p1 vs 3.4p1When using sftp the ls command now
supports the "-l" switch and globbing (eg, *txt) is supported by ls,
get, and put. Other details at:
[url]http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openssh-unix-dev&m=103470915430194&w=2Mailman[/url
]
2.1 vs 2.0.13The very capable mailing list manager, Mailman has been
updated to the highly anticipated version 2.1. The version has lots of
nice goodies, check the list here. My personal favorite is the
addition of VERP support for managing bounces. For many years I ran
lots of qmail+ezmlm+idx mailing lists, and this was the major feature
I was missing since I switched to mailman 2.0. If you are using
Mailman with Postfix be sure to take a look at the Guru Labs
postfix-to-mailman glue script. OpenSSL 0.9.7a vs 0.9.6bThis
cryptographic library is used by many many programs. In RHL9 it has
been upgraded to version 0.9.7. Some of the new features include
Elliptic Curve Crypto, AES, and support for the MIT Kerberos crypto
algorithms. See the complete list of changes here.Subversion 0.17.1New
with RHL9 is the addition of network revision control system,
Subversion. It is an advanced replacement for the aging CVS package.
It plans to support most all the features of CVS plus atomic commits,
the storage of file meta-info (permissions, ownership, etc) and many
others features. I haven't used it yet, so I'm not sure if the
features I've listed are implemented yet or not. Speaking of CVS
replacements, the other Open Source contender I've heard about is
ARCH, though it isn't included with RHL (yet). GNOME 2.2 vs 2.0The
visual difference between the GNOME included in RHL9 vs RHL8 isn't
really large. One nice RH change is the menu has been reworked again
with the awkward "Extras" menu tree gone and instead at the top of
each root menu item there is a "More" subtree. This change applies to
KDE as well since the menu is shared. I like the new Wireless Ethernet
link monitor applet. See the complete list of changes here.KDE 3.1 vs
3.0Many new niceties have been introduced in KDE 3.1. Some of the
biggest new features include desktop sharing via a VNC compatible
network protocol and tabbed web browsing in the Konqueror web browser.
See the complete list of changes here.Evolution 1.2.2 vs 1.0.8After
spending more than a decade using the Pine email client, I find myself
finally preferring a GUI email client. Ximian's Evolution delivers the
goods in a big way. The new stable v1.2 tree is now included in RHL9
has many nice improvements across the board to make it more intuitive
and powerful. Some new v1.2 features that I'm using include LDAP over
SSL/STARTTLS, audible notification of new email, and I've saved lots
of disk space with the new v1.2 indexing engine. See the complete list
of changes here.If you are adventurous, you can try out the GTK2 based
preview of Evolution 1.4.Mozilla 1.2.1 vs 1.0.1The Mozilla Project has
just turned five years old and has turned out a steady stream of
incremental updates. In last the last year Mozilla has moved from a
1.0 release to 1.3, though only 1.2.1 was ready in time to ship with
RHL9. There are quite a few features to note in the 1.2.1 browser vs
1.01. The most user visible change is use of GTK2 widgets and font
rending for better integration, blending with the GNOME desktop and
anti-aliased fonts. Another new popular new feature is the ability to
bookmark a group of tabs as a single bookmark and even set a group of
tabs your "home page". With this version of Mozilla it is important
that you use the very latest Flash plugin, since older Flash plugins
will cause browser crashes.If you decided to upgrade to Mozilla 1.3 be
aware that there have been reports of Java plugin compatibility issues
when using the Sun JRE/SDK though the Blackdown JRE/SDK is reported to
work fine. GnomeMeeting 0.96 vs 0.93GnomeMeeting is a very slick and
polished videoconferencing and Voice-over-IP telephony application.
Red Hat Linux 9 includes a very significant update to v0.96. There are
many new features, including the ability to initiate a call to any
telephone in the world. To do this requires the creation of a
commercial MicroTel account. View the phone rates here.Samba 2.2.7a vs
2.2.5There have been one hundred, mostly bugfix, changes from 2.2.5 to
2.2.7. The release notes are here. The most significant difference
with the RHL9 Samba package is the inclusion of 'winbind'. This allows
user, group and host information to be retrieved from a Windows NT
server. It is implemented both as a daemon, winbindd, and a name
service switch client library. You can learn more here.GNUCash 1.8.1
vs 1.6.6The personal finance manager (ala Quicken), GNUCash has seen a
substantial update since the version included in RHL8.0. A major new
feature is the inclusion of Open Financial Exchange (OFX) and German
Home Banking Computer Information (HBCI) protocols. This allows
statement and transaction download, transaction matching, and
inter-account transfers for the many banks and credit unions who are
moving to OFX and HBCI. See the complete list of changes here.
Rdesktop 1.2.0 vs 1.1.0The rdesktop client (and tsclient GNOME GUI
frontend) allow the connection to Windows Terminal Servers including
the server built into Windows XP. In RHL9, it has been bumped up to
the latest stable version, 1.2 that has the addition of keyboard
mapping features, high encryption support, and other fixes and
changes.ConclusionRed Hat Linux 9 is a solid showcase of the latest
Linux and Open Source technologies. I've run each of the three betas
leading up to the full release and have been very happy. We will be
upgrading all machines here at Guru Labs in the not too distant
future. About the authorResiding in Salt Lake City, Utah, Dax Kelson
is a senior instructor (and President on odd days of the week) of Guru
Labs, LLC, a 4 year old Linux, Network, and Security training company.
Dax first installed Linux in 1993 using the SLS distribution, later
Slackware, and every version of Red Hat Linux since the Mother's day
release. He started, operated and sold, Internet Connect, a large Utah
ISP from 1996 through 1999. He earned his RHCE in Feb of 1999 (first
public RHCE) on Red Hat Linux 5.2 with a perfect score, passed the two
day Certified cisco Systems Instructor (CCSI) exam, and is an
authorized Sun Solaris Networking and Security instructor.
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