Kernel Traffic #313 by Zack Brown

                        Kernel Traffic #313 For 5 Jun 

                                 By Zack Brown

Table Of Contents

  * Standard Format
  * Text Format
  * XML Source
  * Mailing List Stats For This Week
  * Threads Covered

    1. 16 May  - 24 May  (27 posts) Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2 Released
    2. 20 May  - 24 May  (4 posts)  sdparm Version 0.92 Released
    3. 23 May            (1 post)   dmraid Version 1.0.0.rc8 Released
    4. 24 May            (1 post)   Linux 2.4.31-rc1 Released
    5. 26 May            (2 posts)  New Sub-Architecture Under arch/cris

Mailing List Stats For This Week

We looked at 1382 posts in 8MB.

There were 582 different contributers. 212 posted more than once. The average
length of each message was 100 lines.

 The top posters of the week         The top subjects of the week were:
            were:
40 posts in 250KB by          60 posts in 252KB for "illegal use of reserved
[email protected]          word in system.h"
38 posts in 161KB by miklos   42 posts in 339KB for "what breaks aic7xxx in
szeredi                       post 2.6.12-rc2 ?"
33 posts in 166KB by jeff     34 posts in 154KB for "[rfc][patch] rbind across
garzik                        namespaces"
27 posts in 121KB by chris    24 posts in 92KB for "[ot] joerg schilling flames
wright                        linux on his blog"
23 posts in 176KB by ashok    21 posts in 121KB for "again: uml on s390 (31bit)
raj                           "

Full Statistics generated by mboxstats version 2.8

 

1. Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2 Released
16 May  - 24 May  (27 posts) Archive Link: "2.6.12-rc4-mm2"
Topics: Digital Video Broadcasting, Kernel Release Announcement
People: Andrew Morton

Andrew Morton announced Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2, saying:

    ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.12-rc4/
    2.6.12-rc4-mm2/

      + davem has set up a mm-commits mailing list so people can review things
        which are added to or removed from the -mm tree. Do

        echo subscribe mm-commits | mail [email protected]

      + x86_64 architecture update from Andi.
      + Everything up to and including `spurious-interrupt-fix.patch' is
        planned for 2.6.12 merging. Plus a few other things in there.
      + Another DVB subsystem update

 

2. sdparm Version 0.92 Released
20 May  - 24 May  (4 posts) Archive Link: "[ANNOUNCE] sdparm 0.92"
Topics: Compression, Disks: IDE, Disks: SCSI
People: Douglas Gilbert, Mogens Valentin

Douglas Gilbert said:

    sdparm is a command line utility designed to get and set SCSI disk
    parameters (cf hdparm for ATA disks). More generally it gets and sets mode
    page information on SCSI devices or devices that use a SCSI command set
    (e.g. CD/DVD drives (any transport) and SCSI tape drives). It also can list
    VPD pages including the device identification page.

    For more information and downloads (tarball, rpm and deb packages) see: 
    http://www.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html

    There are now more than 150 parameters accessed by sdparm. Thanks to Kai
    Makisara for interface and sanity checking suggestions.

    ChangeLog for sdparm-0.92 [20050520]

      + add data compression and device configuration mode pages (ssc3)
      + add timeout + protect plus write parameters mode pages (mmc5)
      + add XOR control mode page (sbc2)
      + add SES management mode page (ses2)
      + discriminate mode pages based on device's peripheral device type
      + disallow set/clear acronyms whose pdt doesn't match current device
      + with option "-ll" decode more of INQUIRY standard response
      + improve error checking when getting non-existent fields
      + use double fetch technique when fetching mode pages
      + add RBC device parameters mode page (rbc)
      + add '--flexible' option for mode sense 6/10 response mixup
      + '--inquiry -all' now outputs supported VPD pages page

Mogens Valentin replied, "Nice! Just got it and tried on an external usb disk.
One feature I could use, probably others as well: Could you add the ability to
spin down/up a scsi disk? I'd really like this for exteral (usb) disks. Doesn't
seem it can; if I missed it, I'm sorry.." Douglas replied, "It is hard to know
where to stop with sdparm ;-) At the moment I am adding transport (protocol)
specific mode page support. So currently sdparm specializes in mode pages (for
all SCSI command sets) and INQUIRY information (including the device
identification VPD page)."

 

3. dmraid Version 1.0.0.rc8 Released
23 May  (1 post) Archive Link: "*** Announcement: dmraid 1.0.0.rc8 ***"
Topics: Disk Arrays: RAID
People: Heinz Mauelshagen

Heinz Mauelshagen said:

    dmraid 1.0.0.rc8 is available at http://people.redhat.com:/heinzm/sw/dmraid
    / in source tarball, source rpm and i386 rpm (with shared and static
    dietlibc binary).

    This release fixes a stripe size bug in NVidia and avoids using the Silicon
    Image incarnation number for RAID name creation (should avoid some sets not
    grouping properly). It adds an '--ignorelocking' in order to allow dmraid
    to run in early boot where no read/write access to /var is given.

    dmraid (Device-Mapper RAID tool) discovers, [de]activates and displays
    properties of software RAID sets (i.e. ATARAID) and contained DOS
    partitions using the device-mapper runtime of the 2.6 kernel.

    The following ATARAID types are supported on Linux 2.6:

    Highpoint HPT37X
    Highpoint HPT45X
    Intel Software RAID
    LSI Logic MegaRAID
    NVidia NForce
    Promise FastTrack
    Silicon Image Medley
    VIA Software RAID

    Please provide insight to support those metadata formats completely.

 

4. Linux 2.4.31-rc1 Released
24 May  (1 post) Archive Link: "Linux 2.4.31-rc1"
People: Marcelo Tosatti

Marcelo Tosatti announced Linux 2.4.31-rc1, saying, "It contains a small number
of simple scattered fixes and a tg3 update."

 

5. New Sub-Architecture Under arch/cris
26 May  (2 posts) Archive Link: "[RFC] Introducing a new sub-architecture"
Topics: SMP
People: Mikael Starvik, Andrew Morton

Mikael Starvik said:

    I'm about to submit a new sub-architecture under arch/cris and I would like
    to get your input on how this is best done. I can see at least 3
    alternatives:

     1. All the patches goes to LKML. Lots of boring patches that most people
        doesn't care about.
     2. Send drivers to the driver subsystems maintainers for review and then a
        big .tgz to Andrew.
     3. Send the .tgz directly to Andrew without reviews from the driver guys.

    I leaning towards option 2, comments?

    Except from the new sub-architecture there will also be patches to the
    generic cris parts to add support for e.g. SMP and to convert to the new
    IRQ framework.

Andrew Morton replied that option 2 sounded best to him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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