Running on RedHat beta (roswell)

[jones . peter]

This is just a short note to let the list know I was able to run
my existing Swarm object programs under the recently-released RedHat
Roswell beta version, upgraded from 7.1. I'm planning to attempt
a recompile later today or tomorrow.

I recommend that those contemplating such an upgrade take a look at
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?product=Red+Hat+Public+Beta
to see the bug reports, or
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?product=Red+Hat+Public+Beta&order=Bug+Number+Descending
to see the latest on top.
There are a number of hangs and crashes reported. On the basis of these,
I recommend a conservative stance during the install: refusing to convert
the file system from ext2 to ext3, and sticking with LILO instead of
the new GRUB.

The reason I mention this is that I found my new system was geting frequent
segmentation faults on commonplace system commands: e. g. sleep tried
to load an undefinded sysbol; ls would list the files, but ls * would
get segmentation error, ...
I finally solved the problem by getting into linux single mode, and
running rpm -Va to check the validity of the installed files. I found
MD5 errors in glibc-2.2.4-5; reinstalling with rpm --force fixed the
problem.
Another gotcha: the beta seems to get its host name from the net via DHCP
(and the login prompt changes). I had to update /etc/hosts to match.
Otherwise, X11 wouldn't start. RH would boot and hang after checking
the filesystems. CTRL-C would then go to a command line, without starting
X11. With the updated /etc/hosts, X11 starts. I allowed the system to
convert my simple Desktop from Midnight to Nautilus with no problems.
Those with complex Desktops might want to make a backup of the
Midnight files first.

I hope this helps others.

Peter Jones


                  ==================================
   Swarm-Support is for discussion of the technical details of the day
   to day usage of Swarm.  For list administration needs (esp.
   [un]subscribing), please send a message to <address@hidden>
   with "help" in the body of the message.