Marcelo Tosatti has released the final 2.4.23 stable Linux kernel, three months after 2.4.22. This latest kernel includes a number of changes, including the removal of the OOM (out of memory) killer among other significant VM updates. Laptop users will appreciate Jens Axboe’s “laptop mode” which can extend battery life, also merged in 2.4.23. Find this latest stable kernel at a kernel.org mirror.
Will try it out soon — need to install Slackware first, though.
The OOM Killer did work, It was so useful! Why not at least making it a kernel option?
When you got one of those programs that have a bad leak and ask for memory all the time (and freeze everything on their way). At least you knew that waiting a minute or two would get them killed
Ah well.. I suppose I will not upgrade to this kernel.
Hooked on 2.6, totally sworn off 2.4 series, sorry.
Has anyone seen the changelog yet? Its HUGE! I’ve been using 2.6-test10, but I’m still going to try it out on my slackbox. (Besides, ATI’s drivers fail loading on my 2.6 install)
i am happy with my slackware 9.0…
Wouldn’t you be *happier* with 9.1?
That’s not true, it killed processes randomly.
I would like to know what is done instead now..
When I ‘upgraded’ to .22 from .21, I found that my via-rhine network card stopped working. So I went back to 2.4.21. Are there any via-rhine issues fixed in .23? (I can’t seem to load the link at the moment). Thx.
… so sorry, 2.4 ist “out”… use 2.6 since test9 and it runs more *all* my hardware… and rock solid 🙂
Thats strange, ive had no problems with 2.4.20/21/22. What distro?
lspci
“00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
“
Will this “Laptop Mode” aimed at improving battery life be in 2.6, it sounds very useful and I definitely hope so.
How does the laptop power saving thing work? Any one have links?
It basically shuts off/puts into sleep different devices that aren’t being used.
Like if you aren’t using USB, it will shut it down until you plug something in.
‘laptop-mode’ is simply an option that prevents writing of kernel buffers to the disk, allowing the hard drive to spin down due to inactivity. It doesn’t shut down USB or other devices. There are lots of other options available for power-saving on laptops: cpudyn and cpufreq, screen blanking, etc.
> Thats strange, ive had no problems with 2.4.20/21/22
Do you have acpi enabled? It seems to only occur for people when they have acpi on.
From reading around, it doesn’t seem to be fixed But I will try it out later.
Sean, check out http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=105524
This is an excellent development. The OOM killer has caused me a ridiculous amount of grief, often targeting things like mysql and apache ahead of a runaway resource hungry Perl or PHP script due to its rather bizarre process selection logic.