Date: Mon, 7 Sep 98 19:04 BST
From: alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk (Alan Cox)
To: linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu
Subject: Linux 2.0.36pre8 (release candidate one aka 'no chance')

Is now on ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/alan/...

The preliminary 2.0.36 release notes are included below and maintained
as http://roadrunner.swansea.linux.org.uk/relnotes.36.html

Alan

------------------------------------------------------------------

                        Release Notes For Linux 2.0.36
     _________________________________________________________________
   
Bug Fixes

   Large Memory
          Linux 2.0.36 uses the newer bios calls to automatically size
          memory above 64Mbytes, where supported by the BIOS.
          
   Readv/Writev
          Processes issuing a readv or writev to a device that did not
          have the relevant read/write operation could cause an Oops and
          potentially a crash.
          
   UDMA Drives
          Report Bad CRC (cable errors) as a cable error. Handling of
          such errors was correct.
          
   pipe syscall error
          The pipe call could return ENFILE not -1 and errno= -ENFILE.
          Fixed.
          
   AIC7xxx
          The 2.0.36 kernel contains the 5.0.20 release of the AIC7xxx
          driver. This should cure most of the remaining problems with
          the older chipsets. Users with the latest AIC7xxx devices will
          have to wait for the next driver version to become available or
          try the beta test driver.
          
   Procfs permissions fix
          A process with root file rights can now read all /proc files.
          
   Daylight Savings in SMB
          The SMB file system honours daylight savings time.
          
   EATA SCSI/Ultrastor 14f/34f
          Reverse scan order support and configurable extended geometry.
          Increased the busy timeout.
          
   Build fixes
          Use relative paths for sound, remove trampoline.hex on a make
          clean, support the newer versioned symbols as part of a multi
          object file module.
          
   Oops handling
          A small fencepost error in Oops handling on syscall return has
          been cured.
          
   TLan 1.0
          The Thunderlan driver has been updated to the 1.0 release.
          
   Delay loops
          The delay loop code has been modified to eliminate most of the
          remaining cache/branch prediction and other variants to its
          performance.
          
   5.25" floppy
          An incorrect floppy table entry has been altered, and a
          potential crash on unload fixed.
          
   Iomega ZIP driver
          Handle 23.D firmware funnies.
          
   Cyclades Serial
          Upgraded driver from vendor, with assorted bugs fixed.
          
   Printer Driver
          The correction in the printer handling upset the Epson Stylus
          800. The driver know has a LPSTRICT option that can be set for
          printers that need absolute strict NBUSY handling.
          
   Beeper gets stuck
          The case where the beeper decides to beep forever has been
          cured.
          
   3c509 ethernet
          Upgraded to v1.16. Fixes ID port clash with sound cards,
          waiting for discard messages and recovers faster from transmit
          errors.
          
   3c59x driver
          Updated 3c59x ethernet driver. This should cure the skb_push
          panics some people saw with 3c59x/3c90x drivers under load.
          
   Lance driver
          Module unload bugs in the lance driver have been fixed.
          
   Plip driver
          Messages without severity levels now have appropriate levels.
          
   AHA1542
          Allow the use of DMA 0 on newer motherboards.
          
   SHM swap off
          A case where the machine might crash when turning swapping off
          has been fixed.
          
   MMAP security
          Linux did not allow a writable mmap of an append only file. It
          did however allow a readonly mmap of such a file then an
          mprotect. Fixed.
          
   NAKAMICH MJ-5.16S
          This SCSI device has been added to the blacklist.
          
   Single lun blacklisting
          A bug in the single lun blacklisting has been fixed.
          
   SCSI CAM division by zero
          A corrupt geometry could cause the kernel to divide by zero and
          crash.
          
   Sound blaster
          Don't report a DMA channel 0 for the MPU
          
   Sequencer
          If there are no synths or midi devices do not lock the
          sequencer busy forever.
          
   Autofs
          Fix a small glitch in the directory hash.
          
   ISOfs
          Fix a fencepost error in the iso fs size checks.
          
   Vfat fs
          Disallow periods at the end of names.
          
   NFS file system
          Support FIFO's over NFS. Handle kill of nfsiod for module
          unload.
          
   NFS root
          IFF_MULTICAST could be incorrectly not set.
          
   Non modular soundmodem/baycom
          These devices only worked as modules. They now work compiled
          in.
          
   Memory leak in networking
          A very obscure leak in the networking code has been fixed.
          
   TCP select
          TCP select for urgent data now has correct semantics.
          Previously it could do the wrong thing.
          
   TCP SIGIO
          SIGIO on an incoming connection is now correctly issued on the
          completion of the three way handshake.
          
Enhancements

   ISDN
          The Isdn4linux layer is signifcantly upgraded. The new driver
          set adds support for the Teles 16.3c, Teles PCI, Teles S0Box,
          Creatix S0Box, Compaq ISDN S0 ISA, ELSA Quickstep 1000PCI, Elsa
          Quickstep 3000, Elsa Quickstep 3000PCI, Eicon.Diehl Diva 2.0
          ISA/PCI (not Pro), Eicon.Diehl Diva Piccola, AsusCom ISDNLink
          128K, Dynalink IS64PH, HFC-2BS0 based cards, Sedlbauer Speed
          Card(Speed win, teledat 100), Sedlbauer Speed Star PCMCIA, USR
          Sportster Internal TA, ITH MIC 16 ISA, Traverse NETjet PCI,
          Niccy PnP/PCI
          
   Shaper
          The shaper device provides a simple traffic limiting driver for
          Linux 2.0.x. For full traffic shaping watch for Linux 2.2
          coming soon..
          
   Tulip
          The tulip driver has been upgraded to 0.89H which should also
          support the clone PNIC and MXIC tulip devices.
          
   Extended CPUID/Chip identification
          The Cyrix/AMD extended CPUID mode is supported. Cyrix
          processors are identified even when CPUID is not available. The
          Intel Celeron Mendicino is recognized. K6's with the random
          oops bug are normally now detected. The K6 cpu deadlock problem
          isn't detected as we know no way to check for it except to try
          it.
          
   Multi-Tech driver
          Driver for multi-tech 4/8 port modem and serial
          cards.(Experimental).
          
   EtherExpress
          The Compaq LTE should now be recognized (experimental)
          
   Intel 440GX
          The 440GX chipset is known to the PCI data tables.
          
   Nvidia
          NVidia/SGS Thomson is known to the PCI data tables.
          
   SCSI medium changers
          These are no long reported as unknown device types.
          
   ROSE networking
          The ROSE network layer has been updated.
          
Other

   Bigger system call table
          To support add ons that use syscalls in the new range.
          
   Hooks for dumping
          Kernel hooks for optional threaded core dump module.


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