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Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 18:17:07 -0500
From: Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin@redhat.com>
To: redhat-watch-list@redhat.com
Subject: Announcing a beta release of Red Hat Linux: "Wolverine"

    Announcing...
                         Red Hat Linux "Wolverine"
                             (a beta release)

    Red Hat, Inc. presents a beta release of Red Hat Linux for your
    hacking pleasure.  First, the regular drill:

       This is a beta release of Red Hat Linux.  It is not intended for
       mission critical applications.  It's not even intended for
       non-mission critical applications.  Important data should not be
       entrusted to Wolverine, as it may eat it and make loud belching
       noises.

    Significant changes have been made since the last version of Red Hat
    Linux, including a shift to a 2.4-based kernel.  We need your help to
    find and report bugs.  You can enter bug reports for any problems you
    might find by using bugzilla at:

      <a href="http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/">http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/</a>

    PLEASE SEARCH FOR EXISTING BUG REPORTS BEFORE YOU ENTER A NEW REPORT!
    Patches are always appreciated, so include them if you can.

    As in Red Hat Linux 7, this beta is large enough that the binary
    packages have been split between two ISO images.  The installation
    program handles reading packages from multiple CDs.

    *  Where can I get this release?

    Wolverine can be downloaded from our public FTP site at:

       <a href="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    With the support of volunteers ftp site administrators, Wolverine is
    available from several mirrors.  The following sites have complete
    copies of Wolverine, so please use a mirror close to you:

    Indiana, USA:
       <a href="http://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">http://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>
       <a href="ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    Minnesota, USA:
       <a href="ftp://ftp.mn-linux.org/linux/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://ftp.mn-linux.org/linux/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    North Carolina, USA:
       <a href="ftp://kickstart.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://kickstart.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    Buffalo, New York, USA:
       <a href="ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/mirror/Linux/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/mirror/Linux/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    Pennsylvania, USA:
       <a href="http://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/beta/wolverine">http://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>
       <a href="ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>
       rsync://carroll.cac.psu.edu/redhat-beta/wolverine

    Australia:
       <a href="ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>
       <a href="http://www.planetmirror.com/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">http://www.planetmirror.com/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    Czech Republic:
        <a href="ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine">ftp://sunsite.mff.cuNi.cz/pub/redhat/beta/wolverine</a>

    Please also see our official mirror list:
       <a href="http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html">http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html</a>

    as more of the mirror sites may have picked up the beta by the time
    you read this.

    *  What's new since Red Hat Linux 7?

       General system improvements:
         o Installer has many improvements and fixes, including basic
           firewall configuration
         o Workstation installs are more network-secure (most services are
           disabled by default)
         o Japanese support fully integrated
         o Graphical kickstart configuration program included

       Core system components:
         o kernel 2.4.1 + many fixes
         o glibc 2.2.2
         o XFree86 4.0.2
         o XFree86 3.3.6 X servers included for maximum hardware
           compatibility
         o KDE 2.1 beta release snapshot
         o GNOME libs 1.2.8, core 1.2.4
         o GCC 2.96-RH

       Expanded hardware support:
         o Improved USB
         o IDE UltraDMA 66/100
         o IEEE1394 (FireWire(tm))
         o ATM networking
         o WiFI wireless ethernet cards
         o ESS Maestro3 and newer Crystal audio

       System service changes:
         o New network-transparent configuration subsystem
         o Configuration tools for BIND, Apache, and printing

       A sampling of package upgrades:
         o GIMP 1.2.1
         o Tcl/Tk 8.3.1
         o BIND 9.1.0
         o Pine 4.33
         o Vim 6.0 prerelease
         o XMMS 1.2.4

       A sampling of Package additions:
         o OGG/Vorbis audio encoder/decoder
         o Mozilla

    * Status of Red Hat Network:

       rhn_register, the registration client for Red Hat Network, is
       included, but registrations for the beta will not be accepted.

       However, up2date will be fully functional in anonymous mode, and
       we encourage people to make use of this functionality.  We will
       be attempting to synchronize our fixes with Update Agent on a
       nightly basis, so if you report a problem and it gets fixed, you
       can get a new version of that particular package on the following
       day.

    * Major known issues:

       o Cardbus network cards will not work properly after the install
         procedure is completed.

       o Network cards which use the tulip driver may report incorrect
         hardware addresses.

       o Minimal installs do not support NFS out of the box.  Install
         the portmap package afterwards if you require this functionality.

       o Some Java JDKs (both from Sun and IBM) don't work with the i686
         version of glibc (Sun is working on a fix for JDK). Additionally,
         the i686 version of glibc only supports 2.4-based kernels.

         If you are experiencing problems such as the one described
         above, or need to run a 2.2-based kernel, install the i386
         version of glibc by running:

            rpm -Uvh --force glibc-2.2.2-3.i386.rpm

    * Other known issues and information can be found in the release notes.

    * A mailing list is being set up to host discussion of issues specific
      to this beta.  Web access to our mailing lists can be found at:

       https://listman.redhat.com/

      If you don't have web access, you can still subscribe to the main
      mailing list.  To subscribe, send mail to
      wolverine-list-request@redhat.com with 

       subscribe

      in the subject line.  You can leave the body empty.

    Enjoy!

    The Linux OS Development and QA Teams
    Red Hat, Inc.