From: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de> To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, announce@x86-64.org Subject: [ANNOUNCEMENT] New x86-64 kernel snapshot based on 2.4.19pre4 Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 03:42:11 +0100 A new 2.4.19pre4 based x86-64 linux kernel snapshot has been released. This is a port of the Linux kernel to the x86-64 architecture, as implemented by the AMD Hammer family of CPUs and the Virtutech VirtuHammer simulator. For more information about x86-64 see http://www.x86-64.org This is a major update for the x86-64 kernel. It has so many bugs fixed over previous kernels that I would recommend every x86-64 user to update to this kernel version. This release requires new binutils and a recent gcc to build. The changed signal ABI requires a new glibc. Working versions of gcc, glibc and binutils can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.x86-64.org/pub/stable-tools/current/ It also requires an updated gdb. Documentation on how to build the toolchain and glibc can be found at http://www.x86-64.org/documentation This is a newer x86-64 codebase than the version in the 2.5 kernel with much more testing. 2.5 will be synced with this tree soon. Please report any problems to bugs@x86-64.org. The discussion list is discuss@x86-64.org. See http://www.x86-64.org/mailinglists for archives and subscribe/unsubscribe options. You can download the x86-64 kernel source as a full tarball at: ftp://ftp.x86-64.org/pub/linux-x86_64/v2.4/linux-x86_64-2.4.19pre4-1.tar.bz2 MD5: e90765227be6956ffd002e18aa2a9e3a linux-x86_64-2.4.19pre4-1.tar.bz2 or as a patch against plain Linux 2.4.19pre4 as released by Marcelo: ftp://ftp.x86-64.org/pub/linux-x86_64/v2.4/x86_64-2.4.19pre4-1.bz2 MD5: 807df0308052b4065df2089cc9a49499 x86_64-2.4.19pre4-1.bz2 This is a snapshot of the CVS tree at cvs.x86-64.org. The current CVS tree can be accessed anonymously, for details see http://www.x86-64.org/cvs Note that the code in the CVS tree HEAD can be unstable sometimes. Known problems: - MTRR breaks on SMP and can oops at booting. It is disabled ATM. - Still some problems in 64bit LTP runs, which could be partly kernel bugs. - 32bit lspci breaks on the 64bit kernel because the /proc/pci structures are not compatible. - 32bit personality setting ("linux32") doesn't work. - NMI watchdog doesn't work. - String/memory functions unoptimized and use a lot of CPU time. - 32bit setserial crashes. Changes: - Merge to 2.4.19pre4. This has a reduced struct page which saves several MB of memory in a 64bit build. - SMP and APIC code functional now - 8257 timer is now accurate - Some signal handling bugs fixed. - modify_ldt for 32bit and 64bit implemented - IA32 emulation enhanced with a few new calls and ioctls and various bugs fixed. - 32bit ptrace support. - Some driver support for AMD 8111: Sound card, IDE, USB 2.0 (Vojtech Pavlik) - AMD 8111 Random Generator based on the AMD768 RNG driver. - Audited on all inline assembly: this found and fixed various bugs. - New struct user and signal frame formats. This is an ABI change. - Doesn't require 32bit tools for building anymore. - New kernel mapping that in theory supports ~120TB of physical memory per system. - Kernel modules functional now. Fixed some vmalloc/ioremap bugs. - More efficient signal handling. Does FXSAVE directly into and out of user space now. - WCHAN support added. - Various other bug fixes. -Andi Kleen, SuSE Labs. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/