All,
There have been many requests for added kernel features that the
upstream provider left out of the standard kernel. (ReiserFS,
Video4Linux, Firewire support, XFS, NTFS, JFS, etc.).
We want the main release CDs to contain a standard kernel for
compatibility and stability reasons. CentOS is created as a clone, and
it needs to be as close as possible to the upstream distro.
That being said, the 2.6.9 kernel has lots of features that are not
turned on in the default kernel. Until now the answer has been ... if
you want that, you must make recompile the kernel yourself. Well ...
now there is another option for x86_64 and i386. I have created an
unsupported kernel for the CentOS-4 i386 and x86_64 distros. It is in
the CentOS-Plus repository and is the latest released CentOS-4 Kernel
(currently 2.6.9-5.0.5.EL), with the configuration files modified to
turn on optional modules. It is called:
kernel-2.6.9-5.0.5.106.unsupported
Turned on (as kernel modules) are the following:
NTFS
XFS
JFS
ReiserFS
UFS (FreeBSD default file system ... Read Only)
BeOS (Read Only)
Video4Linux and all supported cards (including Video, Audio, Radio and
DVB)
all Video Cards
all Alsa Sound Cards
Support for AppleTalk and DECNET
-----------------------
I am running this kernel on 5 machines for testing and have had no
problems ... but it is NOT officially supported by CentOS {even less
than the other stuff :)}
You should evaluate whether you want to use this kernel ... and you
should test it appropriately prior to putting it on any important
machines :)
We are also working on a Single CD version of CentOS-4 (similar to the
CentOS-3.4 Server ISO). This CD will have as much stuff as we can fit
on a single CD that can be used to set up a server (no X though). All
other programs will be available via the standard CentOS repositories
using the "yum groupinstall" feature.
It is my plan to take that CentOS-4 Single Server Edition CD as a
template and make one (called Single Server unsupported) that will boot
with this kernel (and contain XFS tools, JFS tools, ReiserFS tools) so
that people who know how can install reisferfs, XFS, or JFS partitions
via the command line at install time.
If you are going to use this kernel, you need to enable the CentOS-Plus
repo from your chosen install method ... for yum, you can do it via the
command line:
yum --enablerepo=centosplus install kernel
The tools for XFS, JFS, and ReiserFS are also now in the CentOS-Plus
repository.
This should make CentOS a more robust desktop solution :)
Some notes:
I will update this kernel after normal kernel updates have been
completed, it may be a day or 2 later. So if you are using features of
this kernel (like ReiserFS, XFS, etc.) then you may want to turn off
auto kernel updates, as a new version of the main kernel will be
installed when available.
You can do this in Up2date, yum and apt inside the config files.
You can also get it via http from your favorite CentOS mirror in the
CentOS-Plus repository or from here (i386):
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/centosplus/i386/RPMS/
or here (x86_64):
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/centosplus/x86_64/RPMS/
Source RPM is here:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/centosplus/SRPMS/
Enjoy,
Johnny Hughes
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