All, I just wanted to report a number of (relatively small) problems with the beta from the ftp://ftp.redhat.de server. The options for the INSTALL= parameter are not documented anywhere. I figured them out by mounting the ramdisk on the loopback device, but they should be talked about in the README. The packages.xxx files that are on the ramdisk could just as easily be pulled off the FTP/SMB/whatever server, just like the base/list is. This would make it possible for installations to _easily_ create their own package definitions, and reference them in the inst.parms file. Specifying ROOTPW= in the inst.parms file causes a syntax error when the rhsetup script issues the passwd command. As a result, the password is not set. The error message states that the userid needs to be specified, and was not. The documentation for the LCS= parameter is incorrect. It states that you should specify a value of 'xxxx,1' if using an OSA-2 card, or 'xxxx,2' if using an OSA-Express card. In reality, you should specify the address and relative port number, regardless of the type of card. Anything else does not work. The kernel has support for serial devices in it. This results in seeing the following message during IPL: modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module char-major-4 Adding an 'alias char-major-4 off' parameter to /etc/modules.conf fixes this. The install process assumes that the IPL volume will be /dev/dasda, and gives you no way to change this. This should be a configurable option. nfslockd appears to start, but then ends without any sort of error message anywhere. If the nfsd daemon is started, it will start nfslockd, which will then continue to run. I have no idea why this happens. I haven't had enough time (and probably won't) to try to figure it out. mozilla does not work. When I try, it looks as though it is trying, but then the icon disappears from the screen, and all that I see are four instances of /usr/lib/mozilla/mozilla-bin running in the background. I tried recompiling it from the source RPM, but the same thing happens. I imagine it has something to do with the xpcom code not being written yet. If so, the mozilla RPMs should be pulled from the server until they are. Since reiserfs doesn't have any official support for big-endian machines, that RPM should also be pulled. /usr/bin/kmail is looking for /usr/lib/libssl.so.1 and /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1, but what is installed is /usr/lib/libssl.so.2, and /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.2. A workaround is possible by defining symbolic links until a real fix is available. The 2.4.3 kernel comes with 3270-console support enabled. This causes my system (or just my console) to hang every time. How fast I hit the clear button determines just where, but the farthest I've ever gotten was to the point where the root file system was being mounted as read-only. When I used the Red Hat 2.4.3 SRPM to build a new kernel without 3270 console support, I didn't have the hanging problem any more, but I then started experiencing CP disabled waits at various points during the boot process. Usually I could not get to the point of logging on. If I did, it wasn't too long afterwards that I would get the disabled wait. I really think the 2.4.x kernels should be pulled until they stabilize quite a bit more. Mark Post
