Red Hat is pleased to announce the availability of the
*beta* release of 4.8 (kernel-2.6.9-82.EL) for the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 4 family of products including:

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4 for x86, AMD64/Intel(r) 64,
  Itanium Processor Family, S/390, System p and System z
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES 4 for x86, AMD64/Intel(r) 64,
  and Itanium Processor Family
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 4 for x86, AMD64/Intel(r) 64,
  and Itanium Processor Family
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 for x86 and
  AMD64/Intel(r) 64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 is in development and therefore the
contents of the beta media kit, the implemented features, and the
supported configurations are subject to change before the release
of the final product.  The supplied beta packages and CD and DVD
images are intended for testing purposes only.  Remember that
this early access software is not supported and is not intended
for production environments.  Benchmark and performance results
cannot be published based on this beta release without explicit
approval from Red Hat.

While anaconda's "upgrade" option will perform an upgrade from
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 beta,
there is no guarantee that the upgrade will preserve all of a
system's settings, services, and custom configurations.  For this
reason, Red Hat recommends that you perform a fresh installation
rather than an upgrade.  Also note that upgrading from beta
release to the GA product is not supported.

The beta testing period is scheduled to continue through
May 1, 2009.


Table of Contents
-----------------

Features
Technology Previews
Accessing the Software
Installation-Related Known Issues
Additional Information
  Lifecycle
  Documentation
  Defect Reporting
  Mailing Lists


Features
--------

This release includes the following improvements:

* Encryption and Security Enhancements
- krb5 utilities are now PAM enabled

* System Enhancements
- updated ipmitool to v1.8.10
- rpm now correctly fails on archives larger than 2GB

* Storage Enhancements
- updated device-mapper to 1.02.28
- updated device-mapper-multipath dm_hp_sw handler for HP Storage Arrays
- updated device-mapper-multipath mpath_prio_ontap for improved
  error handling on NetApp
- iscsi-initiator-utils now has IPv6 support

* Networking
- Added router solicitation support
- Enforced sg requires tx csum in ethtool
- OFED updated to v1.4
- Added virtio drivers to support KVM hypervisor environments

* Platform Enhancements
- Added new AMD HDMI audio support to ATI HDMI
- Updated Alsa hda driver update from upstream 2008-07-22
- Added support for affected_cpus for cpufreq
- Removed i8042 polling timer
- Fixed and properly detect pmtimer on asus a8v motherboard
- Backport usbfs_mutex in usbfs

* Kernel Improvements
- General Features
  - Added "wake_balance" tunable parameter to /proc/sys/kernel/ to
    allow the scheduler to run the thread on any available CPU rather
    than scheduling it on the optimal CPU.
  - Added "max_writeback_pages" tunable parameter to /proc/sys/vm/
    to allow the max number of modified pages kupdate writes to disk
    per iteration per run
  - Added "swap_token_timeout" tunable parameter to /proc/sys/vm/
    to provide a valid hold time of swap out protection token.
  - Added diskdump support to sata_svw driver
  - Limits 32 bit kernel to boot on systems with more than 64GB of
    RAM to 64G max.
  - Improved reliability of Autofs
  - Added support for 'rdattr_error' in NFSv4 readdir request

- Fixed various short packet handling for NFSv4 readdir and sunrpc issues

  - Updated CIFS to latest upstream
- Architecture Specific Support
  + x86/x86_64
    - Added Intel ibex peak PCH support
    - Added initialization vendor info in boot_cpu_data
  + PPC64
    - Added support for digi pci-e gen1 4-8 port async io adapter on
      i/p6 servers
    - Updated ehea driver from version 0078-04 to 0078-08
    - Updated logging of checksum errors in ehea driver
  + s390x
    - Added support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) to zFCP
- New Driver support or Driver Updates
  + Network Driver Updates
    - Updated forcedeth driver to latest upstream version 0.61

- Fixed various e1000 issues with e1000_clean_tx_irq call from e1000_netpoll

       and restart receive unit on esb2 hardware
    - Updated e1000e driver to upstream version 0.3.3.3-k6
    - Updated igb to upstream version 1.2.45-k2
    - Updated tg3 to upstream version 3.96
    - Updated ixgbe to upstream version 1.3.18-k4
    - Updated bnx2 to upstream version 1.7.9
    - Updated bnx2x to upstream version 1.45.23
    - Added netxen 3031 initial and msi-x support and fw bugfixes
      enhancement
    - Improved netxen 2031 tx locking, interrupt handling, ethtool support

- Added realtek support for 8111cp and 8111bp with Intel Tylersburg chipset

  + Storage Driver Updates
    - Fixed various SCSI layer issues such as
        * avoid an unnecessary error message
        * handle async iscsi scsi sense events
        * harden against possible data corrupter
        * sd driver calls revalidate_disk wrapper
    - Fixed dm-raid  bug with reduce io delay in dm-raid1
    - Removed quirk aac_quirk_scsi_32 for some aaccraid controllers

- Updated fcp driver with backport of fcp point to point connection support

    - Updated lpfc to version 8.0.16.46
    - Updated megaraid_sas to version 4.01-rh1
    - Updated mptfusion driver to version 3.12.29.00rh
    - Updated qla2xxx firmware to 4.06.01 for 4GB/s and 8GB/s adapters
    - Updated qla2xxx driver to version 8.02.09.00.04.08-d
    - Fixed sata_nv in libsata to disable adma by default

* Laptop and Desktop Enhancements
- Better support for Graphire CTE-440 and Graphire4

* Developer Enhancements
- Red Hat is moving GCC4 in Enterprise Linux 4 from Tech Preview
  to supported with the following caveats:
  - GCC4 in Enterprise Linux 4 is not fully ABI compatible
    with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5:
  * Applications compiled on the older version, Enterprise
    Linux 4, are expected to continue to work on the newer
    version 5 as long as they use libraries, that are also
    supported on Enterprise Linux 5 (either directly or via
    compatibility libraries).
  * Applications compiled on Enterprise Linux 5 on the other
    hand, may *not* run on the older version, Red Hat
    Enterprise Linux 4.
- In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, gcc 3.4.6 libstdc++ is used
  (including its headers). While the Enterprise Linux 5
  libstdc++ is backward compatible with that, there are
  symbol additions etc. Now, both libraries have the same
  SONAME and it is not feasible to have two different
  libraries with identical SONAME. Also, Red Hat is not
  backporting any of these changes to Red Hat Enterprise
  Linux 4. This is consistent with Red Hat's policy to
  avoid introducing incompatibilities into an existing
  version, that would be problematic for ISVs. These types
  of changes are reserved for major releases (e.g. going
  from 4 to 5).
- Certain features couldn't be added to RHEL4 gcc4, because
  the rest of the toolchain doesn't have the needed support
  (glibc, binutils). Again, the reason for not backporting
  these features, is to avoid introducing incompatibilities
  into a an existing version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
  Affected features are mainly:
  - 128 bit long double on ppc/ppc64/s390/s390x
  - -msecure-plt on ppc
  - the big C++ visibility changes
  - -fstack-protector
  - --hash-style=gnu, --hash-style=both


Technology Previews
-------------------

Technology Preview features are included in Red Hat Enterprise
Linux to provide the features with wide exposure with the goal
of supporting these features in a future release of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux.  Technology Preview features are not supported
under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 subscription services and may
not be functionally complete.  Red Hat welcomes customer
feedback and suggestions for Technology Previews.  Advisories
will be provided for high-severity security issues in Technology
Preview features.

There were no new or enhanced Technology Preview features in

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 beta. A previously available Technology Preview remains in Technology

Preview status:
- GCJ Java

A previously available Technology Preview has been removed:
- frysk



Accessing the Software
----------------------

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 is available to existing
Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscribers via RHN.  The
channels will automatically appear in your account.
Installable binary and source ISO images are available
via Red Hat Network at:

https://rhn.redhat.com/network/software/download_isos_full.pxt

You will be required to log in using a valid RHN account
with active entitlements.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 errata are available at:

https://rhn.redhat.com/


Installation-Related Known Issues
---------------------------------

The following are known installation related issues in the
release:


480793 - [Anaconda] raise SystemError, "lvcreate failed for %s"%(self.name,)

484908 - Unresolvable chain of dependencies for openmpi-libs 1.2.8-3.el4


488763 - PPC systems are unable to install via CD/DVD media, other methods work.


Additional Information
----------------------

Additional information is provided below on Lifecycle, Documentation,
Defect Reporting, and Mailing Lists.

Enjoy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 release.


Sincerely,

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Team

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

Lifecycle
---------

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Life Cycle is available at:
https://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/

As previously announced, the release of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4.8 will mark the beginning of Production 2 phase of
the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. No new hardware enablement
will be expected during this phase.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/nahant-list/2008-July/msg00059.html

Customers should note that their subscriptions provide access to all
currently supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.


Documentation
-------------

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Release Notes are available at:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

The Release Notes are also on your Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 4 installed system in the redhat-release package.


Defect Reporting
----------------

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 customers using the Technical
Account Manager (TAM) Service should raise all issues and
questions with this release using your current Issue Tracker
account.  If you're interested in the Technical Account
Manager Service visit:

https://www.redhat.com/support/offerings/technical.html

All other customers can raise questions and issues through
the normal Red Hat support channels.  Details can be found
at:

https://www.redhat.com/support/process/

While defects can be reported using Red Hat's Bugzilla,
please be advised that Bugzilla is not a support tool and
thus does not offer any Service Level Agreement (SLA) for
issues reported through that channel.  Therefore, while
sufficient for defects found during testing a Beta product,
customers should *NOT* rely on Bugzilla when reporting
production issues.


Mailing Lists
-------------

Red Hat has a public mailing list for communication during
this and all future Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 programs.

* rhelv4-announce redhat com

A low-volume, moderated, announcement-only mailing list.
Red Hat will use this list to communicate one-way
information about RHEL 4 programs, such as notifications
when releases are available or solicitations for feedback.
Subscribe at:

https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv4-announce

* nahant-beta-list redhat com

A public general discussion mailing list for users of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 releases.  Subscribe at:

https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/nahant-beta-list