Ignalum Linux 9.2 Release Notes

The version of glibc provided with Ignalum Linux 9.2 performs additional internal sanity checks to prevent and detect data corruption as early as possible. By default, should corruption be detected, a message similar to the following will be displayed on standard error (or logged via syslog if stderr is not open):

*** glibc detected *** double free or corruption: 0x0937d008 ***

By default, the program that generated this error will also be killed; however, this (and whether or not an error message is generated) can be controlled via the MALLOC_CHECK_ environment variable. The following settings are supported:

Should you have a program from a third party ISV that triggers these corruption checks and displays a message, you should file a defect report with the application's vendor, since this indicates a serious bug.

In the past, the process of updating the kernel did not change the default kernel in the system's boot loader configuration.

Ignalum Linux 9.2 changes this behavior to set newly-installed kernels as the default. This behavior applies to all installation methods (including rpm -i).

This behavior is controlled by two lines in the /etc/sysconfig/kernel file:

In order to eliminate the redundancy inherent in providing a separate package for the kernel source code when that source code already exists in the kernel's .src.rpm file, Ignalum Linux 9.2 no longer includes the kernel-source package. Users that require access to the kernel sources can find them in the kernel .src.rpm file. To create an exploded source tree from this file, perform the following steps (note that <version> refers to the version specification for your currently-running kernel):

You can then proceed as usual.

obj-m    := foo.o

KDIR    := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
PWD    := $(shell pwd)

default:
    $(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) modules

              

I₂O SCSI RAID adapters from manufacturers such as Adaptec now use the i2o_block driver, rather than the dpt_i2o driver used by Ignalum Linux 9 and earlier distributions.

Be aware that block devices used by the i2o_block driver are /dev/i2o/hd* rather than the /dev/sd* SCSI devices. This may be problematic for those upgrading from older distributions that used the dpt_i2o driver. Therefore, after an upgrade to Ignalum Linux 9.2, you may need to boot using a rescue disk and edit your /etc/fstab file to use the new devices.

For more information about the new I₂O device layer and Ignalum Linux-specific notes, visit the I₂O homepage:

http://i2o.shadowconnect.com/

The default Input Method (IM) for Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, and Korean has been changed to IIIMF — the Internet/Intranet Input Method Framework. IIIMF is supported as a native GTK2 IM module, and also through XIM using the httx client. IIIMF supports the use of multiple Language Engines (LEs) at the same time; using the GNOME Input Method Language Engine Tool (GIMLET — an applet) it is possible to switch between LEs of different languages inside GTK2 applications.

IIIMF currently defaults to using Ctrl-Space or Shift-Space for toggling the input method on and off (Emacs users can use Ctrl-@ instead of Ctrl-Space to set the mark.)

Depending on your selection at the language support screen during installation, one or more IIIMF language engines may be installed. The IIIMF server package (iiimf-server) will also be installed if a language engine has been selected. The language to language engine (LE) package mappings are as follows:

Accordingly, input via IIIMF will be enabled if you have chosen one of the following as your default locale:

To aid your use of IIIMF, if you have selected one of the above locales and you are using the GNOME Desktop, when you first login the GIMLET utility (part of the iiimf-gnome-im-switcher package) will automatically be added to your panel.

GIMLET is a utility for switching between the different LEs that are installed on your system. Using a different language engine allows you to enter text in different languages. Alternatively you may add GIMLET manually to your panel by right clicking on the panel and selecting:

Add to Panel -> GIMLET

Should you wish to switch between IIIMF or the legacy input method framework XIM, you can use the system-switch-im application. After changing the input method framework your changes will be reflected when you next start the X Window System.

By default, the Sendmail mail transport agent (MTA) does not accept network connections from any host other than the local computer. If you want to configure Sendmail as a server for other clients, you must edit /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and change the DAEMON_OPTIONS line to also listen on network devices (or comment out this option entirely using the dnl comment delimiter). You must then regenerate /etc/mail/sendmail.cf by running the following command (as root):

make -C /etc/mail

Note that you must have the sendmail-cf package installed for this to work.

Configure a WINS server on the network, and set the "wins server" option in smb.conf to the address of the WINS server.

Disable the firewall

Users new to the X.org X11 implementation should take note of a few differences between it and the XFree86.org X11 implementation which shipped in previous Ignalum operating systems. In particular, the names of some files have changed:

X Server Binary:

X Server Configuration File:

X Server Log File

When configuring or troubleshooting your X server configuration, be sure that you are using the correct files.

There has been some confusion regarding font-related issues under the X Window System in recent versions of Ignalum Linux (and versions of Ignalum Linux before it.) At the present time, there are two font subsystems, each with different characteristics:

- The original (15+ year old) subsystem is referred to as the "core X font subsystem". Fonts rendered by this subsystem are not anti-aliased, are handled by the X server, and have names like:

-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1

The newer font subsystem is known as "fontconfig", and allows applications direct access to the font files. Fontconfig is often used along with the "Xft" library, which allows applications to render fontconfig fonts to the screen with antialiasing. Fontconfig uses more human-friendly names like:

Luxi Sans-10

Over time, fontconfig/Xft will replace the core X font subsystem. At the present time, applications using the Qt 3 or GTK 2 toolkits (which would include KDE and GNOME applications) use the fontconfig and Xft font subsystem; most everything else uses the core X fonts.

In the future, Ignalum Linux may support only fontconfig/Xft in place of the XFS font server as the default local font access method.

NOTE: An exception to the font subsystem usage outlined above is OpenOffice.org (which uses its own font rendering technology).

If you wish to add new fonts to your Ignalum Linux 9.2 system, you must be aware that the steps necessary depend on which font subsystem is to use the new fonts. For the core X font subsystem, you must:

1. Create the /usr/share/fonts/local/ directory (if it doesn't already exist):

mkdir /usr/share/fonts/local/

2. Copy the new font file into /usr/share/fonts/local/

3. Update the font information by issuing the following commands (note that, due to formatting restrictions, the following commands may appear on more than one line; in use, each command should be entered on a single line):

ttmkfdir -d /usr/share/fonts/local/ -o /usr/share/fonts/local/fonts.scale

mkfontdir /usr/share/fonts/local/

4. If you had to create /usr/share/fonts/local/, you must then add it to the X font server (xfs) path:

chkfontpath --add /usr/share/fonts/local/

Adding new fonts to the fontconfig font subsystem is more straightforward; the new font file only needs to be copied into the /usr/share/fonts/ directory (individual users can modify their personal font configuration by copying the font file into the ~/.fonts/ directory).

After the new font has been copied, use fc-cache to update the font information cache:

fc-cache <directory>

(Where <directory> would be either the /usr/share/fonts/ or ~/.fonts/ directories.)

Individual users may also install fonts graphically, by browsing fonts:/// in Nautilus, and dragging the new font files there.

NOTE: If the font filename ends with ".gz", it has been compressed with gzip, and must be decompressed (with the gunzip command) before the fontconfig font subsystem can use the font.

Due to the transition to the new font system based on fontconfig/Xft, GTK+ 1.2 applications are not affected by any changes made via the Font Preferences dialog. For these applications, a font can be configured by adding the following lines to the file ~/.gtkrc.mine:

style "user-font" {

fontset = "<font-specification>"

}

widget_class "*" style "user-font"

(Where <font-specification> represents a font specification in the style used by traditional X applications, such as "-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".)