This section covers changes and important information regarding the based kernel in Fedora . The kernel includes:
Tickless support for x86 64bit systems (32 bit was added previously), which greatly improves power management.
Some elements of the realtime kernel project.
The kernel has a new version naming scheme to more closely match the upstream version naming scheme.
The kernel spec file is now named kernel.spec rather than kernel-2.6.spec.
The kernel spec file has new macros that ease the kernel building process. Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel for further information.
The kernel in Fedora no longer loads modules by default for ISA sound cards. Load the module by hand using the command modprobe module-name, or put an entry in /etc/modprobe.conf. For example, for the Creative SoundBlaster AWE64, add the following entry:
install snd-sbawe
:
Fedora may include additional patches to the kernel for improvements, bug fixes, or additional features. For this reason, the Fedora kernel may not be line-for-line equivalent to the so-called ''vanilla kernel'' from the kernel.org web site:
http://www.kernel.org/
To obtain a list of these patches, download the source RPM package and run the following command against it:
rpm -qpl kernel-1.1.src.rpm
To retrieve a log of changes to the package, run the following command:
rpm -q --changelog kernel-1.1
If you need a user friendly version of the changelog, refer to http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges. A short and full diff of the kernel is available from http://kernel.org/git. The Fedora version kernel is based on the Linus tree.
Customizations made for the Fedora version are available from http://cvs.fedoraproject.org .
Fedora includes the following kernel builds:
Native kernel, for use in most systems. Configured sources are available in the kernel-devel package.
The kernel-PAE, for use in 32-bit x86 systems with more than 4GB of RAM, or with CPUs that have a NX (No eXecute) feature. This kernel support both uniprocessor and multi-processor systems. Configured sources are available in the kernel-PAE-devel package.
Virtualization kernel for use with the Xen emulator package. Configured sources are available in the kernel-xen-devel package.
You may install kernel headers for all four kernel flavors at the same time. The files are installed in the /usr/src/kernels/1.1[-PAE|-xen|-kdump]-arch/ tree. Use the following command:
su -c 'yum install kernel{,-PAE,-xen,-kdump}-devel'
:
Select one or more of these flavors, separated by commas and no spaces, as appropriate. Enter the root password when prompted.
Admonition("note","x86 Kernel Includes Kdump","Both the x86_64 and the i686 kernels are relocatable, so they no longer require a separate kernel for kdump capability. PPC64 still requires a separate kdump kernel.")
Admonition("note","Default Kernel Provides SMP","There is no separate SMP kernel available for Fedora on i386, x86_64, and ppc64. Multiprocessor support is provided by the native kernel.")
Admonition("note", "PowerPC Kernel Support", "There is no support for Xen or kdump for the PowerPC architecture in Fedora. 32-bit PowerPC does still have a separate SMP kernel.")
Fedora does not include the kernel-source package provided by older versions since only the kernel-devel package is required now to build external modules. Configured sources are available, as described above.
Admonition("important", "Custom Kernel Building", "For information on kernel development and working with custom kernels, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel.")