Re: RH 7.3 -> 8.0 Upgrade Questions

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

On Fri, Nov 08, 2002 at 04:58:52PM -0600, Robert Savage wrote:
> VMWare 3.2 has major problems. I cannot suspend any of my virtual
> machines under RH8, which means there's no way to pick up a session
> where I left off.

I read through the VMware newsgroups today to check about this...  I'm
able to suspend 3.1.1 build 1790, but it crashes before exiting.  (I'm
still able to unsuspend though...  Go figure.)  I had planned to try
upgrading until you said it wasn't working well for you at all.

Anyway, apparently some user has come up with a patch, which is here:

    ftp://platan.vc.cvut.cz/pub/vmware/

Unfortunately, that site was unreachable earlier today when I wanted
to try it, so I don't know how well it works.  (I did just get in
though, so I have the patch if anyone has trouble getting it.)

> For the most part, nothing distributed in binary form for 7.3 will work in
> 8.0. Even if you can get the source code, there's a good chance it won't
> compile under gcc 3.2 the way it did under good ol' gcc 2.96RH.

I wouldn't go that far.  No binary-only kernel modules will work, but
applications should work just fine.  (Luckily the kernel modules for
VMware are actually distrubuted as source, so some user was able to
find fixes for the problems.)

> This may sound harsh, but I'm beginning to look at 8.0 as though it's not
> yet "ready for prime time." Professionally, I would not recommend it to
> anyone in a business production environment (workstation or server).
> "Dot-oh" releases are often shakey, and RH8.0 is no exception.

Oddly enough, I actually feel the opposite...  The kernel seems to be
quite solid for server use, and the addition of LVM makes it *very*
nice on servers.  I'm not so sure it is a great idea for general
desktop use yet though.  (OpenOffice and anti-aliased fonts do make a
strong argument for it on the desktop though.  Maybe after a few more
updates...)

This is turning out to be a lot like 7.0 though...  The initial bugs
in 7.0 were fixed a month or two after the release with some updates.
it will be interesting to see if the same happens with 8.0.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
(618)398-7360             | See web site for meeting details.
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/

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