On Sunday 6 February 2011, Oracle Linux 6 was released on the Unbreakable Linux Network for customers with an Oracle Linux support subscription. Shortly after that, the Oracle Linux 6 RPMs were made available on our public yum server. Today we published the installation DVD images on edelivery.oracle.com/linux. Oracle Linux 6 is free to download, install and use. The full release notes are here, but similar to my recent post about Oracle Linux 5.6, I wanted to highlight a few items about this release.
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel
As is the case with Oracle Linux 5.6, the default installed kernel on x86_64 platform in Oracle Linux 6 is the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel. If you haven't already, I highly recommend you watch the replay of this webcast by Chris Mason on the performance improvements made in this kernel.
# uname -r
2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64
The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is delivered via the package kernel-uek:
[root@localhost ~]# yum info kernel-uek
...
Installed Packages
Name : kernel-uek
Arch : x86_64
Version : 2.6.32
Release : 100.28.5.el6
Size : 84 M
Repo : installed
From repo : anaconda-OracleLinuxServer-201102031546.x86_64
Summary : The Linux kernel
URL : http://www.kernel.org/
License : GPLv2
Description: The kernel package contains the Linux kernel (vmlinuz), the core of
: any Linux operating system. The kernel handles the basic functions
: of the operating system: memory allocation, process allocation,
: device input and output, etc.
ext4 file system
The ext4 or fourth extended filesystem replaces ext3 as the default filesystem in Oracle Linux 6.
# mount
/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root on / type ext4 (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,rootcontext="system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t:s0")
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
Red Hat compatible kernel
Oracle Linux 6 also includes a Red Hat compatible kernel built directly from RHEL source. It's already installed, so booting it is a matter of editing /etc/grub.conf
# rpm -qa | grep kernel-2.6.32
kernel-2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64
Oracle Linux 6 no longer includes a Red Hat compatible kernel with Oracle bug fixes. The only Red Hat compatible kernel included is the one built directly from RHEL source.
Yum-only access to Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN)
Oracle Linux 6 uses yum exclusively for access to Unbreakable Linux Network. To register your system with ULN, use the following command:
# uln_register
No Itanium Support
Oracle Linux 6 is not supported on the Itanium (ia64) platform.
Next Steps
Read the release notes
Download Oracle Linux 6 for free
Discuss on the Oracle Linux forum
