Fedora kernel related questions that get asked over and over...

Q. Why doesn't Fedora support Reiserfs ?
A. Boot with 'linux reiserfs'

Q. What about jfs?
A. Boot with 'linux jfs'

Q. What about xfs?
A. Not yet.

Q. What about NTFS ?
A. We don't distribute this due to potential legal issues.
   See http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/index.html

Q. Why aren't all these filesystems available by default ?
A. Because they are not as heavily tested as ext3 by Red Hat.

Q. Why doesn't Fedora just ship the stock kernel.org kernel ?
A. The patches we apply are justified for many reasons.
   - Dropping back to a 'known good' version of a driver.
   - Updating to a newer version of a driver to whats in mainline
     that fixes known bugs but for whatever reason, hasn't made it in yet.
   - Backports of fixes from 'pre/rc' release kernels.
   - Various new features developed by Red Hat.
     NPTL, Exec-Shield etc..
   - Various often requested features
     laptop-mode for eg.

Q. Can I use a stock kernel.org kernel anyway ?
A. Yes. But you obviously lose all the 'add ons'.

Q. What about 2.6 ?
A. Yes, with caveats. See the documents at http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html
   (You may also find http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt interesting).

Q. When I try to compile the Fedora kernel I get..
   kernel/kernel.o(.text+0xfc3): In function `schedule':
   : undefined reference to `active_load_balance'
A. This is a bug caused by a limitation in the 2.4
   config system. Run make oldconfig twice to work around this.
   We are working on a better solution.

Q. What kernel version does FC1 ship with ?
A. kernel-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl
   This is based on 2.4.22-ac1, and has a number of 2.4.23pre
   patches also included.

Q. Why doesn't ACPI work ?
A. You need to boot with acpi=on to enable ACPI.
   If your BIOS is pre 2000, you'll need to use acpi=force instead.
   Mail davej@redhat.com the output of dmidecode if this is the case.

Q. Why can't I compile the kernel srpm ?
A. Not all combinations of CONFIG options are tested. If you find
   something that doesn't build, file a bugzilla report.

Q. Why is the kernel compiled with gcc32 ?
A. It's a known-to-be-good compiler. The compiler used for everything
   else (3.3.2 as shipped with FC1) is somewhat newer.

Q. How come you don't enable APIC on UP machines ?
A. This was found to cause problems on large numbers of systems
   (typically laptops).  If you want to use oprofile on a UP system,
   you can still install and use the relevant SMP kernel.

Q. I compiled my own kernel from the Red Hat sources, and when it
   boots it says can't find init, and crashes.
A. Your /etc/grub.conf points to the root device using root=LABEL
   This will only work if you also build the initrd correctly.
   Either build an initrd, or change your grub.conf to read something
   like root=/dev/hda1 (for example)

Q. Whats the difference between the 2.6 kernels in the development
   tree and the ones at http://people.redhat.com/arjanv ?
A. The one in the development tree is what will be in the final FC2 distro.
   It's based off an earlier version of Arjan's kernel, but lacks some of
   the features (the biggest change is the 4g/4g patch).
   Additionally, the Fedora kernel has a lot more modules enabled.
   Arjan's will go on to become the basis of the next RHEL kernel, and so
   doesn't enable a lot of modules for older hardware such as ISA devices,
   or 586 CPUs etc.

Q. On booting a 2.6 kernel I get lots of kernel messageslike..
   kernel: avc:  denied  { setopt } for  pid=8387 exe=/sbin/arping
   scontext=system_u:system_r:kernel_t tcontext=system_u:system_r:kernel_t
   tclass=udp_socket
A. boot with selinux=0 for the time being. This needs userspace support
   from packages that will be in FC2.