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