Installation guide

ia64 Architecture

• Installation on a machine with existing Linux or non-Linux filesystems on DASD block devices may

cause the installer to halt. If this happens, it is necessary to clear out all existing partitions on the

DASD devices you want to use and restart the installer.

2.4. ia64 Architecture

• If your system only has 512MB of RAM, attempting to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 may fail.

To prevent this, perform a base installation first and install all other packages after the installation

finishes.

• Using yum to install packages from the 32-bit Compatibility Layer disc may fail. If it does,

it is because the Red Hat package signing key was not imported into the RPM database. This

happens if you have not yet connected to Red Hat Network and obtained updates. To import the key

manually, run the following command as root:

rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

Once the Red Hat GPG key is imported, you may now use yum to install packages from the 32-bit

Compatibility Layer disc.

Note that when installing from this disc, it is advisable to use yum instead of rpm to ensure that base

OS dependencies are addressed during installation.

3. Feature Updates

Block Device Encryption

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 includes support for block device encryption using the Linux Unified

Key Setup (LUKS) specification. Encrypting a device protects all data on a block device against

unauthorized access, even if the device has been physically removed from a system. To access

the contents of an encrypted device, a user must provide a passphrase or key as authentication.

For information on setting up disk encryption, refer to Chapter 28 of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Installation Guide at: http://redhat.com/docs/

mac80211 802.11a/b/g WiFi protocol stack (mac80211)

The mac80211 stack (formerly known as the devicescape/d80211 stack) is now a supported

feature in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3. It enables the iwlwifi 4965GN wireless driver for Intel®

WiFi Link 4965 hardware which allows certain wireless devices to connect to any WiFi network.

Although the mac80211 component is supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, the symbols are

not included in the symbol whitelist for the kernel.

Global File System 2 (GFS2)

GFS2 is an incremental advancement of GFS. This update applies several significant

improvements that require a change to the on-disk file system format. GFS file systems can be

converted to GFS2 using the utility gfs2_convert, which updates the metadata of a GFS file

system accordingly.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, GFS2 was provided as a kernel module for evaluation purposes.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, GFS2 is now part of the kernel package. If the Red Hat

Enterprise Linux 5.2 GFS2 kernel modules have been installed they must be removed to use

GFS2 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3.