CentOS 5.3 Release Notes

Contents

Translations
Introduction
Install Media and sha1sum
Known Issues
Resolved Issues
Changes
Changes done by CentOS
How to help and get help
Further Reading
Thanks

1. Translations

Translations of these release notes are available for the following languages:

Brazilian Portuguese (português do Brasil) - Cleber Paiva de Souza
Simplified Chinese (简体中文) - Timothy Lee
Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) - Timothy Lee
Czech (Česky) - David Hrbáč
German (Deutsch) - Marcus Moeller
Japanese (日本語) - Akemi Yagi, Hajime Taira
Korean (한국어) - YoungHoon Park
Romanian - Manuel Wolfshant
Russian (Русский) - Nikolay Ulyanitsky
Spanish (Español) - AlainRegueraDelgado, HardyBeltran

2. Introduction

Welcome to the CentOS 5.3 release. CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by our Upstream OS Provider (UOP)¹.

CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and artwork.) CentOS is a Free Operating System. The CentOS Project is now accepting donations using PayPal, please see our website at http://www.centos.org for more details. All donations to this project are used to cover bandwidth and development costs.

CentOS 5.3 is the third update to the CentOS 5 distribution series. It contains a lot of bugfixes, updates and new functionality. Before reading any further we advise you to read the UOP release notes at http://www.centos.org/docs/5/. The rest of this document is an addendum, and primarily covers CentOS-specific issues.

3. Install Media and sha1sum

--------------------------------------------
i386 media and their sha1sums are:
4b454d76d06daa0b1772115e9b95c9465a4cecb0  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-1of6.iso
0da3292ea1d90639714a5e7d77812568bc01ec05  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-2of6.iso
77e867eb736b58f31cdd25c4835643ab795979e2  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-3of6.iso
949ee93440e736c8414fb8b571178970a31e6675  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-4of6.iso
5eafdea33c18f623bb9299ae624b8c8a12132bfa  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-5of6.iso
90ae5387a38f8ec805d877cc5525ae8dedc7f810  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-6of6.iso
b7f85a3a493e3051e50515ef881214929c88a5f3  CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-DVD.iso
a0c640ae0c68cc0d9558cf4f8855f24671b3dadb  CentOS-5.3-i386-netinstall.iso
--------------------------------------------
x86_64 media and their sha1sums are:
7327174dc0cbb6531bc0e2f26e24788251717e91  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-1of7.iso
d060ed2826a4c212eebf5e3a825ce75e77cb44e0  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-2of7.iso
a0b7471ec6b742c962cc06b69624b0746025005f  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-3of7.iso
fe4106322d6b08344e82df8904142664a8a82522  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-4of7.iso
8cb5539fa4241bc5d23798a3e2721b2ebd3b18fe  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-5of7.iso
8a8f32888279f701e15162dec6f52b5f5fb5effc  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-6of7.iso
f053b05ea8576ea7d72116fa246f914086238ca9  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-7of7.iso
f8ca12b4acc714f4e4a21f3f35af083952ab46e0  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-DVD.iso
e971bd1677622708348b8a65264ec360a1cc0196  CentOS-5.3-x86_64-netinstall.iso
--------------------------------------------

4. Known Issues

When updating from 5.2 to 5.3 you can run into a problem with rpm: "rpmdb: unable to lock mutex: Invalid argument". To avoid this please update glibc before updating the rest of the installation with
- yum clean all && yum update glibc\* && yum update

Recommended procedure:

yum clean all
yum update glibc\*
yum update yum\* rpm\* python\*
yum clean all
yum update kernel\*
yum update
shutdown -r now

There is a bug when updating openmpi and lam packages. These have to be uninstalled before you update. See the upstream Release Notes for details.
When performing remote updates over ssh, consider using a screen session or updating in small chunks to minimize the impact of a lost connection mid update.
There is a major anaconda issue when using kickstart. With 5.3 you cannot set the time zone in the kickstart file. See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=481617 for the bug report. There is a workaround at http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-15687
The NTFS code is broken. See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=481495 for details. Because of this defect, the centosplus kernel in 5.3 does not have NTFS turned on, unlike all previous versions. Users who need NTFS should use the ntfs-3g driver. See http://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/NTFS
There is a dependency bug in !NetworkManager/wpa_supplicant. If you update NetworkManager you also have to update wpa_supplicant, this does not always happen automatically. See http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=3399
The 5.3 install crashes after a successful installation under Parallels 3. The installation itself crashes on Parallels 3, when you try to install with encrypted hard drives.
When using diskboot.img to install from a USB drive, anaconda tries to install GRUB on the USB drive rather than on the local HDD. Removing the USB drive after getting into the GUI (before the partitioning section) works around this problem.
If you have installed all the recent updates for 5.2, you might encounter problems if trying to update to 5.3 using only the ISOs or the [base] repository. Please enable the [updates] repository too and the dependency problems should get fixed.
If you get the following error from yum when updating from 5.2 to 5.3, please run yum clean metadata and try again: TypeError: unsubscriptable object.
There is a bug in yum-updatesd. Please see the bug report for status. A work-around has been posted in a forum thread.

5. Resolved Issues

Support for the Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller is now back. It was broken since 5.1 kernel but it's supported (as it was previously) with the sky2 module.
The nautilus-sendto bug has been fixed. nautilus-sendto cannot send files via Pidgin this way, but the "Gnome Desktop" group is now installable via yum groupinstall. See http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=2483 and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=250403

6. Changes

6.1. New packages in 5.3 that were not present in 5.2

cmirror-1.1.36-1.el5
compat-dapl-utils-2.0.13-4.el5
compat-libcom_err-1.0-7
dbus-libs-1.1.2-12.el5
dmraid-events-1.0.0.rc13-33.el5
e4fsprogs-1.41.1-2.el5
fipscheck-1.0.3-1.el5
fipscheck-devel-1.0.3-1.el5
gcc43-4.3.2-7.el5
gcc43-c++-4.3.2-7.el5
gcc43-gfortran-4.3.2-7.el5
java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-0.25.b09.el5
java-1.6.0-openjdk-demo-1.6.0.0-0.25.b09.el5
java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel-1.6.0.0-0.25.b09.el5
java-1.6.0-openjdk-javadoc-1.6.0.0-0.25.b09.el5
java-1.6.0-openjdk-src-1.6.0.0-0.25.b09.el5
kmod-cmirror-0.1.21
kmod-cmirror-PAE-0.1.21
kmod-cmirror-xen-0.1.21
ktune-0.2-3.el5
libcmpiutil-0.4-2.el5
libcmpiutil-devel-0.4-2.el5
libgfortran43-4.3.2-7.el5
libselinux-utils-1.33.4-5.1.el5
libstdc++43-devel-4.3.2-7.el5
libvirt-cim-0.5.1-4.el5
linuxwacom-devel-0.7.8.3-5.el5
mpitests-mvapich2-3.0-2.el5
mpitests-mvapich-3.0-2.el5
mpitests-openmpi-3.0-2.el5
mvapich-1.1.0-0.2931.3.el5
mvapich2-1.0.3-3.el5
nedit-5.5-21.el5
openib-mstflint-1.3-1.el5_2
openib-perftest-1.2-11.el5_2
openib-tvflash-0.9.2-8.el5_2
openldap-servers-overlays-2.3.43-3.el5
perl-Config-General-2.40-1.el5
pidgin-docs-2.5.2-6.el5
rpm-apidocs-4.4.2.3-9.el5
sgpio-1.2.0_10-2.el5
systemtap-client-0.7.2-2.el5
systemtap-server-0.7.2-2.el5
wacomexpresskeys-0.4.1-1.el5
xorg-x11-server-Xvnc-source-1.1.1-48.52.el5
yum-keys-1.1.16-13.el5.centos
yum-NetworkManager-dispatcher-1.1.16-13.el5.centos
yum-tmprepo-1.1.16-13.el5.centos
yum-verify-1.1.16-13.el5.centos

6.2. Packages that have been upgraded in 5.3 since the 5.2 release

alsa-lib-1.0.17
alsa-lib-devel-1.0.17
alsa-utils-1.0.17
anaconda-11.1.2.168
anaconda-runtime-11.1.2.168
audispd-plugins-1.7.7
audit-1.7.7
audit-libs-1.7.7
audit-libs-devel-1.7.7
audit-libs-python-1.7.7
booty-0.80.6
ccid-1.3.8
centos-release-notes-5.3
Cluster_Administration
cluster-cim-0.12.1
cluster-snmp-0.12.1
cman-2.0.98
cman-devel-2.0.98
cmirror-1.1.36
compat-dapl-2.0.13
compat-dapl-devel-2.0.13
compat-dapl-static-2.0.13
compat-dapl-utils-2.0.13
compat-openldap-2.3.43_2.2.29
cpufreq-utils-005
cups-1.3.7
cups-devel-1.3.7
cups-libs-1.3.7
cups-lpd-1.3.7
dapl-2.0.13
dapl-devel-2.0.13
dapl-static-2.0.13
dapl-utils-2.0.13
dbus-1.1.2
dbus-devel-1.1.2
dbus-glib-0.73
dbus-glib-devel-0.73
dbus-libs-1.1.2
dbus-x11-1.1.2
device-mapper-1.02.28
device-mapper-event-1.02.28
dnsmasq-2.45
ecryptfs-utils-56
ecryptfs-utils-devel-56
elfutils-0.137
elfutils-devel-0.137
elfutils-devel-static-0.137
elfutils-libelf-0.137
elfutils-libelf-devel-0.137
elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.137
elfutils-libs-0.137
ethtool-6
finch-2.5.2
finch-devel-2.5.2
firefox-3.0.5
firstboot-1.4.27.7
firstboot-tui-1.4.27.7
fonts-bengali-2.3.1
fonts-gujarati-2.3.1
fonts-hindi-2.3.1
fonts-kannada-2.3.1
fonts-malayalam-2.3.1
fonts-oriya-2.3.1
fonts-punjabi-2.3.1
fonts-tamil-2.3.1
fonts-telugu-2.3.1
gdb-6.8
gfs2-utils-0.1.53
gfs-utils-0.1.18
Global_File_System
gnbd-1.1.7
gstreamer-0.10.20
gstreamer-devel-0.10.20
gstreamer-plugins-base-0.10.20
gstreamer-plugins-base-devel-0.10.20
gstreamer-plugins-good-0.10.9
gstreamer-plugins-good-devel-0.10.9
gstreamer-tools-0.10.20
hwdata-0.213.11
infiniband-diags-1.4.1
initscripts-8.45.25
kmod-gfs-0.1.31
kmod-gfs-PAE-0.1.31
kmod-gfs-xen-0.1.31
kmod-gnbd-0.1.5
kmod-gnbd-PAE-0.1.5
kmod-gnbd-xen-0.1.5
ksh-20080202
kudzu-1.2.57.1.21
kudzu-devel-1.2.57.1.21
libcxgb3-1.2.2
libcxgb3-static-1.2.2
libgcrypt-1.2.4
libgcrypt-devel-1.2.4
libgomp-4.3.2
libhugetlbfs-1.3
libhugetlbfs-devel-1.3
libibcm-1.0.3 l
ibibcm-devel-1.0.3
libibcm-static-1.0.3
libibcommon-1.1.1
libibcommon-devel-1.1.1
libibcommon-static-1.1.1
libibmad-1.2.1
libibmad-devel-1.2.1
libibmad-static-1.2.1
libibumad-1.2.1
libibumad-devel-1.2.1
libibumad-static-1.2.1
libibverbs-1.1.2
libibverbs-devel-1.1.2
libibverbs-static-1.1.2
libibverbs-utils-1.1.2
libmthca-1.0.5
libmthca-static-1.0.5
libpurple-2.5.2
libpurple-devel-2.5.2
libpurple-perl-2.5.2
libpurple-tcl-2.5.2
librdmacm-1.0.8
librdmacm-devel-1.0.8
librdmacm-static-1.0.8
librdmacm-utils-1.0.8
linuxwacom-0.7.8.3
lm_sensors-2.10.7
lm_sensors-devel-2.10.7
luci-0.12.1 lvm2-2.02.40
lvm2-cluster-2.02.40
mcstrans-0.2.11
modcluster-0.12.1
mod_perl-2.0.4
mod_perl-devel-2.0.4
mpi-selector-1.0.1
net-snmp-5.3.2.2
net-snmp-devel-5.3.2.2
net-snmp-libs-5.3.2.2
net-snmp-perl-5.3.2.2
net-snmp-utils-5.3.2.2
NetworkManager-0.7.0
NetworkManager-devel-0.7.0
NetworkManager-glib-0.7.0
NetworkManager-glib-devel-0.7.0
NetworkManager-gnome-0.7.0
nspr-4.7.3 nspr-devel-4.7.3
nss-3.12.2.0 nss-devel-3.12.2.0
nss-pkcs11-devel-3.12.2.0
nss-tools-3.12.2.0
ofed-docs-1.3.2
openib-1.3.2
openldap-2.3.43
openldap-clients-2.3.43
openldap-devel-2.3.43
openldap-servers-2.3.43
openldap-servers-sql-2.3.43
openmotif-2.3.1
openmotif-devel-2.3.1
openmpi-1.2.7
openmpi-devel-1.2.7
openmpi-libs-1.2.7
opensm-3.2.2
opensm-devel-3.2.2
opensm-libs-3.2.2
opensm-static-3.2.2
openssl-0.9.8e
openssl-0.9.8e
openssl-devel-0.9.8e
openssl-perl-0.9.8e
openswan-2.6.14
openswan-doc-2.6.14
pidgin-2.5.2
pidgin-devel-2.5.2
pidgin-perl-2.5.2
pkinit-nss-0.7.6
planner-0.14.1
planner-eds-0.14.1
popt-1.10.2.3
prelink-0.4.0
pykickstart-0.43.3
qperf-0.4.1
rgmanager-2.0.46
rhythmbox-0.11.6
ricci-0.12.1
rpm-4.4.2.3
rpm-build-4.4.2.3
rpm-devel-4.4.2.3
rpm-libs-4.4.2.3
rpm-python-4.4.2.3
rsyslog-2.0.6
rsyslog-mysql-2.0.6
samba-3.0.33
samba-client-3.0.33
samba-common-3.0.33
samba-swat-3.0.33
smartmontools-5.38
spamassassin-3.2.5
squid-2.6.STABLE21
strace-4.5.18
sudo-1.6.9p17
system-config-audit-0.4.8
system-config-cluster-1.0.55
system-config-kickstart-2.6.19.8
system-config-lvm-1.1.5
system-config-network-1.3.99.12
system-config-network-tui-1.3.99.12
system-config-printer-0.7.32.10
system-config-printer-libs-0.7.32.10
system-config-samba-1.2.41
systemtap-0.7.2 systemtap-runtime-0.7.2
systemtap-testsuite-0.7.2
thunderbird-2.0.0.18
tog-pegasus-2.7.1
tog-pegasus-devel-2.7.1
tzdata-2008i
wdaemon-0.14
wireshark-1.0.3
wireshark-gnome-1.0.3
wpa_supplicant-0.5.10
wpa_supplicant-gui-0.5.10
xorg-x11-drv-nv-2.1.12
xulrunner-1.9.0.5
xulrunner-devel-1.9.0.5
xulrunner-devel-unstable-1.9.0.5
yum-3.2.19
yum-aliases-1.1.16
yum-allowdowngrade-1.1.16
yum-changelog-1.1.16
yum-downloadonly-1.1.16
yum-fastestmirror-1.1.16
yum-filter-data-1.1.16
yum-kernel-module-1.1.16
yum-kmod-1.1.16
yum-list-data-1.1.16
yum-merge-conf-1.1.16
yum-priorities-1.1.16
yum-protectbase-1.1.16
yum-protect-packages-1.1.16
yum-refresh-updatesd-1.1.16
yum-security-1.1.16
yum-tsflags-1.1.16
yum-updateonboot-1.1.16
yum-upgrade-helper-1.1.16
yum-utils-1.1.16 yum-versionlock-1.1.16

6.3. Packages removed by upstream in 5.3 that were present in 5.2

cachefilesd-0.8-5.el5
frysk-0.0.1.2008.03.19.rh1-1.el5
frysk-devel-0.0.1.2008.03.19.rh1-1.el5
frysk-gnome-0.0.1.2008.03.19.rh1-1.el5
kmod-gfs2-1.92
kmod-gfs2-PAE-1.92
kmod-gfs2-xen-1.92
sysreport-1.4.3-13.el5
yum-basearchonly-1.1.10-9.el5.centos
yum-cron-0.6-1.el5.centos
yum-skip-broken-1.1.10-9.el5.centos

6.4. Packages released as 5.2 updates with older packages on the 5.3 install media

avahi-0.6.16-1.el5_2.1
firefox-3.0.6-1.el5.centos
nss-3.12.2.0-4.el5.centos
nss-devel-3.12.2.0-4.el5.centos
nss-pkcs11-devel-3.12.2.0-4.el5.centos
nss-tools-3.12.2.0-4.el5.centos
squirrelmail-1.4.8-5.el5.centos.3
xulrunner-1.9.0.6-1.el5
xulrunner-devel-1.9.0.6-1.el5
xulrunner-devel-unstable-1.9.0.6-1.el5

These packages are now in the updates repository for CentOS 5.3.

7. Changes done by CentOS

7.1. Packages modified by CentOS

anaconda
anacron
basesystem
bluez-utils
brltty
busybox
centos-release
Cluster_Administration
clustermon
comps-extras
conga
crash
Deployment_Guide
desktop-backgrounds
eclipse
filesystem
firefox
firstboot
gdm
geronimo-specs
Global_File_System
gnome-desktop
gnome-session
gzip
httpd
initscripts
kdebase
kdelibs
kudzu
nautilus-sendto
nss
ntp
pango
pirut
pm-utils
procmail
python-virtinst
redhat-artwork
redhat-logos
redhat-lsb
redhat-rpm-config
rgmanager
rhdb-utils
rhgb
setuptool
specspo
squirrelmail
system-config-bind
tftp
thunderbird
Virtualization_Guide
xorg-x11-proto-devel
yum
yum-cron
yum-priorities (plugin)
yum-utils

Note: Details of changes can be found in the package changelog. It's also important to keep in mind that most of these packages are only changed to remove upstream branding, as required by their terms of use.

7.2. Packages removed from CentOS that are included upstream

redhat-release-5Client-5.3.0.3
redhat-release-5Server-5.3.0.3
redhat-release-notes-5Client-25
redhat-release-notes-5Server-25
rhel-instnum-1.0.9-1.el5
rhn-check-0.4.19-17.el5
rhn-client-tools-0.4.19-17.el5
rhnlib-2.2.6-2.el5
rhnsd-4.6.1-1.el5
rhn-setup-0.4.19-17.el5
rhn-setup-gnome-0.4.19-17.el5
yum-rhn-plugin-0.5.3-30.el5

7.3. Packages added by CentOS that are not included upstream

perl.i386 in the x86_64 distro (note: as of CentOS-5.2 the package has been moved from the distro to the extras repo)

8. How to help and get help

As a CentOS user there are various ways you can help out with the CentOS community. Take a look at our Contribute page for further information on how to get involved.

8.1. Special Interest Groups

CentOS consists of different Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that bring together people with similar interests. The following SIGs already exist:

Artwork - create and improve artwork for CentOS releases and promotion
Promotion - help promoting CentOS online or at events
Virtualization - unite people around virtualization in CentOS

And we encourage people to join any of these SIGs or start up a new SIG, eg.

Alpha, S390, Sparc and PPC port - help with porting CentOS to other architectures
Hardware compatibility - provide feedback about specific hardware
QA - help out with fixing bugs and testing new releases
RPM Packaging - contribute new useful RPM packages
Translation - help translating the documentation, website and wiki content

8.2. Mailinglists and Forums

Another way you can help out others in the community is by actively helping and resolving problems that users come up against in the mailinglists and forums.

8.3. Wiki and website

Even as an inexperienced CentOS user we can use your help. Because we like to know what problems you encountered, if you had problems finding specific information, how you would improve documentation so it becomes more accessible. This kind of feedback is as valuable to others as it would have been to you so your involvement is required to make CentOS better.

So if you want to help out and improve our documentation and wiki, register on the wiki or subscribe to the centos-docs mailinglist.

9. Further Reading

The following websites contain large amounts of information to help people with their CentOS systems :

10. Thanks

We thank everyone involved for helping us produce this product.

Release Notes for the ISOs

Visit http://www.redhat.com/rhel/ (1)