How to verify you have a RedHat supported kernel

PURPOSE

-------

This article will assist you to determine if you are running a 

Red Hat supplied kernel that can be supported by both Red Hat and Oracle.

 

SCOPE & APPLICATION

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This is intended for Linux system administrators and Linux DBAs

with sysadmin skills on Red Hat Advanced Server version 2.1 (RH 2.1 AS/ES) &

on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 3.0).

This note is done for x86 processor architecture. 

The errata kernel's list is not applicable to the Itanium processor.

How to verify you have a RedHat supported kernel

------------------------------------------------

Issue the following 2 commands, then proceed through the below table

to check if your kernel is supported. 

1)  # uname -a

Example output:

# uname -a

Linux linux1 2.4.9-e.3 #1 Fri May 3 17:02:43 EDT 2002 i686 unknown

The following table details the currently supported Red Hat Advanced Server kernel versions. 

If the version of the kernel shown by uname is not listed then you are running an unsupported kernel.

Anyway the errata (-eXX) on kernel for Advanced Server provided by RedHat are supported by Oracle. 

However, Oracle recommends use of RedHat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 with kernel errata 2.4.9-e.12 or higher.

In case of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) the supported kernel is 2.4.21-4.EL or higher

Name                    Release Date

-----------------       -----------------------------

2.4.9-e.3 Fri May 3 17:02:43 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.3smp Fri May 3 16:48:54 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.3enterprise Fri May 3 16:35:33 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.3summit Fri May 3 16:22:16 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.5 Thu Jun 27 11:49:56 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.5smp Thu Jun 27 11:38:49 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.5enterprise Thu Jun 27 11:28:16 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.5summit Thu Jun 27 11:18:08 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.8 Fri Jul 19 15:49:04 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.8smp Fri Jul 19 15:38:30 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.8enterprise Fri Jul 19 15:27:35 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.8summit Fri Jul 19 15:17:42 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.9 Tue Oct 15 13:21:53 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.9smp Tue Oct 15 13:07:17 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.9enterprise Tue Oct 15 12:55:46 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.9summit Tue Oct 15 12:44:49 EDT 2002

2.4.9-e.10 Thu Nov 14 11:09:11 EST 2002

2.4.9-e.10smp Thu Nov 14 10:55:16 EST 2002

2.4.9-e.10enterprise Thu Nov 14 10:28:55 EST 2002

2.4.9-e.10summit Thu Nov 14 10:03:01 EST 2002

2.4.9-e.12              Tue Feb 11 03:12:29 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.12smp           Tue Feb 11 02:24:10 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.12enterprise    Tue Feb 11 01:29:18 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.12summit Tue Feb 11 00:25:20 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.16              Mon Mar 17 17:14:18 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.16smp           Mon Mar 17 16:55:45 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.16enterprise    Mon Mar 17 16:37:14 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.16summit Mon Mar 17 16:11:58 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.24      Tue May 27 16:15:51 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.24smp   Tue May 27 16:07:39 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.24enterprise    Tue May 27 15:59:23 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.24summit        Tue May 27 15:51:38 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.25 Fri Jun 6 18:27:21 EDT 2003 

2.4.9-e.25smp Fri Jun 6 18:11:40 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.25enterprise    Fri Jun 6 17:55:13 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.25summit Fri Jun 6 17:29:49 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.27              Tue Aug 5 15:59:55 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.27smp           Tue Aug 5 15:49:54 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.27enterprise    Tue Aug 5 15:39:21 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.27summit        Tue Aug 5 15:25:20 EDT 2003

2.4.9-e.30              Fri Nov 28 07:33:42 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.30smp           Fri Nov 28 07:18:53 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.30summit        Fri Nov 28 06:48:36 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.30enterprise    Fri Nov 28 07:03:05 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.34              Wed Dec 10 17:01:48 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.34smp           Wed Dec 10 16:52:22 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.34enterprise    Wed Dec 10 16:42:39 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.34summit        Wed Dec 10 16:29:15 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.35              Tue Dec 23 00:25:11 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.35smp           Tue Dec 23 00:15:55 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.35enterprise    Tue Dec 23 00:06:16 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.35summit        Mon Dec 22 23:52:50 EST 2003

2.4.9-e.37              Mon Jan 26 11:38:18 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.37smp           Mon Jan 26 11:29:50 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.37enterprise    Mon Jan 26 11:20:59 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.37summit        Mon Jan 26 11:08:12 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.38              Wed Feb 11 00:18:10 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.38smp           Wed Feb 11 00:09:01 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.38enterprise    Tue Feb 10 23:45:57 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.38summit        Tue Feb 10 23:59:30 EST 2004

2.4.9-e.49              Fri Aug  6 11:56:52 EDT 2004

2.4.9-e.49smp

2.4.9-e.49enterprise

2.4.9-e.49summit

2) The next step is to check to ensure that there are no tainted modules 

loaded.  Some 3rd party vendors distribute binary modules which are loaded 

into the kernel.  Binary modules are modules where the source code is not 

available for Linux developers to investigate. If there are binary modules 

loaded then there is, in essence, a kernel extension that can only be fixed 

by the vendor. As such Oracle and Red Hat cannot fully support environments 

where binary modules are loaded.  

# /sbin/lsmod

  

The header line from this command should include the text 

'Not tainted' as in the following example:

  Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted

nfs                    87936   0 (autoclean)

lockd                  60224   0 (autoclean) [nfs]

sunrpc                 79952   0 (autoclean) [nfs lockd]

iptable_filter          2912   0 (autoclean) (unused)

ip_tables              14080   1 [iptable_filter]

nls_iso8859-1           3520   1 (autoclean)

ide-cd                 35200   1 (autoclean)

cdrom                  35168   0 (autoclean) [ide-cd]

hangcheck-timer         2192   0 (unused)

autofs                 13220   0 (autoclean) (unused)

3c59x                  31784   1

cs4232                  5312   0

ad1848                 23968   0 [cs4232]

uart401                 8288   0 [cs4232]

sound                  73900   0 [cs4232 ad1848 uart401]

soundcore               7364   4 [sound]

usb-uhci               25540   0 (unused)

usbcore                65440   1 [usb-uhci]

ext3                   70240   5

jbd                    51004   5 [ext3]

If you see the word 'Tainted' listed, then this indicates that the kernel 

cannot be supported.  The values listed by Tainted are as follows:

  P means that a proprietary binary module is loaded that does not contain a 

    GPL license.

  F means a module has been Force loaded. Force loaded modules bypass the 

    kernel/module verification checks. 

from kernel.h

#define TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE        (1<<0)

#define TAINT_FORCED_MODULE             (1<<1)

#define TAINT_UNSAFE_SMP                (1<<2)

#define TAINT_FORCED_RMMOD              (1<<3)

P = TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE

F=TAINT_FORCED_MODULE

Here is an example with a proprietary driver loaded:

Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P  

nfs                    91936   0  (autoclean)

lockd                  61184   0  (autoclean) [nfs]

sunrpc                 86032   0  (autoclean) [nfs lockd]

autofs                 13796   1  (autoclean)

bcm5700                73156   1 

eepro100               21968   1 

vxio                  657056  20  (autoclean)

vxspec                  4872   2 

ext3                   73536  27 

jbd                    55048  27  [ext3]

cciss                  44992  13 

sym53c8xx              67940   0  (unused)

sd_mod                 13468   0  (unused)

scsi_mod              125084   2  [cciss sym53c8xx sd_mod]

Additional Information

----------------------

To get the licensing information for the loaded kernel modules, 

execute these commands in a bash shell script:

  for i in `cat /proc/modules|awk '{print $1}'` ; 

  do 

    x=`/sbin/modinfo -n $i` ;

    echo $x;

    size $x ; 

    modinfo -l $i ;

    modinfo -p $i ; 

  done

The resulting output will look like:

  # /sbin/modinfo hangcheck-timer

  filename:    /lib/modules/2.4.9-e.3/kernel/drivers/addon/hangcheck/hangcheck-timer.o

  description: <none>

  author:      <none>

  license:     "GPL"

Modules that have a "GPL" license are open source and supported by both

Redhat and Oracle.

For more information on GPL, please refer the following:

   http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php

   http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

N.B:

----

- If a customer is running an OS that does not fit the above  needs, we DO

support the Oracle products itself, we will just defer OS related

issues.

- Oracle & RedHat recommends the customer to be on kernel version 2.4.9-e.12 

or higher.