Copyright © 2007 X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV
Permission is granted to copy, distribute, and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html.
This document may be copied and distributed in any medium, either commercially or non-commercially, provided that the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), the copyright notices, and the license notice saying the GNU FDL applies to the document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of the GNU FDL.
X/OS is a registered trademark of X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.
All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners.
X/OS Linux 5 is a Free and Open Source Linux distribution derived from the freely available source rpm packages of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5).
X/OS has spent considerable effort to avoid using Red Hat's trademarks in any way that would imply an association with or sponsorship by Red Hat. X/OS Linux is not produced, maintained or supported by Red Hat.
The X/OS Linux 5.1 package set for x86_64 systems is identical to the combined package set from the x86_64 release of RHEL 5.1 Client and RHEL 5.1 Server, with the following exceptions:
The following packages have been renamed: redhat-logos (xos-logos), redhat-lsb (xos-lsb), redhat-release (xos-release), redhat-release-notes (xos-release-notes), and redhat-rpm-config (xos-rpm-config).
All Red Hat Network (RHN) related packages are not included with X/OS Linux.
A few updates released for RHEL 5.1 have been included.
The yum package has been updated to version 3.2.1, the version included with the RHEL 5.1 beta release, as the yum version (3.0.1) that was included with the final version of RHEL 5.1 contains serious problems.
Besides these additions and name changes, the following modifications were made to the original packages:
An installclass has been added to anaconda, supporting various alternatives for installing X/OS Linux 5: using the full package set (default) or using only a selected set of repositories, either manually or by using a RHEL5 installation number (see below).
Red Hat trademarks and logos have been removed, particularly affecting package redhat-logos (now called xos-logos). Various other packages also required minor modifications to remove references to Red Hat.
Dependencies of renamed packages have been changed.
Several small changes to spec files have been made, to remove bugs or fix other issues. When applicable, the corresponding Bugzilla ticket numbers are listed in the changelog entries.
An extension has been added to the package release number, to avoid any confusion with the RHEL versions of the packages.
The changelog entries in the X/OS Linux packages contain a detailed list of all modifications.
RHEL5 comes in 2 variants, Client and Server, each containing a number of package repositories. The Client variant has repositories Client, Workstation, and VT, and the Server variant has repositories Server, VT, Cluster, and ClusterStorage. X/OS Linux comes in only one variant but offers the user the possibility to use only a selected set of repositories during the installation. Using this feature, the installation procedure and the set of installed packages is fully compatible with the installation of a Client or Server variant of RHEL using a Red Hat installation number, to access a predefined set of repositories.
To enable this feature, the keyword "askkey" has to be specified at the boot-prompt of the installer in which case, an installation key will be asked during installation. This key can be either a valid Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation number or a X/OS Linux-specific key, containing a combination of letters representing the set of repositories to use: Client (C), Workstation (W), Server (S), Virtualization (V), Cluster (U), Cluster Storage (G), or all package sets (A). For automatic installs, the key can also be specified with the "key" option of kickstart either specifying a valid Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation number or a X/OS Linux-specific key.
When comparing X/OS Linux 5 with X/OS Linux 4, a large number of packages has been added. A few packages have been replaced or removed. Most other packages have been upgraded to a new version. Especially note the following changes:
Package management with apt and synaptic is not supported anymore.
Like in RHEL5, up2date is no longer supported. Package management is now done with yum, pirut, or pup.
See the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 release notes http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/release-notes/RELEASE-NOTES-U1-x86_64-en.html for more detailed release information about various packages.