KernelTrap reports that David Weinehall has released the 2.0.40 stable Linux kernel, calling it the “Moss-covered Tortoise”. It earned this name by being released over 3 years after its predecessor, 2.0.39. Those still using the 2.0 kernel are recommended to upgrade for numerous reasons, including fixes to local exploits and remote information leaks. View the changelog and download the new kernel from a kernel.org mirror.
2.0.40 “Moss-covered Tortoise” Linux Kernel Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Hah, suitable. 🙂
How many people still run a 2.0.x kernel?
He was asked this very question in the recent kerneltrap interview (http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/2229) linked to from the release announcement itself. Below is his reply:
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Dunno.
It’s hard to tell, since I don’t get a lot of feedback. I have a few very helpful testers, mainly in Japan & Finland (I don’t know why these two countries dominate my userbase though.) But I’m thankful for all the feedback I get.
I suspect that the userbase for 2.0 is much bigger than is evident from the feedback though, I think that a lot of embedded devices probably have 2.0-kernels, and that those devices are firewalled in a matter that new kernel-releases that fix security-issues are not really that urgent.
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I run a 2.0.x kernel, because the driver I need exists only for 2.0.x.
Probably a good deal of people out there have such a old kernel. If they got it working they ain’t messing with it. I would say it would be a percentage something like how many people still run win95 or maybe win98. There is no reason to be running it but many are and it works for them. Or is the only thing that works for them.
And yeah, great name.
> I run a 2.0.x kernel, because the driver I need exists only for 2.0.x.
That’s interesting, what driver?
alright we have a 2.0.x here, anyone here run anything older?
I wonder if there are more people running 2.0.x than there are people running 2.6.x
Not that there’s a way to get an answer.
I do! I’m posting this from a VIC20!
Then your running 2.0 🙂
It’s an onboard EISA LAN card. It’s onboard, but it uses an EISA bus. I forgot the exact name, but I remember the problem is that Linux doesn’t support the version of the card with EISA, only PCI. I broke my butt searching for a driver, and then I found a patch that never worked (I tried it against almost all 2.0.x module sources) and I was getting quite frustrated. Until that day I found the actually compiled module, which works with any 2.0.x kernel, although it complains.
In a way, I’m a bit afraid to upgrade the kernel on this thing. I even had to prepare a special boot floppy for it, as the SCSI controller in it is not configured in the usual 2.0.x Slackware bootdisk kernels.
Configuring and installing Linux can get quite nasty sometimes ;o)))
Configuring and installing Linux can get quite nasty sometimes ;o)))
Tru, but how well do you think windows would handle that NIC?
> Tru, but how well do you think windows would handle
> that NIC?
Very well, because chances are the mainboard manufacturer provided Windows drivers to go with it… of course, this probably means Windows versions just as old as a 2.0.x Linux kernel. 😉
> alright we have a 2.0.x here, anyone here run anything
> older?
Well, not precisely *running*, but I have a poster of the v0.1 sources on my wall… 😀
Tru, but how well do you think windows would handle that NIC?
There is a WinNT 4.0 driver for it. But no driver exists for newer Windows versions.
On the other hand, no driver exists for newer Linux versions, either, so…..
But let’s not go there. Let me try to upgrade this kernel and hope for the best.
well i have installed debian stable and have 2.4.x kernel
in fact gonna update it to Unstable soon .
ps :
nice joke
> alright we have a 2.0.x here, anyone here run anything
> older?
Yes, I’m running a heavily patched version of kernel 1.2.13 (Slackware 3.0) on a i486 DX4 with PCI/ISA bus, 32MB. of FPM RAM, Realtek 8029 NIC, S3 Trio32 2MB. VGA card, onboard IDE (ALi 1445 chipset), Seagate 2.1GB. hard disk and SB16 PnP card.
wow nice machine
32MB of ram !!
have a 486dx2@50Mhz but only 4MBytes of edo? ram
No new distro installs on it
maybe a zip slack will do 🙂
😉
not updated