Oracle Linux 5.9 Has Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 2.6.39

Oracle has announced on January 16 that Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 9 is now available for download, for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

As you would expect from the version numbering, Oracle Linux 5.9 is based on Red Hat 5.9, the latest version launched in the 5.x series.

According to Oracle, their operating system is 75% faster than Red Hat Enterprise Linux, supports large and small systems, tracks mainline Linux closely, provides data integrity, better security, and improved application uptime.

Oracle 5.9 is optimized for the Oracle database and includes Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and Oracle Database Appliance.

Highlights of Oracle Linux 5.9:

• __put_nfs_open_context() NULL pointer panic has been fixed;
• SCSI hotplug and rescan race have been fixed;
• Missing aio_complete() in end_io has been repaired;
• The mlx4 ib and net drivers have been updated to the latest upstream version. Additionally, support for EEH error recovery has been added to the mlx4 driver;
• The mlx4_en driver has been updated to version 1.5.3;
• The mlx4_core driver has been updated to version 1.0-ofed1.5.4;
• The enic driver for Cisco 10G Ethernet devices has been updated to version 2.1.1.35+;
• The mptfusion driver has been updated to version 3.04.20, which adds the following device ID: SAS1068_820XELP;
• Too many getattr and access calls after direct I/O;
• PVHVM guest with PoD crash under memory pressure has been fixed.

Check out the official announcement for a complete list of changes, updated drivers and new features. Moreover, Oracle Linux 5.9 ships with the following three sets of kernel packages:

• Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel [kernel-uek-2.6.39-300.26.1.el5uek]. Installed and booted by default.
• Red Hat compatible Kernel [kernel-2.6.18-348.el5]. This version is installed by default.
• Red Hat compatible Kernel with bug fixes added by Oracle [kernel-2.6.18-348.0.0.0.1.el5]. This kernel, available on x86 and x86_64, can only be installed manually.

Download Oracle Linux 5.9 right now from Softpedia.