Status: Project is DONE

• An update to the install script has been deployed; additional issues have been identified and resolved.
• New RHEL 4 based Athena install media (release 6) has been released.
• New RHEL 4.7 packages were incorporated in an update to the update.
• Some rework was required to accommodate PXE. Athena install media 6a is canon now.
• The PXE Server update is complete.

Context

When the Athena base OS was updated to Red Hat Enterprise 4 (RHEL 4) from RHEL 3, the installer was not. Instead quick and dirty amendments were made to get the old installer to work specifically on the new hardware. Much calendar time elapsed waiting for an opportunity to "go back and fix it up right".

Issues

• While Red Hat maintained a committment to keep updating RHEL3 with new hardware support, these updates were slow (and sometimes incomplete) to a problematic degree.
• Red Hat is no longer updating RHEL3 with new hardware support at all.

Deliverables

• Bug fixes and cleanups to the install script used by present Athena install media:
  • Ambiguity on some hardware about whether the disks are really old-style ATA or are new SATA disks which are being used (due to the old media) in legacy mode, leading to occasional misconfiguration.
  • Failure to use calculated swap space size on some installs.
  • Prompting for the root password in the middle of an install as part of X server configuration.
  • Updates to add extra functionality required by the addition of VMware player to the release.
  • Updates to account for the release now defaulting to an SMP kernel install.

• New RHEL 4 based Athena install media:
  • ISO CD image.
  • Update to image on IS&T PXE server