Linux Inside: A look at Red Hat 7.1 Linux

by Gene Wilburn

(The Computer Paper, August/September 2001. Copyright © Wilburn Communications Ltd. All rights reserved)

Product: Red Hat Linux 7.1
Website: http://www.redhat.com
Pricing: 
	 Red Hat Linux Standard 7.1 $39.95 US
	 Red Hat Linux Deluxe Workstation 7.1 $79.95 US
	 Red Hat Linux Professional Server 7.1 $179.95 US
Rating:  ***** (5/5)

Review:

For years Red Hat has been the leading Linux distribution in North America. (Europeans tend to favour SuSE while Eastern Pacific Rim countries gravitate toward TurboLinux.) Red Hat is the distribution by which all the others are compared.

One of the things that has made Red Hat a popular distribution is its "middle of the road" approach to the rapidly evolving open-source package base. It is neither the most conservative (Debian-Stable, Slackware) nor the most leading edge (Mandrake, SuSE, Debian-Unstable). A large number of Linux users find this approach just right and have tended to stick with Red Hat through thick and thin.

Nonetheless, Red Hat has a history of getting itself into trouble when it jumps to .0 releases. For many of us the last rock-solid-stable release of Red Hat was 6.2. Red Hat 7.0 was a widely-acknowledged disappointment. It did not include the new Linux 2.4 kernel and it was plagued by excessive errata updates and dogged by controversy over the version of its gcc (C and C++) environment (a "snapshot" version that was never widely adopted). Red Hat's leadership as the Number One distribution was being challenged by more interesting and less problematic distros, and its reputation suffered a setback.

Let me say upfront that after working with the new release for a few weeks I am confident that 7.1 is going renew Red Hat's leadership position. This release delivers!

At the heart of the release is the new Linux 2.4 kernel. There has been dramatic progress in Linux at the kernel level between 2.2 and 2.4, particularly in areas that matter significantly to enterprise computing.

There are too many advances to the 2.4 kernel to list them all, but some of the notable ones are support for up to 8 or more processors and 64GB RAM, stateful firewall rules using iptables, and expanded support for USB devices -- both storage and hot pluggable. There is also support for Firewire devices.

The X Window environment has been moved up to XFree86 4.0.3 which adds support for many new video cards and offers improvement in 3D graphics. Multimedia support has been improved and expanded.

Overall, this is a well-appointed release with something for the both the corporate and the home user. If you're running an older version of Red Hat that is missing any features you're interested in, upgrading to Red Hat 7.1 is recommended. There is no further reason to hold back.

Package Options

For some time now Red Hat has been bundling its wares into different packages aimed at different markets, and pricing them accordingly. The "Standard" box contains the basic installation CDs, an installation floppy disk, and a printed Installation Guide. "Deluxe Workstation" adds more documentation, a PowerTools CD, a Documentation CD (HOWTOs etc.), plus a CD full of commercial packages (mostly demos) of things like Sun's Star Office, Borland's JBuilder and Loki games. The Professional Server package includes all of the preceding, plus a new Red Hat Customization Guide and a Server Applications CD with trial versions of things like Cold Fusion and ArcServe for Linux.

Pricing? Red Hat has been criticized for charging more than other distributions and I am in agreement that most of what's included in the "Deluxe Workstation" should be included in the Standard package, splitting the difference in price between the two. The distinction between Standard and Deluxe is artificial.

However, in defense of Red Hat it should be pointed out that Red Hat is still free for anyone who wants to download the CD ISO images and burn their own discs. This does not include the commercial trial software, of course. The purchased packages come with 30-day support.

Another popular option is purchasing nicely labelled and packaged Red Hat 7.1 ISO downloads from vendors such as Cheapbytes (http://www.cheapbytes.com) or Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com). The version of 7.1 that I am reviewing here was purchased from Cheapbytes. My 5 CD set, including Installation #1 and #2, Documentation, Source and PowerTools came to $12.49 US, including $5 shipping to Canada. This is roughly equivalent to the Deluxe Workstation package, minus the printed manuals, 30-day support, and commercial trial-software CD.

"Something Old, Something New"

When I install Red Hat I normally use the "text" install. It avoids the problem of a graphic card not being recognized properly. I've been using "text" since version 4.0 and am highly comfortable with it.

When Red Hat released 6.2, text installation began taking a back seat to the new graphical install option. Somebody at Red Hat must have been noting the complaints. I'm happy to report that text installation has been re-worked and restored to its former usefulness. Once again you can get individual package information during installation during text mode. Equally important, Red Hat has returned fdisk as a standard partitioning option. Although Disk Druid, the more upscale but less functional partitioner is getting better, it never works as well for me as traditional fdisk.

The latest graphical install is also excellent. I used it twice on two different machines and it correctly recognized video cards and chose viewable options for the install. One of these machines was an IBM Thinkpad that totally messed up on a graphical install with 6.2. I have no difficulty recommending the graphical install as a solid and convenient option for those who prefer it to the text install.

In an effort to make installation simpler for Linux newbies, Red Hat has put together high-level installation classes: Workstation, Server, Laptop, and Custom. Read the accompanying material very carefully if you choose anything other than Custom. Server class, for instance, will blow away any other partitions on your PC, including your Windows partitions. Workstation and Laptop will blow away any existing Linux partitions, but will leave Windows alone.

Even if you are okay with Workstation and Laptop removing old Linux partitions, do not choose either of these options if you're installing on a Windows NT or Windows 2000 computer that is using the NTFS filesystem. By default these installs will put the LILO boot program into MBR which can prevent you from booting NT or 2000. This is not well documented, nor are you given an option of where LILO is placed. LILO should be installed in the first sector of your root or boot partition in this case--an option only available with Custom.

As always, the best installation class is Custom. This is Linux the way it was meant to be: you make all the decisions. Be sure, when selecting Custom to also click Select Individual Packages at the appropriate time because Red Hat makes some decisions you may wish to override.

For a very long time Red Hat has favoured GNOME over KDE and PostgreSQL over MySQL. To its credit Red Hat has included a very recent version of KDE2 and MySQL is finally included in the distribution. But you have to select them--neither is installed by default. If you're using MySQL you will also need to make individual selections in the Languages section in order to install a version of PHP and Perl DBI/DBD that supports MySQL.

You can make GNOME or KDE your default graphical interface. Some of the older X Window managers are also available but for some curious reason Red Hat has not included the extremely popular and useful lightweight window manager icewm in its main installation. Icewm is available on the PowerTools disc (not included in Red Hat Linux Standard 7.1).

Another welcome option is Xemacs. Emacsians often use both Emacs and Xemacs but in the 6.X series it was necessary to download Xemacs after installation. Red Hat is finally providing options that the other distros have provided for some time.

Something to watch for during installation: kernel 2.4 is more aggressive in its use of swap space. Consider 128Mb the minimum swap partition size for any system with 128Mb or less of RAM.

"Something Borrowed, Something Blue"

Corporate server administrators will be pleased to see that Red Hat 7.1 offers two advanced authentication options: Kerberos and LDAP. This plays well into the enterprise as Linux moves toward standards-based authentication protocols.

For those of us who switch frequently between Linux distributions, it is heartening to see that Red Hat is beginning to adhere more closely to the evolving Linux FHS (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard) specification. Apache files, for instance, are now being place in /var/www rather than /home/httpd. You can now find service initialization scripts in /etc/init.d rather than /etc/rc.d/init.d (for backward compatibility symlinks allow you to use both). The documentation files in /usr/doc have been moved to /usr/share/doc. Debian users will feel at home with the new layout.

One of the long-standing knocks on Red Hat in particular was its practice of opening up all kinds of services by default. In the hands of an inexperienced administrator who didn't know how to lock down a system, it made Red Hat boxes shooting ducks to hackers.

In a significant move, and one to be highly applauded, Red Hat has tightened up its default out-of-the-box services and firewalling. You now have to manually turn on the services you want to use. Good move! The install allows you to set up a default firewall right from the get-go. Post-installation initialization of services such as telnet, ssh and pop are done by editing files in /etc/xinetd.d. Sendmail, by default, will not accept mail from other systems. It must be configured first.

Several of the Red Hat admin tools have been updated and, in some cases, renamed. Interestingly the linuxconf tool is no longer installed by default. According to the 7.1 Release Notes (available on the Red Hat Installation CD #1) linuxconf is deprecated. This may distress anyone who has standardized on it. Frankly I've never liked it, so good riddance.

The valuable up2date program has been improved. While not as good as Debian's apt-get tool, it's a big improvement over manually retrieving update files for keeping a system up to date with security patches and bug fixes.

The print-tool program allows for the configuration of over 500 printers. There are graphical tools for setting up DNS entries as well as firewall entries. There is now a graphical DNS tool (bind-tool) that can be used to create and verify DNS tables and entries.

One thing Red Hat has been criticized for with 7.1 is its lack of out-of-box support for ReiserFS--a journalling file system that recovers better from crashes, stores files more economically, and offers speed improvements in some situations. Mandrake and SuSE have been supporting ReiserFS for some time.

Defenders point out that ReiserFS is still considered experimental. Because Red Hat is the leading distribution and easily the main distribution used in corporations, anything it supports out-of-box looks like an endorsement. Red Hat is playing safe on this one, and I think they made the correct decision. Those who really want ReiserFS can install it. ReiserFS does not yet have a totally clean track record and the Linux community may move toward another journalling file system altogether.

The Big Picture

Red Hat 7.1 requires two installation CDs. The single CD installation days are gone forever.

This merely reflects how much the Linux environment has grown. Folks coming from Windows are often caught off guard at how much software comes with a Linux distribution. When you add in choices of many different development languages, multiple browser options, even multiple desktop environments, your system can have hundreds of optional application and support files installed.

On the workstation side, if you intend to run both KDE and GNOME desktops and add a lot of the software that makes Linux fun, you should allow at least 2-3GB total hard-disk space. Servers are usually configured much leaner in terms of system software and a lean 7.1 will easily fit onto less than 1GB.

If you are upgrading from Red Hat 6.2, you can either do an in-place update (an option during installation), or a re-install. I recommend a fresh install.

It's a big jump between 6.2 and 7.1 with many subtle changes and newer versions of library files. A fresh install will ensure a cleaner, more trouble-free system. This is the time-honoured "best practice" method for upgrading any Unix system. In-place updates are always iffy.

So back up all your important user files and configuration files and start fresh. If you already have your /home directory on a separate partition, good for you! Just don't reformat /home and prior to the new installation copy all your /etc and other config files you may want to reference later to /home/backup or some such.

Overall

There's a sense of assurance and quality about the Red Hat Linux 7.1 release that derives from an extended beta test period with two beta releases. At present Red Hat likely has the best tested implementation of the 2.4 kernel of any distribution. There are thoughtful improvements in the system administration tools and there is an excellent selection of packages. While not as large a distribution as Debian or SuSE, it offers (with the addition of the PowerTools CD) a very rich, comprehensive set of tools. Anything that's not there can be downloaded from the Internet.

Hardware detection, one of Red Hat's historic strengths, continues to be one of 7.1's chief assets. It includes drivers for most modern PC hardware, and the added support for laptops is welcome. It correctly detected all the hardware, including video and sound, on three different boxes I tested it on. One of my test machines was a recent-vintage laptop.

Interestingly I was able to upgrade one very old system to 7.1 via a parallel-port Backpack CD-ROM. Old hardware has not been neglected.

While there is no such thing as a "perfect" distro, Red Hat Linux 7.1 is a solid, sensible distribution that offers quality and up-to-date features without leaning too far into experimental packages. It is well balanced.

Newcomers to Linux would be advised to purchase the Red Hat Standard or Deluxe Workstation package with printed documentation and 30-day support. Corporate users may want the extra commercial software that comes with the Professional Server package. Experienced Linux users may prefer to download the CD images or to purchase pre-labelled, convenience CDs from Cheapbytes or Linux Central.

All in all, Red Hat Linux 7.1 is an impressive release that is pleasing to install and to use. If you are in doubt about which Linux distribution to select, rest assured that you won't go wrong by choosing this one.

Gene Wilburn (gene@wilburn.ca) is a Toronto-based IT specialist, musician and writer who operates a small farm of Linux servers.

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