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EuroLinux 8.5 Release Notes

EuroLinux 8.5 is the first minor release created in a continuous way. It was also the first version when we deployed our engineer to remote sites (in most cases virtual) to provide support for organisations that rebuild RHEL/EuroLinux from sources with Gaia build system. This version code name is Tirana - the capital city of Albania.

Below you can find the essential changes in EuroLinux 8.5 release for x86_64 architecture. The aarch64 GA release is slightly delayed. Release notes for aarch64 will be provided in a separate document.

Dynamic programming languages, Web and Database servers

New versions of the following components are now available:

  • Ruby 3.0 - module ruby stream 3.0.
  • nginx 1.20 - module nginx stream 1.20
  • Nodejs 16 - module nodejs stream 16

Compiler Toolset

The following compiler toolsets have been updated in EL 8.5:

  • GCC Toolset 11 - software collection gcc-toolset-11
  • LLVM Toolset 12.0.1 - module llvm-toolset stream rhel
  • Rust Toolset 1.54.0 - module rust-toolset stream rhel
  • Go Toolset 1.16.7 - module go-toolset stream rhel

Security

Most of the security features are connected to rebased/updated versions of the packages. The most crucial security changes include:

  • rsyslog - now support OpenSSL
  • OpenSCAP framework - added new profiles and multiple changes and enhancements
  • cryptopolicies were updated - these system-wide cryptographic policies from this version support different policies for different backends (scoped policies)

High Availability and Resilient Storage

  • cmirror was updated to version 2.03.12
  • corosync was updated to version 3.1.5
  • pacemaker was updated to version 2.1.0
  • resource-agents-paf package was added to HA an RS repositories

General updates and improvements

Among the others, the following packages were updated and enhanced:

  • NetworkManager was updated to 1.32.10 from 1.30
  • OpenIMP was updated to 2.0.31 from 2.0.29
  • acel was updated to 3.1 from 2.8
  • bluez was updated to 5.56 from 5.52
  • chrony was updated to 4.1 from 3.5
  • cockpit was updated to version 251.1 from 238.2
  • crypto-policies was updated to 20210617 from 20210209
  • dnf was updated to 4.7.0 from 4.4.2
  • elfutils were updated to 0.185 from 0.182
  • freeipmi was updated to 1.6.8 from 1.6.6
  • gnutls was updated to 3.6.16 from 3.6.14
  • ibacm was updated to 35.0 from 32.0
  • libmodulemd updated to version 2.13.0 from 2.9.4
  • libreswan was updated to version 4.4 from 4.3
  • main GCC was updated to 8.5.0 from 8.4.1
  • opencryptoki updated to version 3.16.0 from 3.15.1
  • rsyslog was updated to version 8.2102.0 from 8.1911.0
  • sssd was updated to version 2.5.2 from 2.4.0

New packages

Among the others, the following packages were added to this release:

  • adwaita-qt5
  • ansible-collection-microsoft-sql
  • ansible-collection-redhat-rhel_mgmt
  • ansible-freeipa-tests
  • ansible-pcp
  • compact-hwloc1
  • coreos-installer
  • dotnet-build-reference-packages
  • dotnet-sdk-3.1-source-built-artifacts
  • dotnet-sdk-5.0-source-built-artifacts
  • dotnet5.0-build-reference-packages
  • eth-tools
  • flatpak (i686) included in PowerTools
  • java-17-openjdk*
  • libadwaita-qt5
  • libcap-ng-python3
  • libcomps-devel is now included in PowerTools
  • libvoikko-devel - is now included in PowerTools
  • lpsolve (i686) is now included in PowerTools
  • mobile-broadband-provider-info-devel is now included in PowerTools
  • modulemd-tools
  • pcm
  • python3-cloud-what
  • python3-libstoragemgmt
  • python3-pillow (i686) is now included in PowerTools
  • python3-pyghmi
  • qt5-qtserialbus-devel is now included in PowerTools
  • resource-agents-paf (resilient storage)
  • rsyslog-openssl
  • samba-vfs-iouring
  • sblim-gather
  • sblim-gather-provider is now included in PowerTools
  • sevctl
  • stratisd-dracut
  • tesseract
  • tss2
  • udftools
  • unicode-ucd-unihan
  • xapian-core and its development packages are now included

How to update from beta

The beta repository has an updated package el-release, that contains production repositories. Upgrading from EuroLinux 8.5 beta to 8.5 is as simple as running:

sudo yum update -y el-release
sudo yum update -y

Branded packages

Multiple packages have names changed due to branding, including:

  • redhat-backgrounds -> el-backgrounds
  • redhat-indexhtml -> el-indexhtml
  • redhat-logos -> el-logos
  • redhat-logos-httpd -> el-logos-httpd
  • redhat-logos-ipa -> el-logos-ipa
  • redhat-release -> el-release
  • redhat-release-eula -> el-release - we include EULA in release package

All these packages have proper RPM provides declaration.

The list of the packages that are changed due to branding includes, among the others:

  • abrt
  • anaconda
  • anaconda-user-help
  • anacondafirefox
  • cloud-init
  • crash
  • httpd
  • initial-setup
  • ipa
  • libreport
  • libguestfs
  • libreoffice
  • nginx
  • opa-ff
  • opa-fm
  • openscap
  • osinfo-db
  • python3
  • redhat-rpm-config
  • scap-security-guide
  • skopeo
  • sos
  • subscription-manager
  • thunderbird

Batteries

Batteries repository contains packages that are needed to rebuild the distribution but are not included in upstream repositories. Right now, this repository includes more than 2100 packages for each buildroot.

Multiple batteries were updated for this release there including:

  • Bootstraps for rust-toolset
  • Bootstraps for go-toolset

Gaia build system

Gaia build system was updated in all interested parties' environments. We also changed the rebuild policy. None of our customers was interested in using RHEL as a buildroot for their own Enterprise Linux forks. It means that EuroLinux must be released faster, but at the very same time, we can exclusively focus on providing EuroLinux in the early stages and thus release it faster. We also decided that the next version will be released asynchronously with more batch compilation. Synchronization was especially problematic in this release as there was a lot of holidays in Poland.

Other notable changes

  • EuroLinux 8.5 is the first version that can use baseos-all, appstream-all and powertools-all,high-availability-all, resilient-storage-all repositories that contain all packages produced during the build process. However, these packages are not supported by upstream or EuroLinux. They are intended for developers to build they own solutions.
  • EuroLinux reverted the previous changes that made DockerHub the default container image registry. We observed other RHEL clones and decided that keeping default might be more suitable for users.

Additional resources