Hello ISR community,

We have released version 0.8.4 of the OpenISR platform.  This update to the 0.8 series includes several bugfixes as well as some usability improvements.  Also, this release adds support for VMware on 64-bit hosts, and we have binary packages for newer revisions of Ubuntu and Fedora systems.

The source tarball is available here:
http://isr.cmu.edu/software/openisr-0.8.4.tar.gz

Binary packages for Debian (sarge, etch), Ubuntu (dapper, edgy, feisty, gutsy) and Fedora (fc5, fc6, fedora7 and fedora8) are being posted, and I encourage users to use their package manager to upgrade.  For more information on how to use the OpenISR repository with your package manager, see here: http://isr.cmu.edu/download.html

The most noticable change for end-users is the openisr-config program, which will perform the correct steps for building and installing our kernel modules for the system it is installed on (either a source install, a debian-style package, or an RPM package).  Regardless of what kind of installation you have, run openisr-config after installing or upgrading and it will do the right thing.  We have tested this on a number of different systems, but please let us know if anything expected happens on your system.

The full changelog is provided below.

Matt

====== 0.8.4 (2007-11-20)

- Add dependency on "pv" (http://www.ivarch.com/programs/pv.shtml)
- Fix kernel crash triggerable by any local user
- Fix rare deadlock on single-core, non-HT machines
- Dramatically reduce Vulpes' CPU utilization
- Add support for 2.6.23 kernel
- Add support for running VMware on 64-bit hosts
- Add AES support to Nexus
- Add support for external "dirtometer" program
- Add openisr-config script to build and install the OpenISR kernel modules
- Show a progress bar while encoding/decoding a memory image
- Various improvements to handling of parcel memory image
- Improve handling of loop device unbinding at suspend time
- Fix client-commit and resume failures after a VMware crash with newer
  versions of VMware
- Fix bug which could cause a stale memory image to be used after a parcel
  was shut down
- Print a warning on resume if the loaded Nexus module is out-of-date
- Various fixes and performance improvements
- Packaging updates