2.6.8 was released August 14, 2004. Changelog

• Allow x86 to reenable interrupts on lock contention (commit)

• Add O_NOATIME open(2) flag support (GNU extension): If this bit is set, read will not update the access time of the file. It is useful if you want to do something with the file atime (for instance, moving files that have not been accessed in a while to somewhere else, or something like Debian's popularity-contest) but you also want to read all files periodically (for instance, tripwire or debsums) commit

• VFS shrinkage tuning: This adds /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure, which tunes the vfs cache versus pagecache scanning pressure. At vfs_cache_pressure=0 we don't shrink dcache and icache at all, at vfs_cache_pressure=100 there is no change in behaviour, at vfs_cache_pressure > 100 we reclaim dentries and inodes harder commit

• MNT_EXPIRE for umount(): Intrinsic automount and mountpoint degradation support. This adds support for a filesystem (such as kAFS) to perform automounting intrinsically without the need for a userspace daemon. It also adds support for such mountpoints to be degraded at the filesystem's behest until they've been untouched long enough that they'll be removed commit, commit

• Conversion to the new symbolic link resolution code (which will eventually allow an increase in the maximum link depth) (LWN article). commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• New "CPU mask" implementation commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• PKT_SCHED: Add loss option to network delay scheduler. commit

• cfq sysfs support commit

• reiserfs: block allocator optimizations commit

• reiserfs: btree readahead commit

• reiserfs data logging support commit

• JFS: Add d_hash and d_compare operations for case-insensitive names commit

• NET: Add tc extensions infrastructure. commit

• NET: Lockless loopback patch (version 2). commit

• NET: Kill NET_FASTROUTE, does nothing and suffers from major bitrot. commit

• PKT_SCHED: Remove CSZ scheduler. commit

• BRIDGE: Support different MTU sizes. commit

• IPV6: XFRM: support (uncompressed) tunnel mode ipcomp6 using xfrm6_tunnel infrastructure. commit

• NETFILTER: Add addrtype match commit

• NETFILTER: Add realm match commit

• RLIM: add rlimit entry for controlling queued signals commit, commit

• RLIM: add rlimit entry for POSIX mqueue allocation commit, commit

• Remove unused queued_signals global accounting - rtsig-max and rtsig-nr /proc interfaces went away commit

• BSD accounting format rework, add version 3 file format commit

• Device Mapper: Add kcopyd commit, commit, commit

• Device-mapper: Add snapshot target commit

• Device-mapper: Add mirroring target commit

• Device-mapper: Add dm-zero target commit, commit

• epoll: replace the file lookup hash with rbtrees commit

• fb accel capabilities commit

• SELinux: Fine-grained Netlink support commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• NLS support for ASCII commit

• kbuild: add deb-pkg target commit

• rcu lock update: Add per-cpu batch counter commit

• Tweak the buddy allocator for better I/O merging commit

• per node huge page stats in sysfs commit

• knfsd: allow user to set NFSv4 lease time. commit

• crc: add common CRC16 module commit

• Merge /proc/fs/cifs/SimultaneousOps into /proc/fs/cifs/Stats commit

• CRYPTO: Add TEA and XTEA algorithms. commit

• CRYPTO: Add Khazad algorithm. commit

• PKT_SCHED: Add jitter support to netem. commit

• Add removeable sysfs block device attribute commit

• JFFS2 file system update commit

• Remove /proc/fs/jffs2 support. commit

• CIFS: Add missing mount option for optionally cifs perm checks when uids on server and client do not match and for optionally overriding server setting default uid/gid of new cifs files and directories. commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• kbuild: build binary rpm from pre-built tree commit

• Revert FAT NLS changes. commit

• Added permissions checking on raw SCSI commands from user space (LWN article). commit

• Drivers & architectures

  • NX (No eXecute) support for x86 commit

  • sh64 support commit

  • ARM: Add support code for ARM hardware vector floating point commit

  • ARM: Remove TBOX. commit

  • ARM: Remove NexusPCI/FTVPCI platform. commit

  • ARM: Support for Collie device commit

  • PPC: Add support for ADS8272 board. commit

  • Add ARM smc91x driver commit

  • ppc64: Implement CONFIG_PREEMPT commit

  • ppc64: HVCS driver commit

  • SPARC64: Implement tlb flush batching just like ppc64. commit

  • ppc32: support for e500 and 85xx commit

  • PPC32: Finish support for the EmbeddedPlanet RPX8260 board. From Dan Malek <dan@embeddededge.com> and myself. commit

  • PPC32: Add SysRq-G support to our KGDB stub commit

  • ppc32: oprofile support commit

  • ppc32: Support for new Apple laptop models commit

  • ppc32: Support for new Apple laptop models commit

  • ppc32: add PPC4xx DMA engine library commit

  • ppc64: enable EEH on PCI host bridges commit

  • ppc: Add basic support for the Freescale MPC52xx embedded CPU and the LITE5200 platform commit

  • ppc: Add support for MPC52xx PSCs. commit

  • ppc32: Support for MPC8560 CPU and boards commit

  • ppc32: support for MPC8555 CPU and board commit

  • sh: SH-3 On-Chip ADC support commit

  • sh: Renesas HS7751RVoIP board support. commit

  • sh: SolutionEngine 7300 board support. commit

  • sh: Renesas RTS7751R2D board support. commit

  • sh: VoyagerGX companion chip support. commit

  • ARM: basic LCD support for the PXA270/Mainstone board commit

  • Remove PC9800 support commit, commit

  • ppc64: viodasd integration commit

  • ppc64: viocd integration commit

  • ppc64: viotape integration commit

  • ppc64: iseries_veth integration commit

  • SPARC64: Non-executable page support. commit

  • ppc32: Redwood[56] support for smc91x Ethernet driver commit

  • ia64: add audit support commit

  • Bluetooth: Add HID protocol support commit

  • Add support for ISD-300 controller commit

  • Add basic sysfs support for raw devices commit

  • Add class support to cpuid.c commit

  • 3ware 9000 SATA-RAID driver commit, commit

  • USB: add printer reset ioctl commit

  • Driver Model: Add class support to msr.c commit

  • add new via-velocity gigabit ethernet driver commit

  • AGPGART: Re-add VIA VP3 support. commit

  • IDE: Introduce SATA enable/disable config option commit

  • libata: Add NVIDIA SATA driver commit

  • Remove old MPC82xx (CPM2) uart driver commit

  • PCI host bridge support for Motorola MPC826x commit

  • Add support for i8259 IRQ controller on WindRiver PowerQUICC II commit

  • USB: add support for Buffalo LUA-U2-KTX commit

  • HPET (High Precision Event Timer) driver commit

  • 3c59x: support for ATI Radeon 9100 IGP commit

  • Enable clustering in the 53c700 driver commit

  • H8/300: smc9194 driver commit

  • sk98lin pci id commit

  • PCMCIA: Add Cirrus PD6729 PCMCIA bridge support. commit

  • Add ovcamchip driver commit

  • v4l: Add new pixel format (V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8) and allow to specify the video source to capture from on a per-frame basis commit

  • Add M48T35 RTC driver commit

  • Add support for MPC8560 CPU and WindRiver PowerQUICC III SBC8560 commit

  • qla2xxx: Extend firmware dump support commit

  • Support NetMOS based PCI cards providing serial and parallel ports commit

  • USB: gadgetfs AIO support commit

  • Add PCDP console detection support commit

  • radeonfb accel capabilities commit

  • USB: provide support for the HX version of pl2303 chips commit

  • USB: PL2303 module, new IDs commit

  • AGPGART: K8T800 Pro support in amd64 driver. commit

  • add new fec_8xx network driver commit

  • PCI: New PCI vendor/device ID for Radisys ENP-2611 board commit

  • fbcon: new scrolling mode: YPAN + REDRAW commit

  • PCMCIA: core socket sysfs support, export card type commit

  • PCMCIA: card insert / eject commit

  • PCMCIA: card vpp / vcc commit

  • PCMCIA: card voltage commit

  • AGPGART: VIA K8T890 Host Bridge support. commit

  • AGPGART: VIA !VT838x [K8T800/K8M800/K8N800] support commit

  • AGPGART: VIA !KT880 support. commit

  • AGPGART: VIA !VT83xx/!VT87xx/!KTxxx/!Px8xx support. commit

  • AGPGART: VIA P4M800 support. commit

  • AGPGART: Intel I915 support commit

  • AGPGART: Add support for SiS 5591 commit

  • I2C: ADM1030 and Co sensors chips support commit

  • I2C: Add support for LM86, MAX6657 and MAX6658 to lm90 commit

  • I2C: Add support for LM77 commit

  • I2C: adm1025 driver ported to 2.6 commit

  • 1 Wire: add Dallas 1-wire protocol driver subsystem commit

  • Remove drivers/char/h8.{c,h} commit

  • USB: usbnet, Sitecom LN-029 commit

  • New SN9C10[12] driver commit

  • NAND flash driver updates. commit

  • NOR flash drivers update commit

  • Bluetooth: Add support for another ALPS module commit

  • i810: add MMIO DSP support commit

  • Watchdog driver for Intel IXP2000 Network Processor commit

  • Implement i586 asm AES commit

  • M-Systems DiskOnChip driver update. commit