Oracle Linux 8 Update 4 maintains compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux

64-bit Oracle Linux 8 Update 4, AMD (x86_64) and Arm (aarch64) maintain user space compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS, which is independent of the kernel version that underlies the operating system. Existing applications in the user space will continue to run unmodified on Oracle Linux 8 Update 4 with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 6 (UEK R6) and applications already certified on previous versions of Red hat Enterprise Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 8 do not require certification with this new version.

Oracle Linux 8 Update 4 includes UEK R6 Update 2 on the installation image, along with Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK). For new installations, UEK R6 is activated and installed by default and is the default kernel on first load. UEK R6, the kernel developed, built and tested by Oracle is based on the main line Linux Kernel 5.4 and offers more innovations than other Linux commercial kernels.

Oracle Linux 8 Update 4:

- python39: 3.0, swig: 4.0, subversion: 1.14 and redis: 6.

- the mysql-selinux package includes a SELinux module that provides rules for the MySQL database.

- the python-PyMySQL package has been updated to version 0.10.1. This package is included in the python36, python38 and python39 modules.

- the python3-pyodbc package provides access to Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) databases.

- GCC Toolset 10, which is a stream of applications that is distributed as a software collection in the AppStream repository. GCC Toolset is similar to Oracle Linux Developer Toolset.

- Bind, updated to version 9.11.26, offers more bug fixes and improvements than the previous version.

- ghostscript, updated to version 9.27, offers fixes for several vulnerabilities.

- The tcpdump update offers the possibility to capture RDMA traffic; as a result, you can also use the tcpdump command to view RDMA-compatible devices, capture RoCE and VMA traffic, and analyze its contents.

- Clevis, updated to version 15, offers numerous bug fixes and other improvements over the previous version.
- fapolicyd, updated to version 1.0.2, offers numerous bug fixes and improvements compared to the previous version

- libreswan, updated to version 4.3, offers several fixes and improvements for IKE, IKEv2, IPSec, as well as the following other notable improvements:

- added support for IPsec-based VPN by TCP encapsulation, according to RFC 8229

- includes Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) security tag support for IPsec

- OpenSCAP packages, updated to version 1.3.4, provide a solution for memory problems and leaks, as well as other fixes for problems that have led to systems with large amounts of files that no longer have memory; other notable changes:

- A new RPM plugin has been added that notifies fapolicyd of any changes during RPM transactions; the RPM plugin replaces the YUM plugin because its functionality is not limited to YUM transactions, while accounting for any changes made by the RPM.

- the scap -security-guide packages, updated to 0.1.54, offer several bug fixes and improvements compared to the previous version, including an updated operating system protection profile, a family of profiles based on ANSSI BP-recommendations 028.

- Scap-workbench update includes support for remote system scanning using password-free sudo access; this improvement reduces the security risk imposed by providing root credentials.

- Red Hat compatible kernel (RHCK)

- EDAC module included. The kernel module (EDAC), part of the RHCK, primarily manages the ECC (Error Code Correction Code) memory and detects and reports PCI bus parity errors.

- The free memory page function has been added. The Oracle Linux 8 host kernel is able to return memory pages that are not used by its VMs back to the hypervisor. This feature change improves the stability and efficiency of host resources.

- the kmod-redhat-oracleasm package was added. The kmod-redhat-oracleasm package has been added in this version. This package provides the kernel module part of the ASMLib utility. Oracle Automated Storage Management (ASM) is a data volume manager for Oracle databases. ASMLib is an optional utility that you can use on Oracle Linux systems to manage Oracle ASM devices.

- The web console includes the ability to graphically analyze performance with a new "View details and history" page, dedicated to analyzing the performance of a system, by clicking View details and history on the Overview page.

Oracle Linux 8 Update 4 includes the following kernel packages:

- kernel-uek-5.4.17-2102.201.3 for x86_64 and aarch64 platforms - Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 6 Update 2, which is the default kernel.

- kernel-4.18.0-305 for the x86_64 platform - The latest Red Hat compatible kernel (RHCK).