SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Release Notes #

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 only supports 64-bit binaries. Support for 31-/32-bit binaries has been removed.

This means that statically-linked 31-/32-bit binaries and container images cannot be run anymore.

Customers who need to build kernel modules or rebuild the kernel must use the same compiler version the kernel was built with. The kernel is built with gcc version 13, which is not the default compiler. Install the gcc version 13 compiler using the gcc13 package and invoke it with the command gcc-13. This specific compiler version is only supported for building kernel modules and the kernel.

We have added support for the glibc-HWCAPS feature which loads optimized versions of libraries for specific newer CPUs automatically.

The build infrastructure for this feature is enabled for the following libraries:

Warning

If you install the system using only a root password and do not provide an SSH key for the root user, sshd will not be enabled automatically after installation. You will not be able to log in remotely as root using the password.

By default, remote password-based root login is disabled. The installer enables the sshd service only when an SSH key for root is configured during setup. To allow remote root login, configure an SSH key for root during installation.

Previously, all user accounts belonged to a single users group.

Now instead of being added to the common users group, each new user now gets their own primary group matching their username. This is due to USERGROUPS_ENAB being enabled in /usr/etc/login.defs. This change affects all new installations and upgraded systems that did not change the default /etc/login.defs. This has several consequences:

SysV init.d scripts have been deprecated since SLES 15 SP2.

In SLES 16.0, support of SysV init.d scripts has been removed.

Currently, the installer does not allow for setting up network interfaces using the UI. However, in the meantime you can use dracut-like command-line options, for example:

ifname=<interface>:<MAC>
ip=<interface>:dhcp

Additionally, the inst.copy_network is not available in Beta4.

For running SAP workloads on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0, do the following:

FIPS 140-3 installation has not been fully validated and may cause unexpected software failure or crashes. Therefore, we discourage you from using it on Beta4.

The libnsl.so.1 library has been deprecated in SLES 15 and finally removed in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0.

As a workaround for applications that cannot be installed without it (but presumaly do not use it for anything), we provide the libnsl-stub1 package that includes ABI-compatible but otherwise function-less stub of the library file.

Due to an upstream bug, firewalld might take a long time or time out when adding many interfaces. The error occurs when firewalld is restarted after applying such a configuration. The following message appears in the system logs:

ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.18:/org/fedoraproject/FirewallD1: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply.
Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

See https://github.com/firewalld/firewalld/issues/1399 for more information.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 has switched from YaST to Cockpit for manual system administration. We have enhanced Cockpit with new modules with the intention to upstream them later. Despite being functional, bugs might appear and features might be missing.

New modules

Enhanced modules

Upstream modules

cockpit, cockpit-bridge, cockpit-kdump, cockpit-machines, cockpit-networkmanager, cockpit-podman, cockpit-selinux, cockpit-storaged, cockpit-system, cockpit-ws: these modules are updated to the recent stable base version 332 (or their respective).

Default selection

Installation of the pattern cockpit will pull in the following modules: cockpit, cockpit-bridge, cockpit-networkmanager, cockpit-packagekit, cockpit-packages, cockpit-repos, cockpit-selinux, cockpit-storaged, cockpit-subscriptions, cockpit-system, cockpit-ws.

In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 dovecot has been upgraded to version 2.4. The configuration of this version is incompatible with the previous versions.

Configuration has to be updated manually. For more information see https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.0/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html.

Currently, choosing disk configurations other than "An existing disk" (installation to a single disk) suffer from poor usability. This is expected to change in a future update.

There is currently a known issue that adds a non-functioning zypper repository which prevents zypper from working correctly.

To fix this issue, remove the repository in question and add the installation medium repository manually:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 uses cgroup v2 by default and v1 is unsupported. If you need to use cgroup v1, SLES 15 SP6 can be switched to hybrid mode using a boot parameter.

Previously, parmfile would point to a directory of unpacked files.

Now it need to point to a loop-mounted ISO via FTP. For example:

root=live:ftp://$SERVER_URL/install/agama-online.iso
agama.install_url=ftp://$SERVER_URL/install/agama

For more information see https://agama-project.github.io/docs/user/boot_options.

If you want to enable a disk, click on Storage in the left panel, then Install new system on and choose "storage techs". Then you can choose a type of disk. This can be avoided if you have defined your parmfile as described in Section 2.6.1, “parmfile now points to ISO”.

If you choose DASD, you should see disks based on your parmfile and cio_ignore configuration. Then choose a disk and activate it by clicking Perform an action and then Activate. This can take a moment. If it is not visible, then you need to click on Storage or refresh the page.

In the zFCP section, after activating a disk a gray line will appear. This is just a visual bug, the disk will activate correctly.

Due to a change from linuxrc to dracut, the parmfile needs to define not only installation source but also a network and disks.

The parmfile needs to be filled with a dracut-like options, for example:

root=live:ftp://$SERVER_URL/install/online.iso
ip=$IP_address::$IP_gateway:24:SLE16-Beta4:$NETWORK_DEVICE:none
rd.zdev=qeth,0.0.0800:0.0.0801:0.0.0802,layer2=1,portno=0
cio_ignore=all,!condev,!0.0.0160 nameserver=$NAMEserverIP
live.password=linux rd.zdev=dasd,0.0.0160

The ability to run KVM Guests in an LPAR is a new feature in PowerVM Firmware 1060.10 release and supported in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0. This enables users to run KVM guests in a PowerVM LPAR bringing industry standard Linux KVM virtualization stack to IBM PowerVM, which easily integrates with existing Linux virtualization ecosystem. This enables a lot of interesting usecases which were earlier difficult to realize in a PowerVM LPAR.

KVM in a PowerVM LPAR is a new type of LPAR (logical partition) that allows the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 kernel to host KVM guests inside an LPAR on PowerVM. A KVM enabled LPAR allows standard Linux KVM tools (for example, virsh) to create and manage lightweight Linux Virtual Machines (VM). A KVM Linux LPAR uses dedicated cores which enables Linux to have full control of when Linux VMs are scheduled to run, just like KVM on other platforms.

SLES 16.0 includes driver enablement for the following System-on-Chip (SoC) chipsets:

Note

Driver enablement is done as far as available and requested. Refer to the following sections for any known limitations.

Some systems might need additional drivers for external chips, such as a Power Management Integrated Chip (PMIC), which may differ between systems with the same SoC chipset.

For booting, systems need to fulfill either the Server Base Boot Requirements (SBBR) or the Embedded Base Boot Requirements (EBBR), that is, the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) either implementing the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) or providing a Flat Device Tree (FDT) table. If both are implemented, the kernel will default to the Device Tree; the kernel command line argument acpi=force can override this default behavior.

Check for SUSE YES! certified systems, which have undergone compatibility testing.

QEMU has been updated to version 10.0.0, full list of changes are available at https://wiki.qemu.org/ChangeLog/10.0

Highlights include: * Removed features: https://qemu-project.gitlab.io/qemu/about/removed-features.html * Deprecated features: https://qemu-project.gitlab.io/qemu/about/deprecated.html

libvirt has been updated to version 11.3.0, this include many incremental improvements and bug fixes, see https://libvirt.org/news.html#v11-3-0-2025-05-02

libvirt provides now a modular daemons.

The following features and packages have been removed in this release.