When transitioning the testbed to a new Red Hat Linux release, there are
a few stumbling blocks, and notes to be aware of:

* Always use the "buddy" system:  start with a combined FreeBSD+Linux
  testbed image, then wipe out, and install the new distribution to the
  Linux slice.

* The Linux install often corrupts the FreeBSD bootlabel, and replaces
  the MBR.  You might end up having to imaging the Linux slice, and
  laying it back down on a reloaded combined scratch image.

* There are many superflous RPMs installed by default, esp. ones for
  multimedia, and Xwindows (window managers, gnome, KDE, etc.).  Also,
  don't forget to install some of the more useful, non-default
  packages: tcpdump, ttcp, gated, etc.

* The "typical" Red Hat "Workstation" installation selection does not
  install any sort of means to access the node remotely!  Ensure that
  you at least add openssh-server to the list of packages, or
  post-install, before rebooting.  Alternatively, FreeBSD has
  excellent support for ext2fs, including an fsck.ext2fs that can be
  installed from the ports tree.  This trick can be used to edit a
  broken Linux slice.

* Red Hat CAN be installed via the serial port.  The boot floppy
  image's LILO works with BIOS redirection.  You _must_ choose text
  installation, and must pass: console="ttyS0,115200" as kernel
  parameters from the lilo prompt.

* Patching the kernel for IPOD is volatile.  Minor kernel revisions
  will likely break the patch, but hand updating the file(s) is
  usually trivial since IPOD is a separate/new ICMP type, with new
  handling functions.  Beware of the sysctl enums, and virtual
  function tables - those are were you are likely to run into trouble.

* The tmcd/startup script client side install targets may break the
  image!  Be especially wary of the modules.conf file.  This may whack
  the proper ethernet driver autoloading depending on the logic of the
  new distro's startup scripts.  Don't forget to update the tag, and
  release specifications in the supfile.

* You should download updated RPMS from a redhat mirror, and update
  all the installed packages to plug security holes and bugs.  It
  appears that redhat tries to keep versions/behavior consistent in
  its distributions, usually providing updates only to fix bugs and
  security holes.

* LILO is a pain.  It doesn't redirect to the console correctly.  We
  are currently able to get around this by using an internal
  hacked/bugfixed version that supports our standard 115200 baud rate.
  Newer versions of lilo are significantly different, and appear to be
  broken as well.  Work will need to be done on these versions before
  they will be useful in our environment.

* Grab a precompiled CVSup binary, either from the old RHL image, or
  from the CVSup website.  _Much_ less hassle.