The Blackdown Java-Linux Team is happy to announce the availability
the Java 2 Standard Edition v1.4.2-rc1 for Linux on i386 and, for the
first time, Linux on AMD64.

J2SE v1.4.2-rc1 can be download from
ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/java/JDK-1.4.2/ and our FTP mirrors 
(see http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/mirrors.html)


Release Notes:
=============

* Based on Sun's 1.4.2_03 code (including updated cacerts file)

* Added an epoll based java.nio.channels.Selector implementation which
  provides better scalability than the default poll based implementation.
  The new Selector is not enabled by default, you have to run your
  code with '-Djava.nio.use_epoll=true' in order to use it.
  Please note that the new epoll-based Selector implementation requires a
  kernel with epoll support, e.g. Linux 2.6.0.
  We would appreciate getting feedback about the stability as well
  as experienced performance & scalability of the new implementation.
  If feedback is positive, the epoll based implementation will be used
  by default in our next release if a kernel >= 2.6.0 is detected.

* All native code generated at runtime is now marked with PROT_EXEC

* Improved graphics/imaging performance (up to 80% for some operations)

* Improved volatiles performance (especially in the Server VM)

* Fixed 'volatile' semantics

* Fixed small memory leak with some NPTL versions

* Complete LFS support

* Improved MappedByteBuffer implementation

* Replaced some functions with thread safe equivalents

* Various small bug fixes

* Java Web Start can generate desktop icons for GNOME and KDE


Notes for the AMD64 Version:
===========================

The AMD64 version of J2SE 1.4.2-rc1 uses the HotSpot Server VM by
default.  The HotSpot Client VM is not available for AMD64 at this
time.
Please note that this release was only tested on SuSE SLES 8 SP3 and
SuSE Linux 9.0.  If you experience problems on other distributions
for AMD64, then let us know.

* Requirements
    - glibc 2.2.5 or newer
    - kernel 2.4.19 or newer
    - XFree 4.2 or newer
    - libstdc++ from gcc-3.2 or newer (only needed for the gcc-3.2 Java build)
    - 64-bit build of Mozilla 1.0 or newer (needed only for the Java Plug-In)


Notes for the i386 Version:
==========================

The i386 version of J2SE 1.4.2-rc1 uses the HotSpot Client VM by
default.  The HotSpot Server VM can be enabled with the '-server'
switch.

The i386 Version is available in two flavors: One built with
gcc-2.95.4 and one built with gcc-3.2.3.

* Requirements
    - i586 compatible system
    - glibc 2.2.5 or newer
    - kernel 2.4.18 or newer
    - XFree 4.2 or newer
    - libstdc++ from gcc-3.2 or newer (only needed for the gcc-3.2 Java build)
    - Mozilla 1.0 or newer built with gcc-2.95 or gcc-3.2 depending
      on which Java build you use (needed only for the Java Plug-In)



Feedback:
--------

Please e-mail comments to j2se-feedback@blackdown.de or to our public
mailing list (see http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/mailinglist.html).



        Blackdown Java-Linux Team