Fedora News Updates #9

For the week of: Thursday, April 1 2004

Available at: http://fedoranews.org/colin/fnu/issue9.shtml

This is the ninth issue of the Fedora News Updates, and no, what is written here is definitely not an April fools joke. A lot has happened in the Fedora community in the past two weeks, having a roll-out of our new test release which works much better, as well as having the international Red Hat Meetup day. With great pleasure, I bring the Fedora News Updates #9 to you.

Fedora Core 2 test2 announced

Fedora Core 2 test2 has been launched, and its spot on to schedule. SELinux in enforcing mode is recommended, so bug squashing will happen, and in addition to that, we have the newly released GNOME 2.6 (well, the CDs contain 2.5.x). X.org replaces XFree86, and KDE is at version 3.2.1. As usual, fedora-test-list@redhat.com is the place to discuss this test release, and when you're making a Bugzilla entry, file it under "Fedora Core", "test2".

FedoraForum.org merges with the unofficial FAQ

As an aim to consolidate the available Fedora resources, the unofficial FAQ has been merged with FedoraForum.org.

The new X.org X11 implementation unveiled

Mike Harris explains why the XFree86 server is being replaced by X.org over licensing issues; Paul Bender shows us other links that might be handy to read with regards to the licensing issues. Of points to note, would be that you can't do parallel testing of X.org and XFree86, and if you use 3rd party packages of XFree86 4.4.0, it will be completely unsupported. Fedora Core 2 test2 for instance comes with X.org in the distribution, and all future releases will have X.org, rather than XFree86.

Adding locales

While running GDM makes it very simple, as you can just select the Languages option and change the current language, doing it via the command line opens up a whole new bunch of steps! Christoph Wickert points to a resource which shows you how to install another locale in Fedora. Tommy Reynolds explains why the steps seem lengthy and error prone!

Yum tips

Michal Zeravik decided to post his yum.conf file and it spurred some discussion and tips about yum usage. If you want to remove the old headers that yum downloads, executing yum clean oldheaders should help save disk space. If you were using apt, Christoph Wickert explains that it doesn't use .hdr files, and that there are other auto-clean methods. Tom Mitchell advises that Michal's file should be cut up and made into "mirrors", rather than having heaps of commented out extras. Satish Balay shows us that yum can install groups of packages, saving you copious time from installing individual packages - this is done via yum grouplist (to list available groups), and for example yum groupinstall "Development Tools".

A Firefox theme

Garrett LeSage has been working on a Firefox theme. This is a call for help to make a Bluecurve Firefox theme. Steven Garrity has posted a useful list of icons/graphics that need to be created/changed, and its an excellent starting point.

SELinux revisited

Karsten Wade has created the Fedora SELinux FAQ which aims to serve as a resource point for all those playing with SELinux. It contains general SELinux concepts, as well as common questions from testers.

Tom Mitchell has some useful SELinux tips that are great during development cycles at: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-March/msg01818.html. Stephen Smalley mentions a possible new tool called "sestatus" that will give the status of your systems' SELinux setup.

List archives

If searching the mailing list archives on redhat.com isn't quite working, the other alternative to look at would be http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/. They have the fedora-devel and fedora-list lists archived there, so that's another good searchable point. Are there any other public alternatives?

Java HOWTO

Curious to know all the instructions & steps to get Java installed? Installing Java for Red Hat Linux HOWTO is a most useful resource, very prompt with step-by-step instructions. JPackage.org is another Fedora resource that will allow you to use apt/yum to get Java packages.

Fedora Tracker

Brad Smith decided to start a Fedora Tracker and called for comments about it. It is basically something to tie together the many apt and yum repositories into a single, simple framework. After some comments, he made further modifications, and now the useful tracker sits at: http://academy.phpwebhosting.com/cgi-bin/tracker/tracker.py.

Fedora Core 2 test2 Notes

Since it just got released, most of the problems are still passing through the lists, so they'll make their way here soon enough. Alan Cox however has posted a rather useful report as to how Core 2 test2 worked on his laptop - reports like this are most favorable on the list!

Software

Cool wallpapers

Garrett LeSage points us to installing desktop-backgrounds-extra, where you get more photos as desktop wallpapers (most of which were photos he's taken!) Anyone else have packaged desktop backgrounds?

Fedora on CDs

There have been quite a few Fedora distributions that are running on Live CDs of sorts. Ladislav Bodnar has provided quite a useful list at: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-March/msg02030.html.

Thank you for reading this issue of Fedora News Updates. Think there's some news snippet you'd like to contribute to Fedora News Updates? Send e-mail to colin@fedoranews.org.

This issue of Fedora News Updates brought to you by Colin Charles.