Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 Release Notes

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Introduction

The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, and following a set of project objectives. The results from this project include Fedora Core, a complete, general-purpose operating system built exclusively from open source software.

Note

Fedora Core is not a supported product of Red Hat, Inc.

For more information, refer to the Fedora Project overview later in this document.

The following topics related to Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 are covered in this document:

  • Introduction (this section)

  • Hardware requirements

  • Overview of this release

  • Installation-related notes

  • Package-specific notes

  • Packages added/removed/deprecated

  • An overview of the Fedora Project

Hardware Requirements

The following information represents the minimum hardware requirements necessary to successfully install Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2.

Note

The compatibility/availability of other hardware components (such as video and network cards) may be required for specific installation modes and/or post-installation usage.

CPU Requirements

This section lists the CPU specifications required by Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2.

Note

The following CPU specifications are stated in terms of Intel processors. Other processors (notably, offerings from AMD, Cyrix, and VIA) that are compatible with and equivalent to the following Intel processors may also be used with Fedora Core.

  • Minimum: Pentium-class

    Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 is optimized for Pentium PRO (and later) CPUs, but also supports Pentium-class CPUs. This approach has been taken because Pentium-class optimizations actually result in reduced performance for non-Pentium-class processors.

  • Recommended for text-mode: 200 MHz Pentium-class or better

  • Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz Pentium II or better

Hard Disk Space Requirements

This section lists the disk space required to install Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2.

Note

The disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 after the installation is complete. However, additional disk space is required during the installation to support the installation environment. This additional disk space corresponds to the size of /Fedora/base/stage2.img (on CD-ROM 1) plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the installed system.

In practical terms, this means that as little as an additional 90MB can be required for a minimal installation, while as much as an additional 175MB can be required for an "everything" installation.

Also, keep in mind that additional space will be required for any user data, and at least 5% free space should be maintained for proper system operation.

  • Custom Installation (Minimal): 620MB

  • Server: 1.1GB

  • Personal Desktop: 2.3GB

  • Workstation: 3.0GB

  • Custom Installation (Everything): 6.9GB

Memory Requirements

This section lists the memory required to install Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2.

  • Minimum for text-mode: 64MB

  • Minimum for graphical: 192MB

  • Recommended for graphical: 256MB

Overview of This Release

The following list includes brief summaries of some of the more significant aspects of Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2:

Installation-Related Notes

This section outlines those issues that are related to Anaconda (the Fedora Core installation program) and installing Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 in general.

Anaconda Notes

  • The Fedora Core installation program has the ability to test the integrity of the installation media. It works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods. Red Hat recommends that you test all installation media before starting the installation process, and before reporting any installation-related bugs (many of the bugs reported are actually due to improperly-burned CDs). To use this test, type linux mediacheck at the boot: prompt.

  • Memory testing may be performed prior to installing Fedora Core by entering memtest86 at the boot: prompt. This causes the Memtest86 standalone memory testing software to run. Memtest86 memory testing continues until the Esc key is pressed.

    NOTE: You must boot from CD-ROM 1 (or a rescue CD-ROM) in order to use this feature.

  • Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 supports graphical FTP and HTTP installations. However, due to the necessity of containing the installer image in RAM, only systems with more than 128MB of RAM (or systems booted from CD-ROM 1, which contains the installer image) can use the graphical installer. Systems with less than 128MB of memory will continue to use the text-based installer.

Installation-Related Issues

  • Certain hardware configurations (particularly those with LCD displays) may experience problems while starting the Fedora Core installation program. In these instances, restart the installation, and add the "nofb" option to the boot command line.

    NOTE: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean graphical installations started using the "nofb" option will start in English, and then switch to the appropriate language once the graphical phase of the installation process begins.

  • Some Sony VAIO® notebook systems may experience problems installing Fedora Core from CD-ROM. If this happens, restart the installation process and add the following option to the boot command line:

    pci=off ide1=0x180,0x386

    This option allows the installation to proceed normally; any devices not detected due to the use of this option will be configured the first time Fedora Core is booted.

  • Serial mice are known to be inoperative during installation. However, there are indications that serial mice work properly in X after the installation has completed. Refer to bug 119474 for more information:

    http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=119474

  • There have been issues observed when upgrading Red Hat Linux 7.<x>, 8.0, 9, and Fedora Core 1 systems running Ximian GNOME. The issue is caused by version overlap between the official Red Hat Linux RPMs (or the ones from the Fedora Project) and the Ximian RPMs. This configuration is not supported. You have several choices in resolving this issue:

    1) You may remove Ximian GNOME from your system prior to upgrading to Fedora Core.

    2) You may upgrade your system, and then immediately reinstall Ximian GNOME.

    3) You may upgrade your system, and then immediately remove all remaining Ximian RPMs, replacing them with the corresponding Fedora Core RPMs.

    You must resolve the version overlap using one of the above choices. Failure to do so will result in an unstable GNOME configuration.

Package-Specific Notes

The following sections contain information regarding packages that have undergone significant changes for Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2. For easier access, they are organized using the same groups used in Anaconda.

Base

This section contains information related to basic system components.

openssh

Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 contains OpenSSH 3.9, which includes strict permission and ownship checks for the ~/.ssh/config file. These checks mean that ssh will exit if this file does not have appropriate ownership and permissions.

Therefore, make sure that ~/.ssh/config is owned by the owner of ~/, and that its permissions are set to mode 600.

Core

This section contains the most elemental components of Fedora Core, including the kernel.

glibc

  • Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL) support is unavailable in architectures below i686. This includes VIA, AMD K6, and i586 Pentium processors. This is known to be problematic for certain applications that rely on NPTL db4, such as subversion.

Mail Server

This section contains information related to the mail transport agents included with Fedora Core.

sendmail

  • By default, the Sendmail mail transport agent (MTA) does not accept network connections from any host other than the local computer. If you want to configure Sendmail as a server for other clients, you must edit /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and change the DAEMON_OPTIONS line to also listen on network devices (or comment out this option entirely using the dnl comment delimiter). You must then regenerate /etc/mail/sendmail.cf by running the following command (as root):

    make -C /etc/mail

    Note that you must have the sendmail-cf package installed for this to work.

Sound and Video

This section contains information related to multimedia applications.

k3b

Past users of the CD/DVD burning application k3b may notice that the program k3bsetup is missing. This is because k3bsetup is not necessary under Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2.

Web Server

This section contains information related to Web-related tools.

php

The gd, mbstring, and ncurses extensions have been moved to the php-gd, php-mbstring, and php-ncurses packages, respectively. Note that you will need to install these packages manually (if required) when upgrading from an earlier release.

X Window System

This section contains information related to the X Window System implementation provided with Fedora Core.

xorg-x11

  • Users new to the X.org X11 implementation should take note of a few differences between it and the XFree86.org X11 implementation which shipped in previous Red Hat operating systems. In particular, the names of some files have changed, including the following:

    X Server Binary
    
        XFree86 X11: XFree86
    
          X.org X11: Xorg
    
    X Server Configuration File
    
        XFree86 X11: /etc/X11/XF86Config
    
          X.org X11: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    
    X Server Log File
    
        XFree86 X11: /var/log/XFree86.$DISPLAY.log
    
          X.org X11: /var/log/Xorg.$DISPLAY.log
                

    When configuring or troubleshooting your X server configuration, be sure that you are using the correct files.

  • There has been some confusion regarding font-related issues under the X Window System in recent versions of Fedora Core (and versions of Red Hat Linux before it.) At the present time, there are two font subsystems, each with different characteristics:

    - The original (15+ year old) subsystem is referred to as the "core X font subsystem". Fonts rendered by this subsystem are not anti-aliased, are handled by the X server, and have names like:

    -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--10-100-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1

    The newer font subsystem is known as "fontconfig", and allows applications direct access to the font files. Fontconfig is often used along with the "Xft" library, which allows applications to render fontconfig fonts to the screen with antialiasing. Fontconfig uses more human-friendly names like:

    Luxi Sans-10

    Over time, fontconfig/Xft will replace the core X font subsystem. At the present time, applications using the Qt 3 or GTK 2 toolkits (which would include KDE and GNOME applications) use the fontconfig and Xft font subsystem; most everything else uses the core X fonts.

    In the future, Fedora Core may support only fontconfig/Xft in place of the XFS font server as the default local font access method.

    NOTE: An exception to the font subsystem usage outlined above is OpenOffice.org (which uses its own font rendering technology).

    If you wish to add new fonts to your Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2 system, you must be aware that the steps necessary depend on which font subsystem is to use the new fonts. For the core X font subsystem, you must:

    1. Create the /usr/share/fonts/local/ directory (if it doesn't already exist):

    mkdir /usr/share/fonts/local/

    2. Copy the new font file into /usr/share/fonts/local/

    3. Update the font information by issuing the following commands (note that, due to formatting restrictions, the following commands may appear on more than one line; in use, each command should be entered on a single line):

    ttmkfdir -d /usr/share/fonts/local/ -o /usr/share/fonts/local/fonts.scale

    mkfontdir /usr/share/fonts/local/

    4. If you had to create /usr/share/fonts/local/, you must then add it to the X font server (xfs) path:

    chkfontpath --add /usr/share/fonts/local/

    Adding new fonts to the fontconfig font subsystem is more straightforward; the new font file only needs to be copied into the /usr/share/fonts/ directory (individual users can modify their personal font configuration by copying the font file into the ~/.fonts/ directory).

    After the new font has been copied, use fc-cache to update the font information cache:

    fc-cache <directory>

    (Where <directory> would be either the /usr/share/fonts/ or ~/.fonts/ directories.)

    Individual users may also install fonts graphically, by browsing fonts:/// in Nautilus, and dragging the new font files there.

    NOTE: If the font filename ends with ".gz", it has been compressed with gzip, and must be decompressed (with the gunzip command) before the fontconfig font subsystem can use the font.

  • Due to the transition to the new font system based on fontconfig/Xft, GTK+ 1.2 applications are not affected by any changes made via the Font Preferences dialog. For these applications, a font can be configured by adding the following lines to the file ~/.gtkrc.mine:

    style "user-font" {

    fontset = "<font-specification>"

    }

    widget_class "*" style "user-font"

    (Where <font-specification> represents a font specification in the style used by traditional X applications, such as "-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*".)

Miscellaneous Notes

This section contains information related to packages that do not fit in any of the proceeding categories.

nscd

The nscd name service cache daemon now maintains a persistent cache across restarts or system reboots. Entries are not removed from the cache until they are proven to be no longer of interest. All entries whose time-to-live expires but are otherwise interesting are automatically reloaded, which helps in situations where the directory and name services become temporarily unavailable.

Packages Added/Removed/Deprecated

This section contains lists of packages that fit into the following categories:

  • Packages that have been added to Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2

  • Packages that have been removed from Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2

  • Packages that have been deprecated, and may be removed from a future release of Fedora Core

Note

To reduce the length of the following lists,source packages, and not binary packages are listed.

Packages Added

The following packages have been added to Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2:

  • *** Still being developed ***

Packages Removed

The following packages have been removed from Fedora Core 2.91 Test 2:

  • *** Still being developed ***

Packages Deprecated

The following packages have been deprecated, and may be removed from a future release of Fedora Core:

  • ac-archive — No longer part of Fedora Core profile

  • dbskkd-cdb — Only used by deprecated package skkinput

  • devlabel — udev is the recommended solution

  • FAM — Gamin (which is API/ABI compatible with FAM) is the recommended solution

  • FreeWnn — Only used by deprecated package kinput2-canna-wnn6

  • kinput2-canna-wnn6 — IIIMF is the recommended input method

  • licq — Equivalent functionality present in other applications (gaim, for example)

  • lilo — GRUB is the recommended bootloader

  • miniChinput — IIIMF is the recommended input method

  • nabi — IIIMF is the recommended input method

  • ncpfs — No longer part of Fedora Core profile

  • skkinput — IIIMF is the recommended input method

  • Wnn6-SDK — Only used by deprecated package kinput2-canna-wnn6

  • xcin — IIIMF is the recommended input method

An Overview of the Fedora Project

The goal of the Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general-purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora Core and will invite and encourage more outside participation than was possible in the past. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.

For more information, refer to the Fedora Project website:

http://fedora.redhat.com/

In addition to the website, the following mailing lists are available:

  • fedora-list@redhat.com — For users of Fedora Core releases

  • fedora-test-list@redhat.com — For testers of Fedora Core test releases

  • fedora-devel-list@redhat.com — For developers, developers, developers

  • fedora-docs-list@redhat.com — For participants of the docs project

To subscribe to any of these lists, send an email with the word "subscribe" in the subject to <listname>-request (where <listname> is one of the above list names.)

NOTE: If you have subscribed in the past to rhl-list, rhl-beta-list, rhl-devel-list, or rhl-docs-list, your subscriptions have been retained.

The Fedora Project also includes an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel. IRC is a real-time, text-based form of communication. With it, you can have conversations with multiple people in an open channel or chat with someone privately one-on-one.

To talk with other Fedora Project participants via IRC, access freenode IRC network. Initially, you can use irc.freenode.net as the IRC server, although you may decide to select a server that is geographically closer to you. Refer to the freenode website (http://www.freenode.net/) for more information. Fedora Project participants frequent the #fedora channel, while Fedora Project developers can often be found on the #fedora-devel channel. Some of the larger projects may have their own channels as well; this information can be found on the project pages.

NOTE: Red Hat has no control over the Fedora IRC channels or their content.

( x86 )