Fedora Core 5 test3 Release Notes

The proposed plans for Fedora in this version are available from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RoadMap.

If you feel that these release notes could be improved in some way, you can provide feedback directly to the beat writers. Here are several ways, in order of preference:

A release note beat is an area of the release notes that is the responsibility of one or more content contributors to oversee.

Thank you (in advance) for your feedback!

Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DistributionUpgrades page for detailedrecommended procedures for upgradation of Fedora.

In general, fresh installations are to be recommended over upgrades, particularly for systems with software from add-on repositories installed. If third party packages are installed on the system, they might not work as expected. If an upgrade is attempted, the following may be helpful.

This section covers any specific information you may need to know about Fedora Core and the PPC hardware platform.

This section covers any specific information you may need to know about Fedora Core and the x86 hardware platform.

This section covers any specific information you may need to know about Fedora Core and the x86_64 hardware platform.

This distribution is based on the 2.6 series of the Linux kernel. Fedora Core may include additional patches for improvements, bug fixes, or additional features. For this reason, the Fedora Core kernel may not be line-for-line equivalent to the so-called vanilla kernel from the kernel.org web site:

http://www.kernel.org/

You may obtain a list of any such patches by using the command on the Fedora Core package:

rpm -qpl kernel-<version>.src.rpm

The package changelog can be retrieved using the following command

rpm -q --changelog <kernel-version>

If you need a user friendly version of the changelog, refer to http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges. A short and full diff of the kernel is available from http://kernel.org/git. The Fedora version is based on the Linus tree.

Customisations made for the Fedora version are available from http://cvs.fedora.redhat.com .

Fedora Core includes the following kernel builds:

Sources for all kernel flavors may be installed at the same time. The files will be installed into the /usr/src/kernels/<version>[-xen-hypervisor/xen-guest/kdump]-<arch>/ tree. Use this command as appropriate:

rpm -Uvh kernel-[xen-hypervisor/xen-guest/kdump]-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm

	Default Kernels in x86_64 Architecture Provide SMP Capability
	There is no separate SMP kernel available for this architecture in Fedora Core .

Many of the tutorials, examples, and textbooks about Linux kernel development assume the kernel sources are installed under the /usr/src/linux/ directory. If you make a symbolic link, as shown below, you should be able to use those learning materials with the Fedora Core packages. Install the appropriate kernel sources, as shown earlier, and then:

ln -s /usr/src/kernels/kernel-<all-the-rest> /usr/src/linux

Fedora Core does not include the kernel-source package provided by older versions. Instead, configured sources are available, as described in this kernel flavors section.

Users that require access to Fedora Core original kernel sources can find them in the kernel .src.rpm package.

To create an exploded source tree from this file, perform the following steps:

	These Instructions Refer to the Currently-running Kernel
	To simplify the following directions, we have assumed that you want to configure the kernel sources to match your currently-running kernel. In the steps below, you must understand that the phrase <version> refers to the kernel version shown by the command: uname -r.

1. Obtain the kernel-<version>.src.rpm file from one of the following sources:

2. Install kernel-<version>.src.rpm using the command:

rpm -Uvh kernel-<version>.src.rpm`

This writes the RPM contents into /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES and /usr/src/redhat/SPECS.

3. Prepare the kernel sources using the commands:

cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECSrpmbuild -bp --target $(arch) kernel-2.6.spec

The kernel source tree is then located in the /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-<version>/ directory. It is common practice to move the resulting linux-<version> directory to the /usr/src/ tree; while not strictly necessary, do this to match the generally-available documentation.

cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-<version>
mv linux-<version> /usr/src/
cd /usr/src
ln -s ./linux-<version> linux
cd /usr/src/linux

4. The configurations for the specific kernels shipped in Fedora Core are in the configs/ directory. For example, the i686 SMP configuration file is named configs/kernel-<version>-i686-smp.config. Issue the following command to place the desired configuration file in the proper place for building:

cp configs/<desired-config-file> .config

You can also find the .config file that matches your current kernel configuration in the /lib/modules/<version>/build/.config file.

5. Every kernel gets a name based on its version number. This is the value the uname -r command displays. The kernel name is defined by the first four lines of the kernel Makefile. To protect the innocent, the Makefile has been changed to generate a kernel with a different name from that of the running kernel. Before a module can be accepted by the running kernel, that module must have been compiled for a kernel with the correct name. To do this, you must edit the kernel Makefile.

For example, if the uname -r returns the string 2.6.11-1.234_FC4, change the EXTRAVERSION definition from this:

EXTRAVERSION = -prep

to this:

EXTRAVERSION = -1.234_FC4

that is, substitute everything from the final dash onward.

6. Issue the following command:

make oldconfig

You can then proceed as usual.

An exploded source tree is not required to build a kernel module, such as your own device driver, against the currently in-use kernel. For example, to build the foo.ko module, create the following Makefile in the directory containing the foo.c file:

obj-m := foo.o
KDIR  := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
PWD   := $(shell pwd)
default:$(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) M=$(PWD) modules

Issue the make command to build the foo.ko module.

Fedora Core release has support for clustered storage through the Global File System (GFS). This requires a special kernel that works in conjunction with some user-space utilities, such as management daemons. Consequently, to remove such a kernel, perhaps after an update, you cannot simply use the rpm -e kernel-<version> command as in earlier distributions because these user space packages depend on the kernel package. You may either list both the kernel package and all of its user space dependent packages on the rpm -e command, or you can use the yum remove kernel-<version> command instead. The yum command automatically removes dependent packages, if necessary.

This section contains information related to Netatalk, a suite of software that enables Linux to interact with Macintosh systems using the AppleTalk network protocols.

	Upgrading from Netatalk version 1 to version 2 may result in data loss.
	Version 2 of Netatalk uses a different method to store file resource forks from the previous version, and may require a different file name encoding scheme. Please read the documentation and plan your migration before upgrading.

Upgrade information is available directly from the Netatalk site at http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/2.0/htmldocs/upgrade.html.

The documentation is also included in the netatalk package. Refer to either /usr/share/doc/netatalk-2.0.2/doc/htmldocs/upgrade.html, or /usr/share/doc/netatalk-2.0.2/doc/Netatalk-Manual.pdf (numbered page 25, document page 33).

Version 2.2 of the Apache HTTP Server is now included in Fedora Core. This release brings a number of improvements since the 2.0 series, including:

The following changes have been made to the default httpd configuration:

Any third-party modules compiled for httpd 2.0 must be rebuilt for httpd 2.2.

Any existing configuration files might need adapting for 2.2. For more information, refer to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/upgrading.html.

Version 5.1 of PHP is now included in Fedora Core. This release brings a number of improvements since PHP 5.0, including:

The following extension modules have been added:

The following extension modules are no longer built:

This release of Fedora has been built using GCC 4.1, which is included with the distribution.

General introduction to the many proactive security features in Fedora, current status and policies is available from this page:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Security

By default, Fedora Core installs with Rhythm Box, Totem, and Helix Player for media playback. In addition, many other programs are available in the Fedora Core and Fedora Extras repositories, including the popular XMMS package. Both GNOME and KDE also have specific sets of programs that can be used with a variety of formats. Other popular programs, such as Adobe/Macromedia's Flash Player, Real Player, VLC, MPlayer, and Xine, can also be installed, but are excluded from the Fedora repositories since they are not compatible with Fedora's licensing or are usually distributed with support for restricted formats. For more on this, refer to: the //fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats/Multimedia#Excluded_Multimedia_Software:Excluded Multimedia Software section.

Fedora Core is also equipped to take full advantage of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) sound system. This means that many programs can play sound simultaneously, which was once difficult on Linux systems. When all multimedia software is configured to use ALSA for sound support, the old limitation disappears. For more information about ALSA, visit the project website at http://www.alsa-project.org/.

Fedora includes complete support for the Ogg media container format, the Vorbis audio, Theora video, Speex audio, and FLAC lossless audio formats. More information on these formats and how to use them can be found at the Xiph.Org Foundation's web site at http://www.xiph.org/.

Fedora Core and Fedora Extras cannot include support for MP3 or DVD playback or recording, because the MP3 and MPEG (DVD) formats are patented, and the patent owners have not provided the necessary licenses. For more information, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats/Multimedia#Excluded_Multimedia_Software.

Several programs are excluded from Fedora Core and Fedora Extras due to patent or license restrictions. These include programs which provide MP3 and DVD support, Flash Player, and Real Player. For more on this subject, please see http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems.

Tools are included in Fedora Core and Fedora Extras for easily mastering and burning CDs and DVDs. Tools that can be used from the console include cdrecord, readcd, mkisofs, and other typical Linux applications. For GNOME users, the xcdroast package from Fedora Core and the graveman package from Fedora Extras allows for easy preparation of audio and data discs. For KDE users, the k3b package provides a very robust tool for these tasks.

The IPv4 address deletion algorithm did not take the prefix length into account up to kernel version 2.6.12. Since this has changed, the iproute2 tool now issues a warning if no prefix length is provided to warn about possible unintended deletions:

ip addr list dev eth0
4: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
inet 10.0.0.3/24 scope global eth0
su -c 'ip addr del 10.0.0.3 dev eth0'
Warning: Executing wildcard deletion to stay compatible with old
scripts. Explicitly specify the prefix length (10.0.0.3/32) to
avoid this warning. This special behaviour is likely to disappear
in further releases, fix your scripts!

The correct method of deleting the address and thus avoiding the warning is:

su -c 'ip addr del 10.0.0.3/24 dev eth0'

Previously, it has not been possible to tell if an interface is down administratively or because no carrier can be found (cable unplugged). The flag NO-CARRIER has been introduced that shows up as a link flag if the link is administratively up but no carrier can be found.

The ip command now supports a batch mode via the argument -batch that works similar to the tc command to speed up batches of tasks.

X.org X11 is an open source implementation of the X Window System. It provides the basic low level functionality which full fledged graphical user interfaces (GUIs) such as GNOME and KDE are designed upon.

For more information about Xorg refer to http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/

You can use Applications => System Settings => Display or system-config-display to configure the settings. The configuration file for Xorg is located in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Modular X.Org X11R7 RC2 was released into Fedora development (rawhide) on November 16, 2005. This is the first modular release of Xorg which among several other benefits, enable users to receive updates in a faster pace and helps developers to develop and release specific components in a rapid fashion.

More information on the current status of the Xorg modularization effort in Fedora is available from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Xorg/Modularization

X11R7.0 is included in this release and there are a number of things that software developers, and packagers in Fedora repositories need to be aware of in order to ensure that their software or software packages properly compile and work with X11R7. Some are simple changes, while others may be more involved. Here is a summary of issues that may arise and where possible, suggestions on how to fix them.

Here is a short list of some of the more developer/package visible changes that are present in X11R7:

This section contains information related to basic system components.

Fedore Core includes a tool suite and execution environment based on free software technologies that is capable of building and running many useful programs written in the Java programming language, including the Eclipse IDE, Tomcat, and OpenOffice.org.

In addition to the free software stack, Fedora Core is designed to let you install multiple Java implementations and switch between them using the alternatives command line tool. However, every Java system you install must be packaged using the JPackage Project's packaging guidelines to take advantage of alternatives.

Once installed properly, the root user should be able to switch between java and javac implementations using the alternatives command:

alternatives --config java  alternatives --config javac

Proprietary Sun Microsystems Java is not included.  Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems. This entirely free software stack is not Java but can run many programs written in Java. For more information, refer to the Java FAQ at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JavaFAQ.

When to use the JPackage Project RPM repository.  Fedora Core includes many packages derived from the excellent JPackage Project, which provides a Java software repository. Refer to http://jpackage.org for more information on the Jpackage Project.These packages have been modified in Fedora to remove proprietary software dependencies and to make use of GCJ's ahead-of-time compilation feature. Fedora users should use the Fedora repositories for updates to these packages, and may use the JPackage repository for packages not provided by Fedora.

Do not simply add the JPackage repo to your yum configuration.  Understand better what you are doing if you plan on mixing packages from the Fedora and JPackage repos. Doing so may leave your system in a state that cannot be easily fixed. Be careful, and do research before you proceed.

	Include Complete Information in Bug Reports
	When making a bug report, be sure to include the output from these commands: which java && java -version && which javac && javac -version

The LinuxThreads library, which was deprecated in Fedora Core 4, is no longer available in this release. NPTL has been the default threading library since Red Hat Linux 9.

Fedora Core includes legacy system libraries for compatibility with older software. This software is part of the Legacy Software Development group that is not installed by default. Users who require this functionality can select this group during installation or run the following command post-installation.

yum groupinstall "Legacy Software Development"

As we use the term, colophon means: