Time for some “Moonshine”!

Even before the official announcement, Max Spevack, leader of the Fedora Project, issued several words with his enthusiasm for all the work put into this release.

If you did not notice the release is called Fedora 7 and not Fedora Core 7 and this represents the most significant change. The previous devision of software in Fedora’s 2 main repositories: Core and Extras has been merged. While this may not be seen directly to the end user it has been a massive amount of work behind the scenes. Many steps have been taken to push Fedora to be a completely free distribution with all the necessary tools for any person or group to create their own custom distribution of Fedora.

With that in mind the changes and new features in Fedora 7 may seem less than has been seen in previous releases.

Fedora now supports multiple different “Spins”:

• LiveCD spins are available in both Gnome (default) and KDE. LiveCD’s, while providing less software, are fully installable.
• The regular DVD install will provide a standard installation method that is similar to previous Fedora releases.
• A set of DVD images will provide a snapshot of all the software in the repositories helpful for people without broadband access.
• Standard CD install images have been discontinued. Users who wish to install by CD unfortunately can only do so by LiveCD. (Unless someone creates their own custom CD ISO’s).

Desktop Updates

• Gnome 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6
• Fast User Switching - Allows for multiple users on the same machine without having to logging out.
• Xorg Server 1.3 - Allows for hot plugged display adapters. Additionally included is the experimental Nouveau driver for free open source driver for Nvidia cards.
• Improvements in wireless performance and enhancements to NetworkManager.
• New “Flying High” theme
• Firefox 2

System Changes

• SELinux enhancements - Included is the setroubleshoot service and applet which provides easier to understand information on denials and issues with SELinux.
• Disk device name changes. Previous /dev/hdX names are now /dev/sdX.
• Out of the box support for the Sony Playstation 3.
• Smolt, an tool that sends anonymous hardware profile information to the Fedora Project, is included. While completely optional it can provide the needed information for improving end user hardware experience, and to prioritize development and quality assurance on commonly used hardware.
• Significant yum improvements.

While these changes seem minimal they represent a great deal of work. The development process went through 4 Test releases, 1 RC release and plenty of discussion.

You can download Fedora 7 using the standard mirrors or using the Torrent (recommended). Remember the differences between the “Spins” when deciding which image to download!

Please user the Fedora-List mailing list or any of the forums for help. There are some basic tips provided in my Personal Fedora 7 Installation Guide which should be updated within the week with the installation.

Happy downloading and installing!

Posted in: Distributions, F7, Fedora,

After hearing many complaints about trouble using Fedora Core 6 with a 64 bit processor, I decided to test it myself. For the most part almost everything is identical however there were some issues I found. I decided to write a mini-guide with some notes and tips for 64 bit.

Personal Fedora Core 6 64 bit Notes

The only seriously confusing problems I had was with the co-existing of both i386 and x86_64 libraries and packages, commonly referred to as multilib. The rpm command is improved when adding:

%_query_all_fmt         %%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}

to the file: /etc/rpm/macros

I noted that having duplicate libraries and applications did make the installation a bit larger, apx. 0.5GB. While this isn’t very large, I could not figure out what was the reason that some 32 bit apps are included while others aren’t.

The 64 bit Firefox did not load the 32 bit browser plugins, so I removed Firefox.x86_64 and installed Firefox.i386 this allowed the browser plugins to work correctly.

Additionally the Nvidia driver installation had some yum problem due to some 32 bit dependencies. I removed those and that problem was resolved.

I currently have a power management problem with kernel 2.6.20-1.2933.fc6 x86_64 as my desktop won’t properly suspend (mode S3).

In conclusion I found the multilib to be such a nuisance. I would consider switching entirely to 64 bit if there was perfect 64 bit support for everything. In that I mean if there was absolutely no need for any 32 bit parts. I didn’t notice a significant speed increase and I am not aware of any major benefits I’m losing by staying with 32 bit Linux.

Posted in: FC6, Fedora, Setup,

The jokes made about confusing Linux dependancies may at times seem funny, but they reflect a sad truth. After my previous complaint about gui nuisances in Rythmbox, I installed of copy of FC6 - 64bit to a spare partition. Following my own FC6 Guide, I came upon the MP3 section.

Adding MP3 support to Rythmbox (GTK based GNOME media player) requires: yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly This downloads 7 packages which are less than 1MB and most come from the Livna repository.

However the popular MP3/media player in KDE, Amarok, is not included in the distribution so when you install it your yum command will look like: yum install amarok amarok-extras-nonfree This pulls down 26 packages totalling 31MB!!! However 18MB alone are for the single Amarok package.

The funny thing was near the end of the yum download list:

Updating for dependencies:
 libgpod           x86_64    0.4.2-0.1.fc6   updates     202 k
 rhythmbox         x86_64    0.9.8-1.fc6     updates     4.0 M

So basically installing Amarok with MP3 plugins will require you to install Rythmbox – a totally unrelated media player.

At first this may seem confusing but the real reason for this is the dependancy on libgpod which is a helper library to interface with your iPod. Since amarok requires libgpod as does rhythmbox, an update to libgpod will pull down an update to both media players. While this isn’t very confusing if you take a moment to think about dependancies, it would make someone wonder why they have a GNOME media player when they only use and install KDE applications.

At first I thought it was curious. However most Fedora users know that it is pretty rare to live without any GTK or GNOME apps on their computer. Even if they entirely prefer KDE.

Posted in: FC6, Fedora, Multimedia, Setup, Software,

Back in 2000, xmms was the hot MP3 player for Linux that everybody loved. Most likely due to it’s near perfect match in design and functionality to Winamp. Well time makes you bolder and MP3 players get older. And with no major updates (not even a port to GTK2), xmms just sits around. Recently some distributions have stopped including it in favor of more modern players. So I tried Rythmbox (the Music management and playback software for GNOME.). After 2 week I can say modern does NOT mean better.

A look at XMMS, a very simple interface.

All the standard playback buttons including play, pause, previous, next. As well as volume, balance and position sliders. Note that I’m at track 330 (Velvet Revolver) in my playlist.

…

A look at Rythmbox, a very simple interface as well. Maybe too simple.

Hmm, so I can hit play, go previous or go next. But wait how do I stop? Of course silly me, I can hit Play again to Stop. Or wait is that hit Play to Pause?? Hmmm? I guess play just isn’t what it used to be. Perhaps I have no Pause or Stop because I have no room. That must be it. Why? Because on my toolbar I have my most common functions which includes “Create an Audio CD…”. Yup, that sure sounds like something I do every single day.

Okay, so the toolbar buttons aren’t intelligent. At least we have a button for volume. I don’t know who prefers a button, but press it and lo and behold it reveals a slider. The whole volume changer is absolutely quirky. Why oh why hide the slider? Another space issue?

While I could go on, there’s one more absolutely annoying feature. Why is it everytime I close the player listening to Oasis, I start again with .38 Special? The position in the playlist is lost. Lost! Like the tv show.

Before 2 weeks ago, I had never really used any other MP3 player other than XMMS. I was using FC6 and Rythmbox 0.9.7 and to be fair there are many features I do like. However the small issues can be incredibly annoying. I plan to try some other players as well.

Posted in: FC6, Fedora, Multimedia, Software,

Dell’s IdeaStorm provided a method for Dell customers to provide feedback to the company on what consumers really wanted. Not surprisingly, the biggest request was for Dell to pre-installed Linux on their Desktops and Laptops.

Currently there are vendors who support Linux on their computers, however most of this focus has been on enterprise level linux (Red Hat Enterprise Desktop, Novell SuSE Desktop) and not necessarily free community distributions like Fedora or Ubuntu. While enterprise versions have the longest support cycles, they often lack modern hardware support and many small features that the common desktop would require.

There is an official Dell Linux Survey running from March 13 to March 23 asking consumers to help prioritize Dell’s linux focus.

VOTE!

I urge everyone to vote and tell everyone they know to vote. Please be realistic with your prioritizations. Priority should be on a community distribution, and NOT an enterprise distribution.

Realistically UBUNTU is the best choice for distribution (whatever you do, DO NOT pick Fedora) - or write in KUbuntu.

VOTE!

Posted in: Desktop, Distributions, Linux,