I have a dozen Google Wave invites left. Use my contact form with your email and I’ll send you an invite.

Pretty cool, but too bad it eats up 99% CPU and 15% of my memory with Fedora 3.5 in Linux! Maybe 20% ram …

11/27: 1pm EST Still 8 left.

Posted in: Miscellaneous,

I prefer to keep Windows on the MBR. So I install grub to a separate partition. I then allow the Windows Loader to chainload grub (example).

I noticed a problem with the Fedora 12 Anaconda Installer. If I chose to install grub to the First sector of boot partition instead of the MBR, I get an un-bootable system.

It is easy to see the problem if you compare fdisk output. (I reduced the output for clarity)

Before I installed Fedora 12 32-bit to /dev/sda10

   Device Boo      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2089    16779861    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4            6268       36479   242677890    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda10          23762       25589    14683378+  83  Linux
/dev/sda14          34076       36192    17004771   83  Linux
/dev/sda15          36193       36478     2297263+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

After I installed Fedora 12:

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        2089    16779861    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4            6268       36479   242677890    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda10  *       23762       25589    14683378+  83  Linux
/dev/sda14          34076       36192    17004771   83  Linux
/dev/sda15          36193       36478     2297263+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

The boot flag is set to the wrong partition.

To fix this problem

Just boot with a CD/DVD, choose “Rescue” mode and run fdisk at the shell to change the boot flag. If you need more help, details follow:

1. Boot with the system using your Fedora DVD or CD#1.
2. Select “Rescue installed system”. (Select the proper settings, networking is not necessary)

At the “Rescue” screen, you can “Skip” the mounting of your installed system.

At the “First Aid Kit quickstart” menu, Select “shell”. 3. At the shell prompt, use fdisk (BE CAREFUL!)

bash-4.0# fdisk /dev/sda

Command (m for help): a        (_toggle bootable flag_)

Partition number (1-15): 10    (_the partition you installed Fedora_)

Command (m for help): a        (_command needs to be run twice_)

Partition number (1-15): 1     (_the partition with MBR_)

Command (m for help): p        (_verify everything looks correct_)

Command (m for help): w        (_write table to disk and exit_)

The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disk.

4. Reboot.

I doubt this will affect many people since most people choose to install Fedora directly to the MBR. However I am reporting here in case someone else might find this useful. I noticed this a few days ago on Fedora 12-Beta 64-bit, but I had been too busy to check the bug reports. Will do that soon.

If you run into this problem (or similar) please leave a comment or contact me.

UPDATE: Should be fixed for Fedora 13. Bug 533658

Posted in: F12, Fedora, Miscellaneous, Setup,

It’s that time of year again, the Fedora Project announced the release of Fedora 12.

This release has received a great deal of polish, and with that plenty of media and documentation to go along with it.

Please see what’s new in Fedora 12. Some of the highlights include:

• Optimized performance - The 32-bit packages have been compiled for i686 systems
• Faster updates - The yum-presto plugin is default and RPM has updated its compression format
• More comprehensive networking and broadband support
• Next-generation (Ogg) Theora video
• Bluetooth on-demand
• Moblin graphical interface for netbooks
• Gnome 2.28
• KDE 4.3 (with updated “Air” theme)
• Better webcam support
• Better tablet support
• Improvements to Virtualization

There is also available a condensed form of the release notes in 1 page, also in PDF.

As always, you can download Fedora 12 using the standard mirrors or using the Torrent (recommended).

When reading through all the information and documentation, it is easy to tell that a great deal of polish went into this release! Happy installing.

Posted in: Distributions, F12, Fedora, Miscellaneous,

This post really has no purpose other than just a snapshot for me.

My current c:\boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=c:\linux3.bin
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\linux1.bin="[ sda7]  Fedora 11   (32)  [06/2009]"
c:\linux2.bin="[ sda8]  Fedora  9   (32)  [05/2008]"
c:\linux3.bin="[ sda9]  Fedora 11   (64)  [06/2009]"
c:\linux4.bin="[sda10]  Fedora 10   (32)  [11/2008]"
c:\linux5.bin="[sda11]  CentOS 5.3  (32)  [07/2009]"
c:\linux6.bin="[sda12]  OpenSuSe 11 (32)  [10/2008]"

That F9 and F10 will be replaced with F12 (beta at the moment). I might even drop in a Ubuntu Karmic Koala in there somewhere (if I get the time).

I know, I really need to retire my Windows 2000! I think I also need to repartition that system!

Or best idea: I should get a new computer that supports KVM and switch to virtualization instead of this octuple-boot nightmare !!!

Time to start saving …

Posted in: Distributions, Miscellaneous, Setup,

Well CentOS is officially released. Now the mailing list whining can be stopped … until at least 5.5!

For new installs grab an ISO. For upgrades (which is generally safe), just run:

# yum update

Or if you want to be very careful:

# yum clean all
# yum update glibc\*
# yum update yum\* rpm\* python\*
# yum clean all
# yum update
# shutdown -r now

Just read the Release Notes for more specifics, or the RHEL 5.4 Docs.

Please note that CentOS does not have a perfectly fixed release schedule. It is typically 6-8 weeks after RHEL is released. People wanting updates can follow CentOS (Karanbir Singh) on Twitter.

(As a quick note, yesterday Fedora 12 Beta was released.)

Posted in: CentOS, Distributions, Red Hat,