Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Fedora”
Happy 20th Anniversary Fedora Linux and Happy Fedora 39 Release Day!
I can’t believe I’ve been using Linux for 20 years already! I started off with Fedora Core 1 (Yarrow) 20 years ago. It was in this book:
Red Hat Linux and Fedora Unleashed Cover
Boy has the technology come a long way in those 20 years!
One of my earliest desktop screenshots from back then:
Now one of my more recent desktops:
A Quick Review: Windows 7
This is the first time in nearly 10 years that I’m moving to a new version of WIndows. I pop the CD in and boot up. I see a text screen as Windows “loads files”.
Nothing here different from a Linux distro. Then the Windows logo pops up.
Preupgrade from Fedora 11 to Fedora 12 Attempt 1
A bit more complicated than it should have been. That’s really the lesson here. In fact, it appears not to have worked at all despite about five tries. The first two times I did it 100% with the GUI and had no idea why things were going wrong. The third time I did it on the command line so I saw that it was complaining about not having enough space - even though it did. And the fourth time I used the “trick installer into downloading” trick on this page and it still didn’t work. It appears not to be downloading the updates. I’m going to take to the mailing lists to try and figure out what’s going on. No one was able to help (or willing?) on the IRC so for now I remain with Fedora 11.
Super Mini Review: Fedora 10 64-bit
My wife said since she isn’t using the Linux computer I built for her, that I could use it. It has a Intel Core 2 Duo Dual Core chip, so I was pretty excited to try out 64-bit computing to see if there would be any problems. I installed Fedora 10 since I’m used to that platform. Installation process was pretty much the same as with 32-bit. It took 20 minutes to install. Blender was found in the repositories along with Inkscape - so far so good!
Fedora 9 Release Story
Fedora usually has a wacky little story to go along with each release. Here’s the one for Fedora 9:
An ancient text prophesised this day would come, detailing the fate of all who are willing to accept what is offered to them:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f9/index.html
And that day has come: the Computer said “I will convert these unbelievers, and now that I have Sulphur it will be easy.” At that, the heavens opened and burning Sulphur descended upon all the world, taking on many different forms.
Some really quick observances about Fedora 8
-
The bootup screen is pretty, but….
-
The default GDM screen looks a little ugly to me….perhaps it’s just too new.
-
The new SELinux notification tool may be useful if something is not working correctly, but it just bugs the heck out of me as every single program appears to be trying to access protected memory. Of course, some people may welcome this new program. It looks very nice, but I’ve never been one of those who had problems with SEL to begin with
Some more Fedora 7 impressions
Man have I been busy. I’m finishing up the wedding I shot a couple of weeks ago, so I haven’t had time for much. I think I have nVidia up and working now, although still just one monitor is working. glxgears gives me 1340 FPS - is that good or bad? I’ll have to look into my blog and see what happened last time. hmm….looks like I didn’t write anything down before. Well, now I have it here for the record for next time.
Fedora 7 is here!
And it’s called Moonshine. I like the name better than Zod, Fedora Core 6’s name.
Here’s the announcement from the Red Hat Mailing List:
\* From: The Fedora Project \* To: fedora-announce-list redhat com \* Subject: Announcing Fedora 7 (Moonshine) \* Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 03:28:41 -0700
Howdy, cousins! Welcome to our little Fedora hollow, where we’ve brewed up some mighty, mighty Fedora 7 Moonshine for your enjoyment. Here, I’ll help you pour that … and some for me … *cough, cough* Smoooooth … sure does taste good. It’s been sitting here in the jug for almost a whole month now! Go ahead and help yourself to some more:
Fedora 7 out soon!
Fedora 7 should be out in 8 days. This time around there isn’t much I’m looking forward to in the new release as they are mostly just laying the groundwork for more changes in future Fedoras. My wish list is better compiz support and just a few newer versions of stuff like Pidgin (formerly Gaim) and Blender.
Fedora News
A few big things in Fedora News. First of all, the Fedora Summit happened recently. They are tackling a lot of things for Fedora Core 7 including blurring the line between Core and Extras (a point of contention for those moved from Core to Extras - they were less important they felt) and finally having a true LiveCD. You can read more about it at Linux.com’s review of the Fedora Summit.
Fedora Core 6 Review: Gaim 2.0 Beta 4
Fedora Core 6 comes with Gaim 2.0 Beta 4. Above you can see it together with the new Fedora Core 6 DNA-style background.
As you can see, things have changed quite a bit in the appearance of Gaim. The largest change to the GUI involves the availability which is now set by a bar at the bottom of the GUI. The biggest complaint I have with this setup is that there isn’t an easy way to set one account as away while another is available.
Fedora Core 6 update
I’m almost ready to do my first review of FC6. However, I’m still working on getting all the neat AIGLX effects working. After all, that was almost the whole point of upgrading. So far I’ve installed the Compiz package, which gave the the System -> Preferences -> Desktop Effects menu. That didn’t work, so I hit the IRC servers. I was told the latest livna nvidia driver doesn’t support it, but the version in the testing repo should support it. So I’m going to be trying that soon. I also had to add Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True” to my xorg.conf. I haven’t setup the dual head again yet, but that should be a snap in comparison.
I now have Fedora Core 6 installed
The new version of Fedora is installed. So far, only the X server didn’t work right. It didn’t feel like supporting my dual head setup, so I’ll have to investigate that over the next few days. Other than that, it appears to have installed just fine. By the way, it didn’t take until now to be finished. It finished around 11 last night, but I didn’t want to reboot because I didn’t want to deal with any debugging until today.
Installation notes 2
The actual installation process began at 2110, so it took about 10 minutes for the dependencies. This part now tends the be the longest part. At times, it even seems to be frozen - at least that’s my experience for all prior upgrades/installs. We’ll see how this one fares.
Installation notes
The new DNA theme is beautiful. I have dua head setup and the second screen is showing garbage as when a Nintendo cartridge was broken.
I selected an upgrade install and to update the boot loader configuration. At 2100, it begins checking dependencies in packages……
Fedora Core 6 will soon be my version
And, since I downloaded it on my Windows box, the torrent will keep allowing others to download the Zod goodness. I am now beginning the install at 2057.
More on the Fedora Core 6 Release, or how Zod conquered the servers....
Fedora Core 6 was 15 minutes late….at least, the anouncement on Linuxtoday.com is 15 minutes after 1400 GMT, although it may just be that Linuxtoday.com didn’t make the anouncement on time. So what’s up with Zod? Well, after naming Fedora after rivers and French cities, it is now named after some weird space alien-sounding name. I’m not sure what Zod is, but I recently read that they consider part of the fun to be to guess how the name relates to the name of the previous release.
Fedora Core 6 Releases Today!
The wait is over for Fedora Core 6 will be releasing today, 24 Oct, at 1400 GMT or 0900 EST. Get on those bittorrents so that I can torrent off of you when I get to work. Hopefully, the Livna repositories will get those nvidia drivers working quickly.
Fedora Core Sadness
Fedora Core 6 has slipped another two days to a release date of 19 Oct 2006.
Fedora Core 6 Release Date Slips....
I noticed today that, as usual, the Fedora Core release date has slipped. This is a good thing as there are some bugs remaining to be fixed. However, it is annoying for me. I want the new toy! Here’s the explanation:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2006-October/msg00000.html
It's Coming.....
Fedora Core 6 will be out on 11 Oct 2006 (if they keep to schedule this time). Expect some screenshots once I get the AIGLX special fx working. They’re a little behind SuSe on this one, but still pretty ahead of the game.
Setting up a Virtual Computer with Xen (on Fedora) Part 1
If you haven’t done so already, install xen by typing
yum install xen
This will install xen as well as taking care of any needed dependencies. Now you need the xen-enabled kernel so type
yum install kernel-xen0
(That’s a zero there) While we’re waiting for that to install, it’s time to learn some Xen terminology. Xen causes all operating systems to run virtualized. This is why we need the xen kernel. It’s also why Xen is not available on Windows XP- you can’t virtualize an OS that doesn’t expect to be virtualized. However, there is still a primary OS and then a series of guest OSes, depending upon how many OSes you want to run and how much RAM you have. The primary OS is domain 0 and is referred to as dom0 online and pretty much everywhere I’ve read about Xen. All guest OSes are called domU. The first one is called dom0 because programmers start counting with 0. The guests are called domU because U stands for unpriveledged. Unpriviledged means they can’t reboot the physical computer and other such restrictions. Done? Good!
Fedora Core 5: Bordeaux is out!
Fedora Core 5 is out. I’ll probably download and install it on my main computer over the next few days.
Fedora Core 5 Test Release 3 is out!
Fedora Core 5 has moved one step closer to being finalized with the release of Test Release 3. I’m currently downloading the torrent of the DVD because I think I want to go ahead and put it on my main machine. Yeah, it’s a test release, but I’m so impatient to get working with Beagle and Fspot! I’ll see what others are doing before I do anything rash. See the official announcement here.
Fedora on VMware Player Part 2
The important thing about installing a multi-disc distro with VMware Player is that it will create a lock on the disc so that it will tell you to change discs, yet when you do, it says the same disc is still in there. The way to counter this is to hit the CD-ROM button at the top of the VMware player window. This toggle button controls whether the CD is mounted or not. The first time you will get some warnings, but by clicking cancel you can tell it to ignore the lock the emulator has on the drive. From then on, changing discs during installation is as simple as toggling the button off and on, to let it know a new CD is in.
The last straw
The Fedora install was going so well…it was on disc 3 with nary a problem. Then it had the same problem again. For some reason, in the middle of the install it rebooted the laptop again. Frankly, I’m not down with these 3 day installs. Sorry, but my laptop’s days with Fedora have passed. Basically, every time I try to reinstall Fedora I know I’m going to have similar problems. It’s just too slow to endure these kinds of installs. So I’m switching over to Debian on my laptop where upgrades do not require reinstalling the entire system. You just point to a new repo and update your packages as usual. Fedora will remain on my nice fast computer.
The install is behaving....
I guess Fedora grokked that if this install didn’t work, I was going to install Debian or Ubuntu. It’s currently going through CD 2 without problems. Still slow as heck, but actually making it through. Excellent!
:: grumble ::
Something happened in the transition from CD1 to CD2. The screen looks like it tried to boot up and then failed. I confirmed that trying to boot fails - of course as only 1/5 of the installation has taken place. I’m going to give it one more shot before I file a bug. Beginning installation….now!
Insert CD 2
alright! Now, if only the insert disc menu would accept my mouse-clicks on the OK button. It probably has, but hasn’t redrawn the screen yet.
Installation continues
Yay! It didn’t bork this time…just 3550 minutes left and it’s still on CD 1. If there’s time today, I hope to make a more substantial post.
@#$@#$ Laptop
Came home from work expecting to pop in CD 2 for the install. The screen had blacked out and no amount of moving the mouse or tapping keys brought it to life. Rebooted and started the process again. This was at 5pm today. Right now it’s still “preparing to install”. I had a similar problem when I was originally installing FC3 on this computer. Perhaps there’s something that needs to be disabled in laptop installs to keep it from blacking out? The only way to keep things working is to push a button every once in a while to keep it from blacking out. Can’t do that while I’m at work so I’ll give it one more try today. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to wait until Saturday to install FC5tc2. Of course, I’m losing valuable testing time, but that’s what happens when you try to upgrade Fedora on a 600 Mhz computer! By contrast, on nice fast machines it takes 15 minutes tops for an install. This is excruciating….anyone want to donate money for a new laptop?
Fedora Core 5 Test Release 2 Part 1
I decided to do something I’ve never done before, I’m going to install Fedora Core 5 Test Release 2 and actually help with the debugging process. It was a bit of an internal struggle. By taking part in the debugging, I get to see the new technologies instead of being surprised in March when it comes out as a final release. But, having my laptop here with no real purpose, and thus no consequences if something is broken in the software, I decided to install it. In a previous press release they said that test release 2 would allow upgrading from FC4 (whereas test release 1 did not); if this is the case, then I’ll be doing it on the laptop. If not, I may use some kind of emulation to run it on my Windows Box.
Fedora Core 5 will be out in 2 months...
…if they don’t get off schedule. And here is a really awesome review - I’m so excited! I think I may download the test 2 release and install it on my laptop, that will allow me to help out by submitting bugs, and I don’t use my laptop day to day, so if something breaks, it’s ok.
Mounting an external USB Harddrive
In Fedora Core 4 (and earlier Cores) when the user is in Gnome or KDE, the HAL daemon will automatically recognize when a USB drive is attached to the computer. It will then create an fstab entry and all will be good in the world. I’m not sure if this happens in Debian, but I’m using Debian as a print/file server so I don’t have any GUIs installed. So I will go over my learning process for others who may be having the same difficulties.
Fedora Extras Repository
There was a heckuva lot of debate on the Fedora Development list server when the extras repository was first mentioned for Fedora Core 4. People were taking exception to the fact that their package was in extras while some other package was in core. Some threatened to stop making FC packages and others just whined a lot. Well, the extras repository has debuted and I hope that people see that it’s really not a bad idea at all, In fact, I think it’s an excellent idea.
Fedora Core 4
I finally got Fedora Core 4 running after nearly 12 hours of installation. Boy, that was a little rough on my patience. The first change I noticed is that the default “time left” bar is candy cane striped now instead of solid blue.
I decided to boot first into Gnome and see what this new “Clear Looks” theme looked like. It pretty much lived up to my expectations. It is a much cleaned-up version of Bluecurve, just as everyone claimed before. By cleaned up I mean that it’s a much more streamlined-looking, post-modern theme. It’s more like XP inthat the corners are more rounded and the buttons look nicer. Unlike XP there’s no annoying red “X” button. The other icons look the same. It may be me, but they look like they are rendered a bit nicer, but it could be in my head. Gnome also seems to run faster than it previously did, but I have no way of testing this. I didn’t do any benchmarking before and my other Linux computer is on a significantly slower processor.
Finally, Part 1
After two days of downloading, finally got Fedora Core 4 downloaded. Currently burning the discs, but I won’t get to play until I get back from work. It’s going to be an ancy day.
Fedora Core 4 - Stentz is out!
At approximately 11 am EST today Fedora Core 4 was officially released to the mirrores and bittorrents. I couldn’t wait to get home to download it and install it on my two Linux machines. I’m currently downloading it - unfortunately it currently says I have 65 hours left, but hopefully that speeds up soon. Happy “birthday” Fedora!
My Fluxbox desktop on Fedora Core 3 Part 3
Here I have decided to run the “top” command in the top transparent Eterm window. This is a great command to have running on the desktop. Basically it’s equivalent to hitting control-alt-delete in Windows and then clicking on “processes”. It tells you what you are running on your system, how much RAM/CPU cycles it’s taking up, and a bunch of other information. It dynamically updates so as you run programs you can see what’s holding up the computer. It doesn’t normally have that line running down the middle. That’s a consequence of some glitch when I was taking the screenshot.
My Fluxbox desktop on Fedora Core 3 Part 2
Finally I have figured out something else I have wanted to do for MONTHS! If you look on the top-right corner you will see what looks like an embedded terminal in my desktop. The biggest reason why I’ve wanted to do this is simply because it looks really neat to have a terminal “built into” the desktop. I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet, the way people use them to run a logger in the background or other neat utilities. Besides looking really neat, it allows you to enjoy your background while using the terminal instead of covering it up. I mean, what’s the point of going through all the trouble of having such a great background when you can’t even see it? If you are into computers you are now nodding in agreement. So, how did I do this?
My Fluxbox desktop on Fedora Core 3
I wanted to share my Fluxbox desktop on my main Linux computer both for the geeky motive of showing off my desktop like jocks show off their cars and also to help others achieve the same configurations that I have. Fluxbox, like Blackbox and other *box window managers, are very, very customizable.
Here is the screenshot of my desktop, which you can see in full resolution by clicking it.
First of all, on the left-hand side of the screen you can see my system monitor, gkrellm. If you’ve spent any amount of time checking out screenshots of others’ desktops you’ve definitely seen this system monitor, especially on a non- KDE or Gnome screenshot. I was actually trying to figure out what this program was for months before finally stumbling upon the answer. It is highly customizable both in what it shows and what the colour scheme is. Currently I have it showing my CPU usage, user/program usage, internet traffic, and a few other small things. The best and easiest way to get get gkrellm if you are a Fedora user is to install it from the freshrpms repository via apt or yum. Freshrpms also contains themes and plugins for gkrellm.
Fedora Core 4 Test 1 Released!
I am a little late in mentioning this due to events in my life at the time at which it occurred, but the Fedora Core 4 Test Release 1 is now available! This is only for use on a test machine because, as the test 1 release, it is very full of bugs. However, if you have an extra machine you can throw it on, you can help them in the debugging process. They have all new goodies that you can’t get anywhere else like Gnome desktop 2.10 and KDE desktop 3.4. Most distros are still on 2.8 and 3.2!