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.

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 is out. I’ll probably download and install it on my main computer over the next few days.

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.

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 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.

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!

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!

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.

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.