Hands-on: new Fedora release goes up to 11 but doesn't rock

[Daniel ~]

Written by Daniel
Friday, 12 June 2009

Fedora 11, the latest version of the popular Linux distribution, has been officially released. We took it for a test and found that it has a lot to offer, but it's also got some icky bugs.

By Ryan Paul | Last updated June 11, 2009 9:20 AM CT

The developers behind the popular Fedora Linux distribution announced this week the official release of version 11, codenamed Leonidas. [Front page...]

[dsio]

kernel mode setting with plymouth is pretty cool on nvidia hardware.

Not /entirely/ reliable. If you switch modes a few times it sort of goes into... beer goggles mode. But interesting none the less.

Also, boot time on my big desktop is around 12 seconds, which is about a 500% improvement.

[Daniel ~]

Fedora 10 is slow to up.

All and all,...is it worth while to upgrade or better to await 12?

[dsio]

I'd wait a bit, then upgrade. Let the bugs get worked out, maybe in a month or so, then upgrade.

When you do, don't download the DVD, use the preupgrade app, its extremely good.

[Daniel ~]

Can you go on a bit about the Pre upgrade pack...first I've heard of it! TIA

[dsio]

you install it with

'yum install preupgrade'

then from a terminal type preupgrade, it will prompt you to enter root password, it will then hand-hold you through the entire upgrade process, downloading only the packages that you require, fixing any conflicts, and once its done, it prompts you to reboot, after rebooting it goes into an "installer mode" and performs the upgrade. Then it reboots again, and you're in fedora 11.

[Daniel ~]

I've book marked this thread and, as you say, I'll wait a bit for Fedora 11 to calm down, then give her a go! Thanks dsio!!

[chrisbard]

That's why I recommend using Vista or Windows 7 !!!

[dsio]

Originally Posted by chrisbard

That's why I recommend using Vista or Windows 7 !!!

Ya, the difference being while Fedora / other distros provide options to maintain compatibility with your installed software when upgrading, Vista/7 makes no attempt to hide the the fact that a heap of your old software just flat out won't work anymore.

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by chrisbard

That's why I recommend using Vista or Windows 7 !!!

Hi Chris! I really have missed your gentle guidance...":O}

[Daniel ~]

Decided to go ahead and play with this on my Cloned Fedora drive. Found that I already have "preupgrade" installed, must include it now with the distro.

Downloading now.....1.3 GIG download! ":O}

[dsio]

Should point out, once you do the upgrade, if you're using livna/rpmfusion for your nvidia drivers you should be fine, but if not, you'll have to install the nvidia drivers manually.

Also, if you're interested, can give you a quick run down on how to enable kernel mode setting just for a look. Its definitely not stable, but it does work as a proof of concept at the moment.

[Daniel ~]

I hate instabilities...I'm sooooo bad at dealing with them! ":O}

I'll keep you posted. not sure how far I want to go with 11...depends on how it treats me!

Download 85% finished.... can you feel the tension? ":O}

Nvidia 185.18 drivers just downloaded! ":O}

[Daniel ~]

Barriers:
1. Fire Fox has a add on I need (Copy in plain text) that didn't update so I can't do my back end work as I wish.
2.Opera, I downloaded and installed...but for some reason doesn't want to import my favourites.
3. I'd rather be playing with Mint...":O}
4 Any one else tried Mint? LOL

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by dsio

Should point out, once you do the upgrade, if you're using livna/rpmfusion for your nvidia drivers you should be fine, but if not, you'll have to install the nvidia drivers manually.

Will Fedora fix this as updates progress...or.....is this something I'll have to ask others for help straightening out?

Can Fedora do the Mint type "Hardware Drivers" to handle Nvidia drivers?

[dsio]

They could, but its unlikely that they will. Much of the functionality mint has is purposely excluded from Fedora not due to laziness but for idealogical reasons. They have bowed slightly to allow codecs to be more easily installed but there are certain things they just won't do.

[Daniel ~]

The odd thing is that I've done this update three times now, twice (Now included) it booted normally, but once it issued warnings that Nvidia was not working the other two times it says that Nvidia is already installed during boot.

But when trying to run Quqake4 I always get:

---------------------------------------------
idRenderSystem::Shutdown()
Sys_Error: Unable to initialize OpenGL
[Daniel@localhost ~]$

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by dsio

They could, but its unlikely that they will. Much of the functionality mint has is purposely excluded from Fedora not due to laziness but for idealogical reasons. They have bowed slightly to allow codecs to be more easily installed but there are certain things they just won't do.

While I respect principle... this will surly hurt them (Fedora) with noobs like me who need all the help they can get from a distro!

[ccperf721p]

I doubt it's so much a matter of principle, but rather an easy way for them to get the new open source "nouveau" driver debugged.

Updating the nvidia driver or OS won't help as the "nouveau" driver needs to be blocked as it is the default driver in F11.. Workaround isn't too tough if you want to do it later..

[Daniel ~]

Thanks Cliff. Let me know when you have time to mess with this. I'm happy in Mint, but running Fedora as well is a bit of a learning experience for me so if possible I'd like to keep it up to date and functioning.