Fedora Release Notes

Version 7.0.0 (2007-04-20)

Copyright © 2007 Red Hat, Inc. and others

This document is released under the terms of the Open Publication License. For
more details, read the full legalnotice in the section called “Legal Notice”.

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora Core.

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Table of Contents

Welcome to Fedora
Release Highlights

    Fedora Tour
    New in Fedora
    Road Map

Legal Notice
Feedback

    Providing Feedback on Fedora Software
    Providing Feedback on Release Notes

Installation Notes

    Changes in Anaconda
    Installation Related Issues
    Upgrade Related Issues

Architecture Specific Notes

    RPM multiarch support on 64-bit platforms (x86_64, ppc64)
    PPC Specifics for Fedora
    x86 Specifics for Fedora
    x86_64 Specifics for Fedora

Fedora Live Images

    Available Images
    Usage Information
    Other Methods of Booting
    Differences From a Regular Fedora Install

Package Notes

    PC Speaker Enabled
    The cdrtools Packages is Replaced by cdrkit
    EM8300 Drivers Default to ALSA
    Gaim Renamed to Pidgin
    Packages with ".fc6" Tag
    Perl Package Split
    System Tools
    Engineering and Scientific
    ATA over Ethernet
    Graphics

Linux Kernel

    Version
    Changelog
    Kernel Flavors
    Reporting Bugs
    Preparing for Kernel Development

Fedora Desktop

    Localized Common User Directories (xdg-user-dirs)
    GNOME
    KDE
    Web Browsers
    Mail Clients

File Systems
Mail Servers

    exim-sa

Development

    Tools

Security

    General Information

Java and java-gcj-compat

    Handling Java and Java-like Packages
    Handling Java Applets
    Fedora and the JPackage Java Packages
    Maven (v2)

Multimedia

    Multimedia Players
    Ogg and Xiph.Org Foundation Formats
    MP3, DVD, and Other Excluded Multimedia Formats
    CD and DVD Authoring and Burning
    Screencasts
    Extended Support through Plugins

Games and Entertainment

    Haxima

Virtualization

    Types of Virtualization
    Guest Operating Systems
    Changes to the Virtualization Packages

X Window System (Graphics)

    X Configuration Changes
    Intel Driver Notes
    Third Party Video Drivers

Database Servers

    MySQL
    PostgreSQL

Internationalization (i18n)

    Language Installation
    SCIM Input Method Defaults

Backwards Compatibility

    Compiler Compatibility

Package Changes
Fedora Project
Colophon

    Contributors
    Production Methods

Welcome to Fedora

The Fedora Project is a Red Hat sponsored and community supported open source
project. Its goal is the rapid progress of free and open source software and
content. The Fedora Project makes use of public forums, open processes, rapid
innovation, meritocracy, and transparency in pursuit of the best operating
system and platform that free and open source software can provide.

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

You can help the Fedora Project community continue to improve Fedora if you
file bug reports and enhancement requests. Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/
wiki/BugsAndFeatureRequests for more information about bugs. Thank you for your
participation.

To find out more general information about Fedora, refer to the following Web
pages:

  ● Fedora Overview (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview)

  ● Fedora FAQ (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ)

  ● Help and Discussions (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate)

  ● Participate in the Fedora Project (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join)

Document Links

Many links may not work properly from within the installation environment, due
to resource constraints. The release notes are also available post-installation
as part of the desktop Web browser's default home page. If you are connected to
the internet, use these links to find other helpful information about Fedora
and the community that creates and supports it.

Release Highlights

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Fedora Tour

You can find a tour filled with pictures and videos of this exciting new
release at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Tours/Fedora7.

New in Fedora

This release includes significant new versions of many key components and
technologies. The following sections provide a brief overview of major changes
from the last release of Fedora.

Spins

For the first time, Fedora includes several different spins, which are
variations of Fedora built from a specific set of software packages. Each spin
has a combination of software to meet the requirements of a specific kind of
end user. In addition to a very small boot.iso image for network installation,
users have the following spin choices:

  ● GNOME and KDE desktop environment based bootable Live images that can be
    installed to a hard disk. These spins are meant for desktop users who
    prefer a single disk installation and for sharing Fedora with friends,
    family, and event attendees.

  ● A regular image for desktops, workstations, and server users. This spin
    provides a good upgrade path and similar environment for users of previous
    releases of Fedora.

  ● A set of DVD images that includes all software available in the Fedora
    repository. This spin is intended for distribution to users who do not have
    broadband Internet access and prefer to have software available on disc.

Desktop

  ● This release features GNOME 2.18 and KDE 3.5.6.

    http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/notes/en/

    http://kde.org/info/3.5.6.php

  ● Fast user switching is well integrated in this release. Developers have
    enabled this feature through extensive development work on ConsoleKit and
    full integration throughout the distribution.

    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Desktop/FastUserSwitching

  ● Display devices can be hot plugged and work automatically, thanks to the
    inclusion of Xorg Server 1.3.

  ● This release provides a number of firmware packages for enhanced wireless
    networking. NetworkManager presents a graphical interface that allows user
    to quickly switch between wireless and wired networks for increased
    mobility. NetworkManager is installed by default in both GNOME and KDE Live
    CDs.

  ● Fedora 7 includes a refreshing new "Flying High" theme, which is part of a
    continuous team effort from the community and the Fedora Artwork Project:

    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork

  ● Firefox 2 includes a host of new features including an inline spell
    checker, built-in phishing protection, and the ability to resume browsing
    sessions.

    http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/

  ● I18N support is much improved by the presence of SCIM input methods, which
    now work automatically after installation without any configuration. SCIM
    can handle nearly every alphabet/set of characters in use. Fedora is now
    more accessible to a wider audience by the default inclusion of a number of
    language packages and input methods in the GNOME based Live CD.

  ● A new comprehensive graphical administration tool for SELinux,
    system-config-selinux is available by default in this release. SELinux
    boolean settings have been removed from the system-config-securitylevel
    tool and added to this new administration tool instead.

  ● The SELinux troubleshooting tool setroubleshoot is enabled by default in
    this release. This tool provides notifications and detailed information to
    desktop users about any access denials by SELinux policy, along with
    suggestions on handling them.

  ● This release features integration of a new FireWire stack in the kernel for
    more robust device handling.

    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/472789

  ● Fedora now includes improved power management through implementation of
    dynamic ticks in the kernel.

    http://lwn.net/Articles/223185/

  ● This release partially consolidates dictionaries used by desktop
    applications, which provides a consistent desktop experience while saving
    resources.

  ● Fedora now integrates the experimental nouveau driver within Xorg and the
    kernel. The nouveau driver aims to provide free and open source 3D drivers
    for nVidia cards. End users are asked to provide feedback on this feature
    to the project developers, to further the goal of having fully functional
    3D drivers by default.

Performance

  ● In this release, the performance of yum, Pirut, and Pup have been
    significantly improved.

System Administration

  ● This release integrates Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology with
    Fedora's graphical virt-manager and command-line virsh tools. KVM provides
    a hardware accelerated virtualization solution, and users have a choice
    between KVM and Xen, along with Qemu, in this release.

    http://kvm.sourceforge.net/

  ● In this release, all hard disk partitions follow a /dev/sd* naming
    convention due to a new libata driver interface in the kernel. The Anaconda
    installer eases the transition for release upgrades.

  ● The mac80211 (formerly called Devicescape) wireless stack has been
    integrated with the kernel.

  ● Smolt, an opt-in tool that sends anonymous hardware profile information to
    the Fedora Project, is integrated with firstboot in the installer. All data
    is available on the Smolt homepage. This profile information is used to
    leverage cooperation from vendors in improving end user hardware
    experience, and to priortize development and quality assurance on commonly
    used hardware.

    https://hosted.fedoraproject.org/projects/smolt

    http://smolt.fedoraproject.org

  ● The Fedora Directory Server base is now part of the Fedora software
    repository. The graphical console and administration servers are available
    on the website and are planned to be included in the repository after a
    review process.

    http://directory.fedoraproject.org/

  ● Python 2.5 is included in this release, and all of the Python software
    available in the repository uses it.

    http://docs.python.org/whatsnew/whatsnew25.html

Road Map

The proposed plans for the next release of Fedora are available at http://
fedoraproject.org/wiki/RoadMap.

Legal Notice

Copyright (c) 2007 by Red Hat, Inc. and others. This material may be
distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open
Publication License, v1.0, available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.

The Fedora Art Project created the admonition graphics (note, tip, important,
caution, and warning). Tommy Reynolds <Tommy.Reynolds@MegaCoder.com> created
the callout graphics. They all may be freely redistributed with documentation
produced for the Fedora Project.

FEDORA, FEDORA PROJECT, and the Fedora Logo are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc.,
are registered or pending registration in the U.S. and other countries, and are
used here under license to the Fedora Project.

Red Hat and the Red Hat "Shadow Man" logo are registered trademarks of Red Hat
Inc. in the United States and other countries.

All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their
respective owners.

Documentation, as with software itself, may be subject to export control. Read
about Fedora Project export controls at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal/
Export.

Feedback

Thank you for taking the time to provide your comments, suggestions, and bug
reports to the Fedora community. By doing so, you help improve the state of
Fedora, Linux, and free software worldwide.

Providing Feedback on Fedora Software

To provide feedback on Fedora software or other system elements, please refer
to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugsAndFeatureRequests. A list of commonly
reported bugs and known issues for this release is available from http://
fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/F7Common.

Providing Feedback on Release Notes

Feedback for Release Notes Only

This section concerns feedback on the release notes themselves.

If you feel these release notes could be improved in any way, you can provide
your feedback directly to the beat writers. Here are several ways to do so, in
order of preference:

 1. If you have a Fedora account, edit content directly at http://
    fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats

 2. Fill out a bug request using this template: http://tinyurl.com/nej3u - This
    link is ONLY for feedback on the release notes themselves. Refer to the
    admonition above for details.

 3. Email relnotes@fedoraproject.org

Installation Notes

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Fedora Installation Guide

To learn how to install Fedora, refer to http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
install-guide/.

Installation issues not covered in these release notes

If you encounter a problem or have a question during installation that is not
covered in these relese notes, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ and
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/Common.

Anaconda is the name of the Fedora installer. This section outlines issues
related to Anaconda and installing Fedora 7.

Downloading Large Files

If you intend to download the Fedora DVD ISO image, keep in mind that not all
file downloading tools can accommodate files larger than 2 GiB in size. Tools
without this limitation include wget 1.9.1-16 and above, curl, and ncftpget.
BitTorrent is another method for downloading large files. For information about
obtaining and using the torrent file, refer to http://torrent.fedoraproject.org
/.

Anaconda tests the integrity of installation media by default. This function
works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods. The
Fedora Project recommends that you test all installation media before starting
the installation process and before reporting any installation-related bugs.
Many of the bugs reported are actually due to improperly-burned CDs. To use
this test, type linux mediacheck at the boot: prompt.

The mediacheck function is highly sensitive, and may report some usable discs
as faulty. This result is often caused by disc writing software that does not
include padding when creating discs from ISO files. For best results with
mediacheck, boot with the following option:

linux ide=nodma mediacheck

After you complete the mediacheck function successfully, reboot to return DMA
mode to its normal state. On many systems, this results in a faster
installation process from the disc. You may skip the mediacheck option when
rebooting.

BitTorrent Automatically Verifies File Integrity

If you use BitTorrent, any files you download are automatically validated. If
your file completes downloading, you do not need to check it. Once you burn
your CD, however, you should still use mediacheck.

You may perform memory testing before you install Fedora by entering memtest86
at the boot: prompt. This option runs the Memtest86 stand alone memory testing
software in place of Anaconda. Memtest86 memory testing continues until the Esc
key is pressed.

Memtest86 Availability

You must boot from Installation Disc 1 or a rescue CD in order to use this
feature.

Fedora 7 supports graphical FTP and HTTP installations. However, the installer
image must either fit in RAM or appear on local storage, such as Installation
Disc 1. Therefore, only systems with more than 192MiB of RAM, or which boot
from Installation Disc 1, can use the graphical installer. Systems with 192MiB
RAM or less fall back to using the text-based installer automatically. If you
prefer to use the text-based installer, type linux text at the boot: prompt.

Changes in Anaconda

  ● Many minor user interface changes:

      ○ Ability to select the boot drive

      ○ Advanced storage options, including the ability to add an iSCSI target
        and disable dmraid devices

      ○ The time zone page includes a magnification slider to zoom into
        different areas of the world when choosing location

  ● Improved LiveCD support

  ● Ability to install from Live image running from RAM or USB stick

  ● Improved IEEE-1394 (Firewire) support

  ● Improved installation for Sony PlayStation 3

  ● French keyboard layout uses latin9

  ● Improved kickstart installation

Installation Related Issues

Sony VAIO Notebooks

Some Sony VAIO notebook systems may experience problems installing Fedora from
CD-ROM. If this happens, restart the installation process and add the following
option to the boot command line:

pci=off ide1=0x180,0x386

Installation should proceed normally, and any devices not detected are
configured the first time Fedora is booted.

IDE RAID

Not all IDE RAID controllers are supported. If your RAID controller is not yet
supported by dmraid, you may combine drives into RAID arrays by configuring
Linux software RAID. For supported controllers, configure the RAID functions in
the computer BIOS.

Multiple NICs and PXE Installation

Some servers with multiple network interfaces may not assign eth0 to the first
network interface as BIOS knows it, which can cause the installer to try using
a different network interface than was used by PXE. To change this behavior,
use the following in pxelinux.cfg/* config files:

IPAPPEND 2
APPEND ksdevice=bootif

The configuration options above causes the installer to use the same network
interface as BIOS and PXE use. You can also use the following option:

ksdevice=link

This option causes the installer to use the first network device it finds that
is linked to a network switch.

Compaq DL360 with Smart Array

If you have difficulties with this installation not detecting the Smart Array
card, try entering linux isa on the installer prompt. This lets you manually
select the card.

Upgrade Related Issues

Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DistributionUpgrades for detailed
recommended procedures for upgrading Fedora.

In general, fresh installations are recommended over upgrades, particularly for
systems that include software from third-party repositories. Third-party
packages remaining from a previous installation may not work as expected on an
upgraded Fedora system. If you decide to perform an upgrade anyway, the
following information may be helpful:

  ● Before you upgrade, back up the system completely. In particular, preserve
    /etc, /home, and possibly /opt and /usr/local if customized packages are
    installed there. You may wish to use a multi-boot approach with a "clone"
    of the old installation on alternate partition(s) as a fallback. In that
    case, create alternate boot media, such as a GRUB boot floppy.

    System Configuration Backups

    Backups of configurations in /etc are also useful in reconstructing system
    settings after a fresh installation.

  ● After you complete the upgrade, run the following command:

  ● rpm -qa --last > RPMS_by_Install_Time.txt

    Inspect the end of the output for packages that pre-date the upgrade.
    Remove or upgrade those packages from third-party repositories, or
    otherwise deal with them as necessary.

Architecture Specific Notes

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section provides notes that are specific to the supported hardware
architectures of Fedora.

RPM multiarch support on 64-bit platforms (x86_64, ppc64)

RPM supports parallel installation of multiple architectures of the same
package. A default package listing such as rpm -qa might appear to include
duplicate packages, since the architecture is not displayed. Instead, use the
repoquery command, part of the yum-utils package, which displays architecture
by default. To install yum-utils, run the following command:

su -c 'yum install yum-utils'

To list all packages with their architecture using rpm, run the following
command:

rpm -qa --queryformat "%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n"

You can add this to /etc/rpm/macros (for a system wide setting) or ~/.rpmmacros
(for a per-user setting). It changes the default query to list the
architecture:

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

PPC Specifics for Fedora

This section covers specific information about Fedora and the PPC hardware
platform.

Hardware Requirements for PPC

Processor and memory

  ● Minimum CPU: PowerPC G3 / POWER3

  ● Fedora 7 supports only the "New World" generation of Apple Power Macintosh,
    shipped from circa 1999 onward.

  ● Fedora 7 also supports IBM pSeries, IBM iSeries, IBM RS/6000, Genesi
    Pegasos II, and IBM Cell Broadband Engine machines.

  ● Fedora 7 includes new hardware support for Genesi Efika, and for the Sony
    PlayStation 3.

  ● Recommended for text-mode: 233 MHz G3 or better, 128MiB RAM.

  ● Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz G3 or better, 256MiB RAM.

Hard disk space

The disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by
Fedora 7 after installation is complete. However, additional disk space is
required during installation to support the installation environment. This
additional disk space corresponds to the size of /Fedora/base/stage2.img (on
Installation Disc 1) plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the
installed system.

In practical terms, additional space requirements may range from as little as
90 MiB for a minimal installation to as much as an additional 175 MiB for an
"everything" installation. The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk
space.

Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space
should be maintained for proper system operation.

4 KiB Pages on 64-bit machines

After a brief experiment with 64KiB pages in Fedora Core 6, the PowerPC64
kernel has now been switched back to 4KiB pages. The installer should reformat
any swap partitions automatically during an upgrade.

The Apple keyboard

The Option key on Apple systems is equivalent to the Alt key on the PC. Where
documentation and the installer refer to the Alt key, use the Option key. For
some key combinations you may need to use the Option key in conjunction with
the Fn key, such as Option-Fn-F3 to switch to virtual terminal tty3.

PPC installation notes

Fedora Installation Disc 1 is bootable on supported hardware. In addition, a
bootable CD image appears in the images/ directory of this disc. These images
behave differently according to your system hardware:

  ● On most machines, the bootloader automatically boots the appropriate 32-bit
    or 64-bit installer from the install disc. The default gnome-power-manager
    package includes power management support, including sleep and backlight
    level management. Users with more complex requirements can use the apmud
    package. To install apmud after installation, use the following command:

    su -c 'yum install apmud'

  ● 64-bit IBM pSeries (POWER4/POWER5), current iSeries models. After using
    OpenFirmware to boot the CD, the bootloader, yaboot, automatically boots
    the 64-bit installer.

  ● IBM "Legacy" iSeries (POWER4).  So-called "Legacy" iSeries models, which do
    not use OpenFirmware, require use of the boot image located in the images/
    iSeries directory of the installation tree.

  ● 32-bit CHRP (IBM RS/6000 and others).  After using OpenFirmware to boot the
    CD, select the linux32 boot image at the boot: prompt to start the 32-bit
    installer. Otherwise, the 64-bit installer starts and fails.

  ● Genesi Pegasos II.  At the time of writing, firmware with full support for
    ISO9660 file systems has not yet been released for the Pegasos. You can use
    the network boot image, however. At the OpenFirmware prompt, enter the
    following command:

    boot cd: /images/netboot/ppc32.img

    You must also configure OpenFirmware on the Pegasos manually to make the
    installed Fedora system bootable. To do this, set the boot-device and
    boot-file environment variables appropriately.

  ● Genesi Efika.  At the time of writing, the firmware of the Efika has bugs
    which prevent correct operation of the yaboot bootloader. An updated
    firmware should be available by April 2007, in advance of the release of
    Fedora 7. With a fixed firmware, installation on Efika should be the same
    as on Pegasos II.

  ● Sony PlayStation 3.  For installation on PlayStation 3, first update to
    firmware 1.60 or later. The "Other OS" boot loader must be installed into
    the flash, following the instructions at http://www.playstation.com/
    ps3-openplatform/manual.html. A suitable boot loader image ia located on
    the Fedora 7 install media. Once the boot loader is installed, the
    PlayStation 3 should boot from the Fedora install media. Select the linux64
    from the graphical boot menu. For more information on Fedora and the
    PlayStation3 or Fedora on PowerPC in general, join the Fedora-PPC mailing
    list or the #fedora-ppc channel on FreeNode.

  ● Network booting.  Combined images containing the installer kernel and
    ramdisk are located in the images/netboot/ directory of the installation
    tree. They are intended for network booting with TFTP, but can be used in
    many ways.

    The yaboot loader supports TFTP booting for IBM pSeries and Apple
    Macintosh. The Fedora Project encourages the use of yaboot over the netboot
    images.

x86 Specifics for Fedora

This section covers specific information about Fedora and the x86 hardware
platform.

Hardware requirements for x86

In order to use specific features of Fedora 7 during or after installation, you
may need to know details of other hardware components such as video and network
cards.

Processor and memory

The following CPU specifications are stated in terms of Intel processors. Other
processors, such as those from AMD, Cyrix, and VIA that are compatible with and
equivalent to the following Intel processors, may also be used with Fedora.

Fedora 7 requires an Intel Pentium or better processor, and is optimized for
Pentium 4 and later processors.

  ● Recommended for text-mode: 200 MHz Pentium-class or better

  ● Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz Pentium II or better

  ● Minimum RAM for text-mode: 128MiB

  ● Minimum RAM for graphical: 192MiB

  ● Recommended RAM for graphical: 256MiB

Hard disk space

The disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by
Fedora 7 after the installation is complete. However, additional disk space is
required during the installation to support the installation environment. This
additional disk space corresponds to the size of /Fedora/base/stage2.img on
Installation Disc 1 plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the installed
system.

In practical terms, additional space requirements may range from as little as
90 MiB for a minimal installation to as much as an additional 175 MiB for an
"everything" installation. The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk
space.

Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space
should be maintained for proper system operation.

x86_64 Specifics for Fedora

This section covers specific information about Fedora and the x86_64 hardware
platform.

Hardware requirements for x86_64

In order to use specific features of Fedora 7 during or after installation, you
may need to know details of other hardware components such as video and network
cards.

Memory requirements for x86_64

  ● Minimum RAM for text-mode: 128MiB

  ● Minimum RAM for graphical: 256MiB

  ● Recommended RAM for graphical: 512MiB

Hard disk space requirements for x86_64

The disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by
Fedora 7 after the installation is complete. However, additional disk space is
required during the installation to support the installation environment. This
additional disk space corresponds to the size of /Fedora/base/stage2.img on
Installation Disc 1 plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the installed
system.

In practical terms, additional space requirements may range from as little as
90 MiB for a minimal installation to as much as an additional 175 MiB for an
"everything" installation. The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk
space.

Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space
should be maintained for proper system operation.

Fedora Live Images

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

The Fedora release includes several live ISO images in addition to the
traditional installation images. These ISO images are bootable, and you can
burn them to media and use them to try out Fedora. They also include a feature
that allows you to install the live image content to your hard drive for
persistence and higher performance.

Available Images

There are three live images available for Fedora 7.

 1. Fedora 7 i386 Desktop CD. This is a CD sized image for i386 machines. It
    includes the GNOME desktop environment, integrates all supported Fedora
    locales, and features a basic set of the productivity applications
    available in Fedora.

 2. Fedora 7 x86_64 Desktop DVD. This is a DVD sized image for x86_64 machines.
    The feature set is the same as in the i386 Desktop CD and includes multilib
    packages.

 3. Fedora 7 i386 KDE Desktop CD. This is a CD sized image for i386 machines.
    It includes the KDE Desktop environment and a large set of KDE
    applications. This image only has full support for the English language.
    The GNOME based Live images do not include the OpenOffice.org office suite
    to save space. Instead they include Abiword and support for more locales.
    The KDE Live CD uses parts of koffice instead. The Fedora Live images do
    not support i586 class machines. To install Fedora on an i586, you must use
    the classic installation method.

Usage Information

The Live images should boot on any machine that supports booting from CD-ROM.
Upon booting the CD, you can log in and use the desktop environment as the
fedora user. Leave the password prompt blank to login. The Live images do not
automatically login so users can select a preferred language. After logging in,
if you wish to install the contents of the live image to your hard drive, click
on the Install to Hard Drive icon on the desktop.

Other Methods of Booting

Another way to use these Live images is to put them on a USB stick. To do this,
install the livecd-tools package from the development repository. Then, run the
livecd-iso-to-stick script:

/usr/bin/livecd-iso-to-stick /path/to/live.iso /dev/sdb1

Replace /dev/sdb1 with the partition where you want to put the image.

This is not a destructive process; any data you currently have on your USB
stick is preserved.

Differences From a Regular Fedora Install

The following items are different from a normal Fedora install with the live
images.

  ● The sshd service is disabled, since there is no password by default.

  ● NetworkManager is enabled by default in both GNOME and KDE based Live
    images.

Package Notes

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

The following sections contain information regarding software packages that
have undergone significant changes for Fedora 7. For easier access, they are
generally organized using the same groups that are shown in the installation
system.

PC Speaker Enabled

The PC speaker is enabled by default in this release, but can be circumvented
in a number of ways:

  ● Reduce its volume to an acceptable level or completely mute the PC speaker
    in alsamixer with the setting for PC Speak.

  ● As the root user, disable the PC speaker system-wide by runing the
    following command in a console.

    su -c '/sbin/modprobe -r pcspkr ; echo "install pcspkr :" >>/etc/modprobe.conf'


The cdrtools Packages is Replaced by cdrkit

Recent versions of cdrtools intermix code under the GPL and CDDL licenses,
which are mutually incompatible. To avoid this problem, in this release
cdrtools has been replaced by a fork called cdrkit. Thanks to Joerg Jaspert (<
joerg AT debian.org>) from Debian for initiating development of this software
and reaching out to Fedora.

http://lwn.net/Articles/195167/

http://www.cdrkit.org/

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2006-August/msg00409.html

EM8300 Drivers Default to ALSA

The default audio mode of the em8300 device support utilities and kernel
modules (em8300 and kmod-em8300-* packages) has changed from OSS to ALSA to
follow upstream. However, numerous applications that support the em8300 still
expect to find it in OSS mode. Users of these applications can use the
audio_driver=oss option for the em8300 module in /etc/modprobe.conf to make the
card use OSS for audio.

Gaim Renamed to Pidgin

The Gaim instant messenger has been renamed to Pidgin to avoid possible
trademark infringement issues.

http://www.pidgin.im/index.php?id=177

Packages with ".fc6" Tag

There have not been any major changes in the toolchain in Fedora 7. Therefore,
some packages in Fedora 7 might retain ".fc6" in the release tag if they have
been inherited from the previous release without any changes. Fedora
maintainers have not rebuilt these packages for Fedora 7 to avoid making end
users download the packages for only a release tag change. This measure ensures
that the robustness is not affected by any potential changes evoked by
rebuilds. This naming of packages is merely cosmetic, and does not in any way
affect the functionality of the software.

Perl Package Split

Development related files have been split from Perl and are now available in
the perl-devel package. As a temporary exception to the Fedora packaging
guidelines, perl requires perl-devel to avoid rebuilding some perl dependent
packages late in the development cycle. During the next release cycle of
Fedora, maintainers will split up the rest of the dependent packages.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-April/msg00886.html

System Tools

apcupsd

The apcupsd package has been upgraded to version 3.14.0. This version removes
the old master/slave networking mode. Refer to the apcupsd release notes for
more information.

http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=54413&release_id=485633

Engineering and Scientific

paraview

The mpi build and sub-package of paraview have been removed until cmake related
build issues are resolved.

ATA over Ethernet

This release includes packages that support a kernel feature, providing ATA
access over Ethernet. The packages are aoetools, the ATA over Ethernet tools,
and vblade, a virtual EtherDrive blade daemon.

Graphics

Handling of GIMP Plugins Contained in Other Packages

The GIMP package in Fedora includes a helper script /usr/sbin/gimp-plugin-mgr
for plugins contained in other packages, for example, xsane-gimp. This script
manages symlinks from the GIMP plugin directory (which may change between
upgrades) to the actual location of the plugins.

A bug has been fixed in the Fedora 7 release of GIMP that was in all older GIMP
packages, including all those in the test releases. The bug concerns the
execution order in which the symlinks are installed and removed, causing the
symlinks to vanish when the GIMP package is updated.

Although the GIMP package contained in the final release has the execution
order fixed, due to the nature of the problem it will show up once more when
updating from an affected version to a fixed version. To add these symlinks
back in, run this command, providing the root password when prompted:

su -c "/usr/sbin/gimp-plugin-mgr --install '*'"

Linux Kernel

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section covers changes and important information regarding the 2.6.21
based kernel in Fedora 7. The 2.6.21 kernel includes:

  ● Support for KVM virtualization.

  ● Tickless support for x86 32bit, which greatly improves power management.

  ● The devicescape wireless network stack, which includes support for several
    new wireless drivers.

  ● New IDE drivers that use the same libata code as the SATA drivers.

    IDE Device Names Changed

    The new IDE drivers now cause all IDE drives to have device names such as /
    dev/sdX instead of /dev/hdX.

    If the /etc/fstab or /etc/crypttab files reference these devices by name,
    they must be migrated before the system can access those partitions.

  ● Support for version 2 of the Global File System (GFS2) has been integrated
    into the upstream kernel.

  ● Some elements of the realtime kernel project.

Version

Fedora may include additional patches to the kernel for improvements, bug
fixes, or additional features. For this reason, the Fedora kernel may not be
line-for-line equivalent to the so-called vanilla kernel from the kernel.org
web site:

http://www.kernel.org/

To obtain a list of these patches, download the source RPM package and run the
following command against it:

rpm -qpl kernel-<version>.src.rpm

Changelog

To retrieve a log of changes to the package, run the following command:

rpm -q --changelog kernel-<version>

If you need a user friendly version of the changelog, refer to http://
wiki.kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges. A short and full diff of the kernel is
available from http://kernel.org/git. The Fedora version kernel is based on the
Linus tree.

Customizations made for the Fedora version are available from http://
cvs.fedoraproject.org.

Kernel Flavors

Fedora 7 includes the following kernel builds:

  ● Native kernel, for use in most systems. Configured sources are available in
    the kernel-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm package.

  ● The kernel-PAE, for use in 32-bit x86 systems with > 4GB of RAM, or with
    CPUs that have an 'NX (No eXecute)' feature. This kernel support both
    uniprocessor and multi-processor systems.

  ● Virtualization kernel for use with the Xen emulator package. Configured
    sources are available in the kernel-xen-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm package.

  ● The kdump kernel for use with kexec/kdump capabilities. Configured sources
    are available in the kernel-kdump-devel-<version>.<arch>.rpm package.

You may install kernel headers for all kernel flavors at the same time. The
files are installed in the /usr/src/kernels/<version>-[PAE|xen|kdump]-<arch>/
tree. Use the following command:

su -c 'yum install kernel-{PAE,xen,kdump}-devel'

Select one or more of these flavors, separated by commas and no spaces, as
appropriate. Enter the root password when prompted.

32bit Kernel Includes Kdump

The 32bit kernel is now relocatable, so kdump functionality is included. 64bit
still requires installation of the -kdump kernel.

Default Kernel Provides SMP

There is no separate SMP kernel available for Fedora on i386, x86_64, and
ppc64. Multiprocessor support is provided by the native kernel.

PowerPC Kernel Support

There is no support for Xen or kdump for the PowerPC architecture in Fedora.
32-bit PowerPC does still have a separate SMP kernel.

Reporting Bugs

Refer to http://kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/lkml/reporting-bugs.html for
information on reporting bugs in the Linux kernel. You may also use http://
bugzilla.redhat.com for reporting bugs that are specific to Fedora.

Preparing for Kernel Development

Fedora 7 does not include the kernel-source package provided by older versions
since only the kernel-devel package is required now to build external modules.
Configured sources are available, as described in the kernel flavors section.

Custom Kernel Building

For information on kernel development and working with custom kernels, refer to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel.

Fedora Desktop

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section details changes that affect Fedora graphical desktop users.

Localized Common User Directories (xdg-user-dirs)

This release of Fedora now includes the new common user directory structure,
xdg-user-dirs. Features of these new user directories include:

  ● Directory names can be localized (translated)

  ● Includes a set of common directories by default, such as for documents,
    music, pictures, and downloads.

  ● Appear as common bookmarks in the file browser, and are picked up by many
    applications as app-specific defaults. For example, a music player would
    start the file opening dialog in the default music directory.

  ● Configurable by users, who can move or rename the directories via the
    Nautilus file manager, or by editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs.

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software_2fxdg_2duser_2ddirs

GNOME

This release features GNOME 2.18 (http://www.gnome.org/start/2.18/)

The GNOME splash screen has been disabled upstream intentionally. To enable it,
use gconf-editor or the following command:

gconftool-2 --set /apps/gnome-session/options/show_splash_screen --type bool true

The lock screen dialog theme is not connected to the selected screensaver in
this release. To enable it, use gconf-editor or the following command:

gconftool-2 --set  --type string /apps/gnome-screensaver/lock_dialog_theme  "system"

KDE

This release features KDE 3.5.6.

http://kde.org/announcements/announce-3.5.6.php

Web Browsers

This release of Fedora includes version 2.0 of the popular Firefox web browser.
Refer to http://firefox.com/ for more information about Firefox.

Mail Clients

The mail-notification package has been split. The Evolution plugin is now in a
separate package called mail-notification-evolution-plugin. When you update the
mail-notification package, the plugin is added automatically.

This release contains Thunderbird version 2.0, which has numerous performance
improvements, folder viewing enhancements, and enhanced mail notification
support.

File Systems

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Fedora 7 provides basic support for encrypted swap partitions and non-root file
systems. To use it, add entries to /etc/crypttab and reference the created
devices in /etc/fstab.

Encrypted FS Support Unavailable During Install

Enable file system encryption after installation. Anaconda does not have
support for creating encrypted block devices.

The following example shows an /etc/crypttab entry for a swap partition:

my_swap /dev/sdb1 /dev/urandom swap,cipher=aes-cbc-essiv:sha256

This creates an encrypted block device /dev/mapper/my_swap, which can be
referenced in /etc/fstab. The next example shows an entry for a filesystem
volume:

my_volume /dev/sda5 /etc/volume_key cipher=aes-cbc-essiv:sha256

The /etc/volume_key file contains a plaintext encryption key. You can also
specify none as the key file name, and the system instead asks for the
encryption key during boot.

The recommended method is to use LUKS for file system volumes: (using LUKS you
can drop the cipher= part in crypttab).

 1. Create the encrypted volume using cryptsetup luksFormat

 2. Add the necessary entry to /etc/crypttab

 3. Set up the volume manually using cryptsetup luksOpen or reboot

 4. Create a filesystem on the encrypted volume

 5. Set up an /etc/fstab entry

Mail Servers

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section concerns electronic mail servers or mail transfer agents (MTAs).

exim-sa

The exim-sa package is deprecated since the previous release. It was the
original implementation of SpamAssassin integration with Exim, and was
functionally similar to sendmail milters or postfix filters. However, that
functionality is rather limited, and Exim now has far better support for
content checking, fully integrated into its general-purpose Access Control
Lists.

Since the sa_exim feature was not enabled in the default configuration, the
package can normally be safely uninstalled to allow Exim to be upgraded. Users
who have modified their configuration to use sa_exim features should either
reconfigure to use Exim's full content scanning abilities or rebuild the
package for themselves to include the exim-sa subpackage. For further details
on Exim's built-in content scanning, refer to the Exim documentation:

http://www.exim.org/exim-html-4.62/doc/html/spec_html/ch40.html

Development

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section covers various development tools and features.

Tools

GCC Compiler Collection

This release of Fedora has been built with GCC 4.1, which is included with the
distribution.

Eclipse

This release of Fedora includes Fedora Eclipse, based on the Eclipse SDK
version 3.2.2 (http://www.eclipse.org). The "New and Noteworthy" page for the
3.2.x series of releases can be accessed at http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse
/downloads/drops/R-3.2-200606291905/new_noteworthy/eclipse-news.html. Release
notes specific to 3.2.2 are available at http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/
development/readme_eclipse_3.2.2.html.

The Eclipse SDK is known variously as "the Eclipse Platform," "the Eclipse
IDE," and "Eclipse." The Eclipse SDK is the foundation for the combined release
of ten Eclipse projects under the Callisto combined release umbrella (http://
www.eclipse.org/callisto). A few of these Callisto projects are included in
Fedora: CDT (http://www.eclipse.org/cdt, for C/C++ development, EMF (http://
www.eclipse.org/emf) the Eclipse Modeling Framework, and GEF (http://
www.eclipse.org/gef), the Graphical Editing Framework.

Many third-party Eclipse projects are also available, including Subclipse (
http://subclipse.tigris.org/) for integrating Subversion version control, PyDev
(http://pydev.sf.net) for developing in Python, and PHPeclipse (http://
www.phpeclipse.de/) for developing in PHP. Mylar (http://eclipse.org/mylar), a
task-focused UI for Eclipse, is also available in Fedora with task connectors
for Bugzilla and Trac. It was not part of Callisto but will be part of the
forthcoming Europa combined Eclipse release.

Assistance in getting more projects packaged and tested with GCJ is always
welcome. Contact the interested parties through fedora-devel-java-list (http://
www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-java-list/) and/or #fedora-java on
freenode.

Fedora also includes plugins and features that are particularly useful to FLOSS
hackers, ChangeLog editing with eclipse-changelog, and Bugzilla interaction
with eclipse-mylar-bugzilla. Our CDT package also includes the work-in-progress
GNU Autotools plugin. This plugin allows end-users to use Eclipse to build and
maintain C/C++ projects that use GNU autotools. Enhancements to the CDT
include:

  ● Performing configuration prior to build

  ● Special editors for autoconf/automake input files

  ● Special help for autoconf macros

  ● Hover help for C library functions

  ● A special console for configuration

The latest information regarding these projects can be found at the Fedora
Eclipse Project page: http://sourceware.org/eclipse/.

This release includes 21 language packs for the Eclipse SDK. Each language is
packed into a separate package, such as eclipse-sdk-nls-ko for the Korean
translation.

Non-packaged Plugins/Features

Fedora Eclipse contains a patch to allow non-root users to make use of the
Update Manager functionality for installing non-packaged plugins and features.
Such plugins are installed in the user's home directory under the .eclipse
directory. Please note, however, that these plugins do not have associated
GCJ-compiled bits and may therefore run slower than expected.

Alternative Java Runtime Environments

The Fedora free JRE does not satisfy every user, so Fedora does allow the
installation of alternative JREs. A caveat exists, however, for installing
proprietary JREs on 64-bit machines.

The 64-bit JNI libraries shipped by default on x86_64 systems in Fedora do not
run on 32-bit proprietary JREs. In other words, do not try to run Fedora's
x86_64 Eclipse packages on Sun's 32-bit JRE. They fail in confusing ways.
Either switch to a 64-bit proprietary JRE, or install the 32-bit version of the
packages, if available. To install a 32-bit version, use the following command:

yum install <package_name>.i386

Likewise, the 32-bit JNI libraries shipped by default on ppc64 systems do not
run with a 64-bit JRE. To install the 64-bit version, use the following
command:

yum install <package_name>.ppc64

Europa/Eclipse 3.3

In June 2007, the Eclipse community is releasing the Europa combined release of
an assortment of plugins and features. This will be based on and include
version 3.3 of the Eclipse SDK. This is a major change and because of that,
Fedora Eclipse is not going to be re-basing on Europa until Fedora 8. This
means that versions of Eclipse-based applications included in Fedora such as
RSSOwl and Azureus may lag upstream releases if they require features only
available in Eclipse 3.3.

Security

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section highlights various security items from Fedora.

General Information

A general introduction to the many proactive security features in Fedora,
current status, and policies is available at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/
Security.

SELinux

The SELinux project pages have troubleshooting tips, explanations, and pointers
to documentation and references. Some useful links include the following:

  ● New SELinux project pages: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SELinux

  ● Troubleshooting tips: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SELinux/Troubleshooting

  ● Frequently Asked Questions: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/selinux-faq/

  ● Listing of SELinux commands: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SELinux/Commands

  ● Details of confined domains: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SELinux/Domains

Java and java-gcj-compat

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This release of Fedora includes a free and open source Java environment called
java-gcj-compat. The java-gcj-compat collection includes a tool suite and
execution environment that is capable of building and running many useful
programs that are written in the Java programming language.

Fedora Does Not Include Java

Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems. java-gcj-compat is an entirely free
software stack that is not Java, but may run Java software.

The java-gcj infrastructure has three key components: a GNU Java runtime
(libgcj), the Eclipse Java compiler (ecj), and a set of wrappers and links
(java-gcj-compat) that present the runtime and compiler to the user in a manner
similar to other Java environments.

The Java software packages in this Fedora release use the java-gcj-compat
environment. These packages include OpenOffice.org Base, Eclipse, and Apache
Tomcat. Refer to the Java FAQ at http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/JavaFAQ for
more information on the java-gcj-compat free Java environment in Fedora.

Include Location and Version Information in Bug Reports

When making a bug report, be sure to include the output from these commands:

which java && java -version && which javac && javac -version

Handling Java and Java-like Packages

In addition to the java-gcj-compat free software stack, Fedora lets you install
multiple Java implementations and switch between them using the alternatives
command line tool. However, every Java system you install must be packaged
using the JPackage Project packaging guidelines to take advantage of
alternatives. Once these packages are installed properly, the root user may
switch between java and javac implementations using the alternatives command:

alternatives --config java
alternatives --config javac

Handling Java Applets

This release of Fedora includes a preview release of gcjwebplugin, a Firefox
plugin for Java applets. gcjwebplugin is not enabled by default because
although the security implementation in GNU Classpath is being actively
developed, it is not mature enough to run untrusted applets safely. That said,
the AWT and Swing implementations in GNU Classpath are now sufficiently mature
that they can run many applets deployed on the web. Adventurous users who want
to try gcjwebplugin can read /usr/share/doc/libgcj-4.1.2/
README.libgcjwebplugin.so, as installed by the libgcj package. The README
explains how to enable the plugin and the risks associated with doing so.

Fedora and the JPackage Java Packages

Fedora includes many packages derived from the JPackage Project, which provides
a Java software repository. These packages are modified in Fedora to remove
proprietary software dependencies and to make use of GCJ's ahead-of-time
compilation feature. Use the Fedora repositories to update these packages, or
use the JPackage repository for packages not provided by Fedora. Refer to the
JPackage website at http://jpackage.org for more information on the project and
the software it provides.

Mixing Packages from Fedora and JPackage

Research package compatibility before you install software from both the Fedora
and JPackage repositories on the same system. Incompatible packages may cause
complex issues.

Refer to the latest release notes pertaining to Eclipse at http://
fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats/Devel/Tools/Eclipse.

Maven (v2)

This release of Fedora includes maven2, a Java project management and project
comprehension tool. Maven can be invoked by the mvn and mvn-jpp commands. The
former makes Maven behave just like upstream Maven, while the latter calls mvn
with additional properties that make off-line building easier.

The maven2 package in Fedora is modified to work in a fully off-line mode. With
no additional properties defined (the mvn command), maven2 works exactly like
upstream Maven. Users may define additional properties to facilitate off-line
builds, or call mvn-jpp, a wrapper that defines the most commonly used
properties for off-line building. The properties and their usage details are
described in the /usr/share/doc/maven2-2.0.4/maven2-jpp-readme.html file, which
comes from the maven2-manual package.

Multimedia

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Fedora includes applications for assorted multimedia functions, including
playback, recording, and editing. Additional packages are available through the
Fedora Package Collection software repository. For additional information about
multimedia in Fedora, refer to the Multimedia section of the Fedora Project
website at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia.

Multimedia Players

The default installation of Fedora includes Rhythmbox and Totem for media
playback. The Fedora repositories include many other popular programs such as
the XMMS player and KDE's amaroK. Both GNOME and KDE have a selection of
players that can be used with a variety of formats. Third parties may offer
additional programs to handle other formats.

Fedora also takes full advantage of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
(ALSA) sound system. Many programs can play sound simultaneously, which was
once difficult on Linux systems. When all multimedia software is configured to
use ALSA for sound support, this limitation disappears. For more information
about ALSA, visit the project website at http://www.alsa-project.org/. Users
may still experience issues when multiple users log into the system. Depending
upon hardware and software configurations, multiple users may not be able to
use the sound hardware simultaneously.

Ogg and Xiph.Org Foundation Formats

Fedora includes complete support for the Ogg media container format and the
Vorbis audio, Theora video, Speex audio, and FLAC lossless audio formats. These
freely-distributable formats are not encumbered by patent or license
restrictions. They provide powerful and flexible alternatives to more popular,
restricted formats. The Fedora Project encourages the use of open formats in
place of restricted ones. For more information on these formats and how to use
them, refer to the Xiph.Org Foundation's web site at http://www.xiph.org/.

MP3, DVD, and Other Excluded Multimedia Formats

Fedora software repositories cannot include support for MP3 or DVD video
playback or recording. The MP3 formats are patented, and the patent holders
have not provided the necessary patent licenses. DVD video formats are patented
and equipped with an encryption scheme. The patent holders have not provided
the necessary patent licenses, and the code needed to decrypt CSS-encrypted
discs may violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a copyright law of the
United States. Fedora also excludes other multimedia software due to patent,
copyright, or license restrictions, including Adobe's Flash Player and Real
Media's Real Player. For more on this subject, please refer to http://
fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems.

While other MP3 options may be available for Fedora, Fluendo now offers a free
MP3 plugin for GStreamer that has the necessary patent license for end users.
This plugin enables MP3 support in applications that use the GStreamer
framework as a backend. Fedora does not include this plugin since we prefer to
support and encourage the use of patent unrestricted open formats instead. For
more information about the MP3 plugin, visit Fluendo's website at http://
www.fluendo.com/.

CD and DVD Authoring and Burning

Fedora software repositories includes a variety of tools for easily mastering
and burning CDs and DVDs. GNOME users can burn directly from the Nautilus file
manager, choose the gnomebaker or graveman packages, or utilize the older
xcdroast package from Fedora. KDE users can use the robust k3b package for
these tasks. Console tools include cdrecord, readcd, mkisofs, and other popular
applications.

Screencasts

You can use Fedora to create and play back screencasts, which are recorded
desktop sessions, using open technologies. Fedora Package Collection software
repository includes istanbul, which creates screencasts using the Theora video
format. These videos can be played back using one of several players included
in Fedora. This is the preferred way to submit screencasts to the Fedora
Project for either developer or end-user use. For a more comprehensive how-to,
refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ScreenCasting.

Extended Support through Plugins

Most of the media players in Fedora software repositories can use plugins to
add support for additional media formats and sound output systems. Some use
powerful multimedia frameworks, like the gstreamer package, to handle media
format support and sound output. Fedora software repositories offer plugin
packages for these backends and for individual applications. Third parties may
provide additional plugins to add even greater capabilities.

Games and Entertainment

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Fedora provides a selection of games that cover a variety of genres. Users can
install a small package of games for GNOME (called gnome-games) and KDE
(kdegames). There are also many additional games that span every major genre
available in the repositories.

The Fedora Project website features a section dedicated to games that details
many of the available games, including overviews and installation instructions.
For more information, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Games.

For a list of other games that are available for installation, use the Pirut
graphical utility (ApplicationsAdd/Remove Software), or via the command line:

yum groupinfo "Games and Entertainment"

For help using yum to install the assorted game packages, refer to the guide
available at:x

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/yum/

Haxima

Fedora 7 includes version 0.5.6 of the Nazghul old-school role playing game
engine and its companion game Haxima. This version is not compatible with saved
games from previous Nazghul versions, so those with Haxima games in progress
need to restart their games after updating to Fedora 7.

Virtualization

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Virtualization in Fedora 7 supports both Xen and KVM virtualization platforms.
The libvirt API and its corresponding tools, virt-manager and virsh, have been
updated to support both KVM and Xen. Users can choose which virtualization
platform to install, and use the same tools without regard to that choice.

Xen in Fedora 7 is based on version 3.0.4.

KVM in Fedora 7 is based on version 19-1.

For more information on the differences between Xen and KVM, refer to http://
virt.kernelnewbies.org/TechComparison. For more information on installing and
using virtualization in Fedora 7, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/
Fedora7VirtQuickStart.

Types of Virtualization

Using Xen 3.0.4, both paravirtualization and full virtualization can be
implemented. Under KVM, only full virtualization is supported. Full
virtualization requires a VT-capable processor. Paravirtualization does not
require special hardware, but does require the guest OS to be modified.

Guest Operating Systems

The Fedora 7 development team has tested Xen with Fedora 6, Fedora 7, and Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5 and 5.0 guests. Other guests have not been tested.
With full virtualization, users can expect reasonable success with a larger
variety of operating systems, including some proprietary operating systems.

Changes to the Virtualization Packages

The following improvements have been made in the virtualization packages in
Fedora 7:

  ● The applications virt-manager and virsh can now work with inactive domains.
    Previously, only xm could handle inactive domains.

  ● The mouse cursor problems with the virtual frame buffer have been fixed,
    for a better user experience in GUI modes.

  ● Miscellaneous other small improvements and fixes have been made.

X Window System (Graphics)

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section contains information related to the X Window System
implementation, X.org, provided with Fedora.

X Configuration Changes

The X.org 7.2 X server has been modified to automatically detect and configure
most hardware, eliminating the need for users or administrators to modify the /
etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file. The only hardware configured by default
in the xorg.conf file written by anaconda is:

  ● The graphics driver

  ● The keyboard map

All other hardware, such as monitors (both LCD and CRT), USB mice, and
touchpads should be detected and configured automatically.

The X server queries the attached monitor for supported resolution ranges, and
attempts to pick the highest resolution available with the correct aspect ratio
for the display. Users can set their preferred resolution in System →
Preferences → Screen Resolution, and the default resolution for the system can
be changed with System → Administration → Display.

If the /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file is not present, X also
automatically detects the appropriate driver, and assumes a 105-key US keyboard
layout.

Intel Driver Notes

Fedora 7 contains two drivers for Intel integrated graphics controllers:

  ● The default i810 driver, which contains support for Intel graphics chipsets
    up to and including i945 and i965

  ● The experimental intel driver, which contains support for Intel graphics
    chipsets up to and including i945

The i810 driver is limited to resolutions available in the BIOS. If you need
support for non-standard resolutions, such as those used in some widescreen
displays, you may want to switch to the intel driver. You may switch drivers by
using system-config-display, available in the menus under System →
Administration → Display.

We welcome feedback on the experimental intel driver. Please report success in
Bugzilla, attaching the full output of lspci -vn for your machine. Given
success reports, various chipsets may be switched to use the intel driver by
default.

Third Party Video Drivers

If you intend to use third party video drivers, refer to the Xorg third party
drivers page for detailed guidelines:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Xorg/3rdPartyVideoDrivers

Database Servers

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

MySQL

Fedora now provides MySQL 5.0. For a list of the enhancements provided by this
version, refer to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/
mysql-5-0-nutshell.html.

For more information on upgrading databases from previous releases of MySQL,
refer to the MySQL website at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/
upgrade.html.

DBD Driver

The MySQL DBD driver has been dual-licensed and the related licensing issues
have been resolved (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=222237
). The resulting apr-util-mysql package is now included in the Fedora software
repositories.

PostgreSQL

This release of Fedora includes PostgreSQL 8.2. For more information on this
new version, refer to http://www.postgresql.org/docs/whatsnew.

Upgrading Databases

Before upgrading an existing Fedora system with a PostgreSQL database, it could
be necessary to follow the procedure described at http://www.postgresql.org/
docs/8.1/interactive/install-upgrading.html. Otherwise the data may be not
accessible by the new version of PostgreSQL.

Internationalization (i18n)

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

This section includes information on language support under Fedora.

Language Installation

To install additional language support from the Languages group, use Pirut via
Applications → Add/Remove Software, or run this command:

su -c 'yum groupinstall <language>-support'


In the command above, <language> is one of assamese, bengali, chinese,
gujarati, hindi, japanese, kannada, korean, malayalam, marathi, oriya, punjabi,
sinhala, tamil, thai, or telegu.

SCIM Input Method Defaults

The core SCIM packages are now installed by default, but SCIM only runs by
default on desktops running in an Asian locale (the current list is: as, bn,
gu, hi, ja, kn, ko, ml, mr, ne, or, pa, si, ta, te, th, ur, vi, zh). You can
use im-chooser via System → Preferences → Personal → Input Method to enable or
disable SCIM on your desktop, or to select other installed input methods.

Users upgrading from earlier releases of Fedora are strongly recommended to
install scim-bridge-gtk, which works well with 3rd party C++ applications
linked against older versions of libstdc++.

When SCIM is installed, it runs by default for users of all locales. If SCIM is
installed but you do not wish to run it on your desktop, disable it using
im-chooser.

The following table lists the default trigger hotkeys for different languages:

Language: all
Trigger hotkeys: Ctrl-Space
Language: Japanese
Trigger hotkeys: Zenkaku_Hankaku or Alt-`
Language: Korean
Trigger hotkeys: Shift-Space or Hangul

Backwards Compatibility

Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. Visit http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
release-notes/ to view the latest release notes for Fedora.

Fedora provides legacy system libraries for compatibility with older software.
This software is part of the Legacy Software Development group, which is not
installed by default. Users who require this functionality may select this
group either during installation or after the installation process is complete.
To install the package group on a Fedora system, use Applications → Add/Remove
Software (Pirut) or enter the following command in a terminal window:

su -c 'yum groupinstall "Legacy Software Development"'

Enter the password for the root account when prompted.

Compiler Compatibility

The compat-gcc-34 package has been included for compatibility reasons:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-August/msg00409.html

Package Changes

For a list of which packages were updated since the previous release, refer to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats/PackageChanges/UpdatedPackages. You
can also find a comparison of major packages between all Fedora versions at
http://distrowatch.com/fedora.

Fedora Project

The goal of the Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a
complete, general-purpose operating system exclusively from open source
software. Development is done in a public forum. The project produces releases
of Fedora approximately 2 times a year, with a public release schedule
available at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Schedule. The Red Hat
engineering team continues to participate in building Fedora and invites and
encourages more outside participation than was possible in the past. By using
this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line
with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source
community. For more information, refer to the Fedora Project website at http://
fedoraproject.org.

The Fedora Project is driven by the individuals that contribute to it. As a
tester, developer, documenter, or translator, you can make a difference. See
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join for details. For information on the channels
of communication for Fedora users and contributors, refer to http://
fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate.

In addition to the website, the following mailing lists are available:

  ● fedora-list@redhat.com, for users of Fedora releases

  ● fedora-test-list@redhat.com, for testers of Fedora test releases

  ● fedora-devel-list@redhat.com, for developers, developers, developers

  ● fedora-docs-list@redhat.com, for participants of the Documentation Project

To subscribe to any of these lists, send an email with the word "subscribe" in
the subject to <listname>-request, where <listname> is one of the above list
names. Alternately, you can subscribe to Fedora mailing lists through the Web
interface at http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/.

The Fedora Project also uses several IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels. IRC is
a real-time, text-based form of communication, similar to Instant Messaging.
With it, you may have conversations with multiple people in an open channel, or
chat with someone privately one-on-one. To talk with other Fedora Project
participants via IRC, access the Freenode IRC network. Refer to the Freenode
website at http://www.freenode.net/ for more information.

Fedora Project participants frequent the #fedora channel on the Freenode
network, while Fedora Project developers may often be found on the #
fedora-devel channel. Some of the larger projects may have their own channels
as well. This information may be found on the webpage for the project, and at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate.

In order to talk on the #fedora channel, you need to register your nickname, or
nick. Instructions are given when you /join the channel.

IRC Channels

The Fedora Project and Red Hat have no control over the Fedora Project IRC
channels or their content.

Colophon

As we use the term, a colophon:

  ● recognizes contributors and provides accountability, and

  ● explains tools and production methods.

Contributors

  ● Alain Portal (translator - French)

  ● Amanpreet Singh Alam (translator - Punjabi)

  ● Andrew Martynov (translator - Russian)

  ● Andrew Overholt (beat contributor)

  ● Anthony Green (beat writer)

  ● Brandon Holbrook (beat contributor)

  ● Bob Jensen (beat writer)

  ● Chris Lennert (beat writer)

  ● Dave Malcolm (beat writer)

  ● David Eisenstein (beat writer)

  ● David Woodhouse (beat writer)

  ● Deepak Bhole (beat contributor)

  ● Diego Burigo Zacarao (translator - Brazilian Portuguese)

  ● Dimitris Glezos (translator - Greek, tools)

  ● Domingo Becker (translator - Spanish)

  ● Francesco Tombolini (translator - Italian)

  ● Gavin Henry (beat writer)

  ● Hugo Cisneiros (translator - Brazilian Portuguese)

  ● Igor Miletic (translator - Serbian)

  ● Jeff Johnston (beat contributor)

  ● Jens Petersen (beat writer)

  ● Joe Orton (beat writer)

  ● Jose Nuno Coelho Pires (translator - Portuguese)

  ● Josh Bressers (beat writer)

  ● Karsten Wade (beat writer, editor, co-publisher)

  ● Kyu Lee (beat contributor)

  ● Licio Fonseca (translator - Brazilian Portuguese)

  ● Luya Tshimbalanga (beat writer)

  ● Magnus Larsson (translator - Swedish)

  ● Martin Ball (beat writer)

  ● Maxim Dziumanenko (translator - Ukrainian)

  ● Nikos Charonitakis (translator - Greek)

  ● Orion Poplawski (beat contributor)

  ● Patrick Barnes (beat writer, editor)

  ● Paul W. Frields (tools, editor)

  ● Pawel Sadowski (translator - Polish)

  ● Patrick Ernzer (beat contributor)

  ● Rahul Sundaram (beat writer, editor)

  ● Sam Folk-Williams (beat writer)

  ● Sekine Tatsuo (translator - Japanese)

  ● Simos Xenitellis (translator - Greek)

  ● Steve Dickson (beat writer)

  ● Teta Bilianou (translator - Greek)

  ● ThomasCanniot (translator - French)

  ● Thomas Gier (translator - German)

  ● Thomas Graf (beat writer)

  ● Tommy Reynolds (tools)

  ● Valnir Ferreira Jr. (translator - Brazilian Portuguese)

  ● Will Woods (beat contributor)

  ● Yoshinari Takaoka (translator, tools)

  ● Yuan Yijun (translator - Simplified Chinese)

  ● Zhang Yang (translator - simplified Chinese)

... and many more translators. Refer to the Web-updated version of these
release notes as we add translators after release:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/

Production Methods

Beat writers produce the release notes directly on the Fedora Project Wiki.
They collaborate with other subject matter experts during the test release
phase of Fedora to explain important changes and enhancements. The editorial
team ensures consistency and quality of the finished beats, and ports the Wiki
material to DocBook XML in a revision control repository. At this point, the
team of translators produces other language versions of the release notes, and
then they become available to the general public as part of Fedora. The
publication team also makes them, and subsequent errata, available via the Web.

