Fedora 11 Beta release notes

Filing Bug Reports

File bug reports on this Beta release for directed feedback.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_file_a_bug_report

General Information

Fedora 11 Beta will be available on March 31.

Back up your data!
Fedora 11 Beta makes large changes in the way the installer handles storage, as well as implementing ext4 as the default filesystem. If you have any data on your system you need to keep, back it up before you install Fedora 11 Beta.

While you should be cautious in backing up, do not delay in trying the Fedora 11 Beta. With all of these changes, beta testing is very important, and we need your help. The Live image for CD and USB makes testing easy and painless, and improvements in virtualization make a full installation accessible for everyone.

The older SHA1SUMS file with checksums for ISO images has been replaced with a new *CHECKSUM file. The file itself appears on mirror sites in the directory along with the ISO images, and is different for each release and architecture, such as Fedora-11-Beta-i386-CHECKSUM. Checksums are now provided in SHA-256 format. Downloads via BitTorrent are automatically checked for you. To manually find the checksum of a downloaded file, use the sha256sum command:

sha256sum <filename>

The Purpose of the Beta Release

A Fedora Beta release is an installable, testable version of the code and features being developed for Fedora 11 (Leonidas). The software is going to have bugs, problems, and incomplete features. It is not likely to eat your data or parts of your computer, but you should be aware that it could.

You have an important part to play in this Beta release. Either install or run a Fedora Live instance of the Fedora 11 Beta release, then try using a few applications or activities that are important to you. If it doesn't work, file a bug. This Beta release gives the wider community a set of code to test against as a very important step in the process of making a solid Fedora 11 release. You can make the Fedora 11 release better by testing the Beta release and reporting your findings.

What's New in Fedora 11 (Leonidas) Beta

The following sections document major new features and changes in the Fedora 11 Beta release.

New volume control in GNOME

Currently, people using Fedora have to go through many levels of mixers in different applications to properly set up sound sources. These are all exposed in the volume control on the desktop, making for a very confusing user experience. PulseAudio allows us to unify the volume controls in one interface that makes setting up sound easier and more pain-free. More details including screenshots here:

http://www.hadess.net/2009/03/our-new-volume-feature.html https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VolumeControl

Please see this Release Notes draft for information on how to access the raw mixer controls if you need to do so for your purposes (e.g. to select the input channel for recording).

GNOME 2.26

The GNOME 2.26 development snapshot is part of this release, and is the default environment used in the Fedora Desktop Live image. The Desktop Live image is a downloadable CD you can use to test the new GNOME environment with or without installing it. The image can be written to CD, or to a USB flash disk using these instructions.

ADD MORE INFO.

KDE 4.2.1

KDE 4.2.1 is part of this release and is the default environment in the Fedora KDE Desktop Live image. The KDE Desktop Live image is a downloadable CD you can use to test the new KDE environment with or without installing it. The image can be written to a CD, or to a USB flash disk using these instructions.

The x86_64 KDE ISO now fits into 700 MiB again. (It slightly exceeded the size in Fedora 11 Alpha.)

Xfce 4.6.0

A major new release of Xfce, Xfce 4.6.0 Stable, is available in the repository and is the default environment in the Fedora Xfce Live Spin. The Xfce Live Spin is a downloadable CD you can use to test the new Xfce environment with or without installing it. The image can be written to a CD, or to a USB flash disk using these instructions. Xfce 4.6 changes here:

http://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.6/general-info

X server

The key combination Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill the X server has been disabled by default as a decision of the upstream Xorg project. To get this behavior back, add the the line

Option "DontZap" "false"

to the ServerFlags section in xorg.conf.

The Xorg project has changed the default DontZap setting to "true" after complaints from desktop users that accidentally hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace when trying to type Alt+Backspace, Ctrl+Backspace, or Shift+Backspace, or who had StickyKeys enabled. Ctrl+Alt+Backspace is also a keyboard shortcut for deleting certain expressions in C and Java modes in Emacs.

Desktop guest user

Guest user or kiosk mode is available by default in the Desktop Live CD. This is a tightly locked down user account that can only be logged via the GNOME display manager. Any changes made as a guest user will be automatically removed on logout. This account is disabled if SELinux is not in enforcing mode. To remove this feature, remove the xguest package with the command yum remove xguest, or delete the xguest user with the command userdel xguest. The xguest package is available from Fedora 8 onwards and Fedora 11 Beta Desktop Live CD has it by default.

DNSSEC - DNS security extensions

Bind and unbound (recursive DNS servers) now have DNSSEC validation in their default configuration in Fedora 11 Beta. This is a security enhancement. DNSSEC Lookaside Verification (DLV) is not enabled. This behaviour can be modified in /etc/sysconfig/dnssec by changing the DNSSEC and DLV settings.

With DNSSEC enabled, when a domain supplies DNSSEC data (such as .gov, .se, the ENUM zone and other TLD's) then that data will be cryptographically validated on the recursive DNS server. If validation fails, due to attempts at cache poisoning (eg via a Kaminsky Attack) then the enduser will not be given this forged/spoofed data. DNSSEC deployment is gaining speed rapidly, and is a crucial part and the next logical step to make the internet more secure for end users.

For more information and troubleshooting see

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DNSSEC

Anaconda storage rewrite

The internal storage handling code of Anaconda has been completely rewritten to make it more extensible and flexible, both now and in the future. As a result, some configurations may still have problems installing the Fedora 11 Beta. These issues are being actively resolved during this release, and testers are encouraged to file bugs. Refer to the #Anaconda installer issues section below for more information.

Ext4 file system

The ext3 file system has remained the mature standard in Linux for a long time. The ext4 file system is a major update that has an improved design, even better performance and reliability, support for much larger storage, and very fast file system checks and file deletions.

The ext4 file system has been an experimentally supported option since Fedora 9, and is now the default file system for Fedora 11 Beta. More details and a comprehensive list of new features for ext4 is available at:

http://kernelnewbies.org/Ext4

A file system shrinking capability is not supported yet, but planned for Fedora 11 release. Please backup your data for safety if you test this feature in Fedora 11 Beta. Though unlikely, Fedora 11 general release might still revert back to ext3 if any new major issues are discovered and cannot be fixed on time.

Backward compatibility issues
Backward compatibility for ext4 to ext2/3 is limited. If you convert a file system formatted with ext2/3 to the new ext4 system, be aware that converting back to ext2/3 can be difficult in some situations. Also, the GRUB boot loader does not yet support ext4 in this release. Use ext2/3 for your /boot partition instead.

Btrfs file system

The Btrfs next-generation file system is an experimentally supported option in this release. To enable it within the installer, pass icantbelieveitsnotbtr at the installation boot prompt. The Btrfs file system might become the default for Fedora in a later release. Please backup your data for safety if you test this feature in Fedora 11 Beta.

A screenshot and reference is available at:

http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/Ext4-to-be-standard-for-Fedora-11-Btrfs-also-included--/112467

More information about Btrfs is available here:

http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page

More explicit testing and feedback for Btrfs is requested. Please note that this is a file system under heavy development, without a fully functional fsck program or even proper out of space handling. The on-disk format might still change if there any serious issues found. The GRUB boot loader does not yet support Btrfs. Use ext2/3 for your /boot partition instead.

PackageKit firmware support

PackageKit in Fedora 10 already has support for installing additional media codecs on demand. PackageKit in the Fedora 11 Beta release has extended this capability to install firmware on demand as well based on system requirements.

http://www.packagekit.org/img/gpk-client-firmware.png

Virtualization

Fedora 11 incorporates a number of improvements to the virtualization support found in Fedora 10. There is an improved virtual console (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtImprovedConsole), improvements in VNC authentication (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtVNCAuth), the addition of the ability to apply mandatory access controls to the virtual machine (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SVirt_Mandatory_Access_Control) and the ability to assign PCI devices to the guest (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_PCI_Device_Assignment). In addition, there are updates to the Xen hypervisor.

Windows cross compiler (mingw32-*)

Fedora 11 Beta provides a preview of MinGW, a development environment for Fedora users who wish to cross-compile their programs to run on Windows without using Windows during development. In the past, developers had to port and compile all of the libraries and tools they needed, with this huge effort happening independently many times over. MinGW in Fedora eliminates duplication of work for application developers by providing a range of libraries and development tools already ported to the cross-compiler environment. Developers do not need to recompile the application stack themselves, but can concentrate just on the changes needed to their own application.

To try the cross-compiler and environment, install the mingw32-gcc or mingw32-gcc-c++ packages. After installation, use the mingw32-configure command to replace ordinary ./configure. The following commands then build a Windows executable (*.EXE) or Windows DLL (*.DLL) from your code:

mingw32-configure
make

The mingw32-library packages provide requisite libraries for use with MinGW. If you install requisite libraries with these packages, mingw32-configure automatically finds them.

The following libraries are available in the Beta release:

• bzip2, zlib for data compression
• dlfcn (dlopen workalike for Windows)
• freetype
• gdbm
• gettext, iconv, pdcurses, readline, and termcap for text/terminal/i18n
• Gtk, glib, atk, pango, etc. for graphical user interfaces
• libpng
• pthreads (based on Sourceware pthreads-win32)
• SDL for graphics
• sqlite

Many more libraries are planned to be available by the time of the Fedora 11 general release.

gcc 4.4

Fedora 11 is built with, and includes the gcc 4.4 compiler suite. There are some changes that may require changes to your existing source, especially for C++ programs. Be sure to review the NEWS file at http://gcc.gnu.org carefully before upgrading

NetBeans 6.5

The NetBeans has been updated to version 6.5. NetBeans 6.5 is a significant update of the NetBeans 6.1 and includes the following changes:

• PHP support with code completion, Xdebug and web service features.
• JavaFX 1.0 supports animation, graphics and media codecs for rich content application development.
• New Support for Groovy and Grails.
• Improved JavaScript, AJAX and Ruby support.
• Automatic Compile and Deploy on Save for Java and Java EE applications.
• Improved database support: SQL history, SQL completion, and results viewing and editing improvements.
• Improved Java ME support for Data Binding, SVG and Custom Component creation.
• GUI Builder: Support for Nimbus and simple class names.
• JUnit: single test method support.
• Debugger: Redesign of Step into feature.

For information about the main development features in NetBeans IDE, see:

• NetBeans IDE 6.5 Release Information
• New and Note Worthy NB65
• NetBeans IDE 6.5 Release Notes

Python 2.6

Python 2.6 has been integrated into the release and all the software in the distribution has been made compatible with it. This effort leads the way to Python 3.0, a major release that is not backward compatible with the Python 2.x series.

Git 1.6.2

Git has been updated to 1.6.2. In addition to other changes, the Fedora packages now follow upstream defaults and install the majority of git-* commands outside the default PATH. If you have scripts that call git-* binaries, you are encouraged to change them to use the git foo style. If this is not feasible, you can adjust your PATH. Git provides a convenient method to do this:

PATH=$(git --exec-path):$PATH

It is worth noting that git hooks are run with $(git --exec-path) in their PATH.

Known Issues

Anaconda installer issues

The Anaconda installer storage rewrite still has numerous bugs under review. Fixes are being committed daily to take care of these issues. Some particular cases are known not to work yet, but may be fixed shortly. The Fedora team is intent on having a solid final Fedora 11 release, and is tracking these issues carefully.

Cases that are known not to work at this time include:

• 491348, 492596, 491796 - mdraid disk configurations are known to not be functional when installing or upgrading to Fedora 11 Beta
• 491746 - Partitioning failures on IBM PowerPC fails
• 492459 - Failure while ejecting DVD media
• 491174 - Name resolution failure for KVM guests using NAT
• 491781 - Hard Drive ISO installation failure
• ppc disc1 > 700Mb
• KDE live image failure
• Several package conflicts have been identified - (insert bugzilla's here)

For more information and bug numbers, visit the Common F11 bugs page.

RPM issues

Due to changes in the checksums used by the RPM software management libraries, yum update can fail when trying to update from Fedora 10 to Fedora 11 Alpha, Fedora 11 Beta, or current Rawhide. To fix this problem, use the following command:

yum update rpm

After completing this step, yum update should work normally. If you encounter any broken dependencies, try yum --skip-broken update instead.

Additional Information

How to try the Beta

Beta is accompanied by installable live CDs of both the GNOME and KDE desktops. With a Live CD users can perform testing and demonstration without installing any software to the hard disk. As the Beta release is largely targeted at developers and contains many bleeding edge packages, this is the best method for less experienced users who want to get involved with testing. The Live CDs also have an option to install Fedora to the hard disk for the more intrepid users.

The best way to download Fedora 11 Beta is through BitTorrent -- visit the Fedora torrent server for a listing of available images. Beta images can also be downloaded from any of our mirrors. Remember that live images can be used on USB media via the livecd-iso-to-disk utility available in the livecd-tools package on existing Fedora systems. Refer to the USB How-to for more instructions. You can also use Jigdo to download the i386, x86_64, or ppc versions.

Fedora 42 release schedule and feature details

Development continues on Rawhide during and after the Beta release, leading up to the Release Candidate before the final release. The links below provide the release schedule for both the pre-releases and the final release, as well as the wiki pages for tracking the various features planned for inclusion in Fedora 11.

• Feature List
• Schedule

Fedora 42 complete release notes

There are a lot of new features in Fedora 42; these beta release notes only touch on the highlights. The full release notes are still under development, but they are largely complete. You can view them here .