Fedora Release Notes

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

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.

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

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.

	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:

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:

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}

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

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

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

There are three live images available for Fedora 7.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 

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.

Fedora 7 includes the following kernel builds:

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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"

This release features KDE 3.5.6.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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/.

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/.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

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.

Fedora 7 contains two drivers for Intel integrated graphics controllers:

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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:

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

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

... 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/

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.