Submitted by The Fedora Project has a pre-release of Fedora Core 6 available for testers. More information on the new features that will be available in Fedora Core 6 is detailed in the release summary draft. This release comes with Compiz/AIGLX which provides all those fancy effects.
http://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/development/i386/os/RELEAS…
There should be a big peformance boost with two key changes. These will reduce application startup times.
DT_GNU_HASH which makes a huge difference with with speeding up linking.
Fontconfig 2.4 which was a real bottleneck for GUI applications. I done some tests with valgrind and kcachegrind and found that fontconfig accounted for about half the startup time.
So, is similar to a “Test 4” release? I really look forward installing it, but would it be better to wait until it is fully released? Their roadmap shows that the development freeze should be 2 October, and then the final release on 11 October.
This pre-release is for testers to iron out most bugs as possible before releasing the Final version. It is more like a release candidate as it has been done before on Fedora Core 4 IIRC.
Edited 2006-10-01 02:08
Well the list of good things are huge and the performance promises of >50% is unbelievably cool.
But I feel like in many distros of non enterprise class that packages are broken or could break something.
Let’s take an example, fedora 5 with the latest kernel and other packages installed rendered nerolinux so slow because the newer kernel didn’t support dma=1
tried K3b too, and also no dma. So I tried to pass codes to kernel at grub boot time and no luck, used also “hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc” and error messages appeared, also passed some module changes to modprobe.conf and no positive results.Contacted nerolinux and they said It’s an issue with bad kernel choice from the distro. Now fedora with ealier kernels had no problems with these two programs, now they have. Now back to RHEL 4.3 or Mandriva CS 4.0 both didn’t have any problems enabling dma on DVD+RW drive, thus shortening time of burning from 45 minutes to 15 minutes.
So I wish fedora jump to a more stable kernels in the future than what they’ve used to.
Also, All distros really suffer from the lack of a GUI partitioning software that is easy to use and straightforward; of course I need it to be able to Partition/Format/Mount/Unmount like the one in windows or OSX. File systems support I like also to be included are ntfs, xfs and jfs.
I regularly use fedora 5 on two workstations, but I have a secret love to the upcomming RHEL 5, I am dying everyday because It’s not out yet!
By the way I have experienced the same issues above on ubuntu 6.06.
>> File systems support I like also to be included are ntfs, xfs and jfs. <<
How would Linux know how to handle the ntfs file system nicely? Send a friendly letter to Redmond, WA, ask them to release some code.
Or maybe let mandriva send fedora a letter and tell them how they’ve managed to do it with their partitioner!
>> Or maybe let mandriva send fedora a letter and tell them how they’ve managed to do it with their partitioner! <<
Sure. What does “supporting a file system” mean if you have only limited writing rights and you can’t write new files?
From a Mandriva mailing list:
Le premier, Linux-NTFS ne permet que la lecture et l’écriture en mode
> remplacement seulement (considéré comme stable depuis le noyau 2.6.15),
> mais ni la création, ni la suppression de fichiers.
some progress but no real support 🙁
> > ce qui semble signifier que l’écriture NTFS n’est pas encore fiable
> > avec la Mandriva 2007
NTFS support is not included in the Fedora Core kernel because of patent concerns.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems#head-e52c1870d4467fe40…
… Or maybe RedHat is bound by the U.S. IP laws and cannot touch NTFS?
Though, if you’ll be willing to pay RedHat’s legal bills if/when they get sued by Microsoft, they may reconsider their decision.
– Gilboa
ntfs-3g is rather good. regular kernel is fine for RO support, I dunno if FC implements that.
The installer features a very friendly partitioning program. Click on the review option for more details
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/737/5.gif
Unfortunately it isnt easy to refactor the program out for post installation. There is a new utility under active development for that.
See http://people.freedesktop.org/~david/gdu-6.png
“Unfortunately it isnt easy to refactor the program out for post installation. There is a new utility under active development for that.”
Do you know when will it be included to fedora?!
Do you know when will it be included to fedora?!
As soon as the next version.
Hmm, I have my opinions on NeroLinux – why did it use GTK+ 1.x when it would have been alot more common sense to use GTK+ 2.x and put some effort into fitting into the GNOME desktop.
If they can’t even get their GTK+ widget selection correct, how can one expect them to keep up to date with changes in distributions! everytime I see something stupid like what Nero did to NeroLinux, it moves me more towards the opensource end of the spectrum.
Let’s take an example, fedora 5 with the latest kernel and other packages installed rendered nerolinux so slow because the newer kernel didn’t support dma=1
Didn’t experience a slow down.Nero linux runs as smooth as any other burning program.
hraq, have you reported this as a bug? It would be a pity if the same mistakes are made in future fedora kernels.
Let’s take an example, fedora 5 with the latest kernel and other packages installed rendered nerolinux so slow because the newer kernel didn’t support dma=1
tried K3b too, and also no dma. So I tried to pass codes to kernel at grub boot time and no luck, used also “hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc” and error messages appeared, also passed some module changes to modprobe.conf and no positive results.
FC6 is here.. so here are labels for 5 and 6
http://booth.zapto.org/~foxkm/FC5
I had immense problems with FC6T3 (64-bit in my case), ranging from having to put “pci=noacpi noapic” back in on the kernel line [they’d fixed that a while back, but it seems to be needed again], getting stuck in some sort of failed unmount loop if I enabled Fedora Extras in the installer and having no initrd at the end of the install (yes, had to gen my own one and fix grub.conf!). It was absolutely clear that little testing had been done on FC6T3 before it was released, particularly on the 64-bit platform.
The Fedora folks, however, seem to insist on a policy of never releasing a test 4 of any of their major releases (why? a third test release signifies success and a fourth is “failure”? Mad!), hence their seeming reluctance to name this FC6T4, when that’s exactly what it is.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect, though, of this new “pre-release” of FC6 is that a) Fedora Extras still can’t be easily enabled in the installer without jumping through a set of extra (ha!) instructions and b) the keyboard doesn’t work in firstboot (er, considering that’s a compulsory part of installation…not good!).
Surely these two serious issues should have been fixed before the pre-release was issued. This is the last release (barring yet more disasters) before FC6 final, so any obviously visible bugs that would be hit by the majority of people installing the distro should have been eliminated by now, but nope, they’re not.
There is no general policy on not releasing more test releases. The same has been done for FC4 as an example.
It even clearly says in the announcement before that this in indeed equivalent to test4
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-September/msg…
Having said that custom repository support on the whole and extras repo support in particular is a additional feature and wouldnt be considered as a release blocker. It is expected to be fixed in the final version however.
Firstboot is *not* a compulsory part of the installation. The whole design of firstboot is to accomodate optional steps in the installer and is not part of the text based installer either. Users who would normally use a graphical installer would have a mouse anyway.
From the release summary: “The Compiz window manager provides better visual feedback and a variety of desktop effects by using the AIGLX framework.”
After installing it, I’m left with a typical Gnome desktop. Nothing special, nothing wobbly, no drop shadows, no effects. So where are the compiz/aiglx features hidden?
http://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/development/i386/os/RELEAS…
“To enable the fancy desktop effects, follow these steps:
1.
System > Preferences > More > Desktop Effects
2.
Log out
3.
Log back in. compiz should be enabled now.”
My $0.02
“To enable the fancy desktop effects, follow these steps:
1. System > Preferences > More > Desktop Effects
2. Log out
3. Log back in. compiz should be enabled now.”
My $0.02
It’s just that there is no “System > Preferences > More > Desktop Effects”. I downloaded the dvd .iso torrent and installed Fedora with the default options. What did I do wrong?
Could it be that Compiz/AIGLX is only supported on some graphics boards??
Is there a list of supported video cards?
I have a Matrox G550 which have 3d hardware acceleration through the xorg drivers. Will i be able to use Compiz/AIGLX?
PS: Does Fedora offers a live-cd?
Edited 2006-10-01 19:47
List available on
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RenderingProject/aiglx
Unfortunately, current driver for Matrox G550 does not support AIGLX very well. Not sure if the open source version does.
Does Fedora offers a live-cd?
Not confirmed yet. However, Fedora Unity might provide a live-cd version built with Kadischi, a live-cd generator for Fedora.
Compiz is not installed with the default configuration. The Desktop Effect menu will be available once compiz is installed.
Yes, but will you be able to get the ATI/Nvidia drivers from their repositories?
Yes for open source version, No for proprietary version which is not included in Fedora Extras repository. Those package will be available on Final release through Livna repository becasuse the kernel change is too fast to make module for hardware acceleration.
If you want full NTFS support give captive (http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/) a whirl. Works great for me so far.
Holy Crap! It doesn’t seem like that long ago since FC4 was announced. 😮
Yep, I still remember messing around with FC3 and FC4……… a long time ago.
… I can still remember installing FC1.. it was mere seconds ago!
Come to think about it, I can still remember installing RedHat 1.0/1 (?) Mother’s Days release I yanked out of computer magazine of some sort.
Baah… Guess I’m getting old
– Gilboa
You have to install compiz using the add/remove software (pirut). It seems a little slow, but it does work. Then you can do the System> preferences> more> desktop effects. I am using the 64bit edition and my ATI 9250 works fine using the open source driver. If you could “mouse gesture” the cube around it would be the best thing ever!
You have to install compiz using the add/remove software (pirut). It seems a little slow, but it does work. Then you can do the System> preferences> more> desktop effects.
Add/Remove Software can’t even find a “compiz” package! Seriously, if it’s this hard to enable the desktop effect that are said to be included by default, then the Fedora devs are doing something seriously wrong.
I just checked and Add/Remove program can indeed find compiz on the list. If you are unable to do this, try the following command as root user.
# yum install compiz
Then enable System=>preferences=>more preferences=> desktop effect. List of supported hardware is at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RenderingProject/aiglx
The current test release does include compiz by default however it is not installed by default. The final release of FC6 will have compiz installed but not enabled by default since it doesnt work well on all hardware. Enabling it is a matter of clicking on a checkbox.