Fedora 18 for IBM System z 64bit official release
by Dan Horák
Hello everyone,
Fedora 18 GA release for the IBM System z is here. This time only one
week (8 days to be correct) later than the primary and again more closer
to primary when we count the number of available packages.
Worth noting also here is that Anaconda, the Fedora installation
program, has been extensively redesigned since Fedora 17. Documentation
is available in the Installation Guide
(http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/Installation_Guide/ch-...)
and is generally applicable to Fedora for System z.
The links to the actual release are here:
http://secondary.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/18/Fedor...
http://secondary.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/18/Every...
and obviously on all sites that mirror the secondary arch content and we
still have few :-)
The first directory contains the normal installation trees as well as
one DVD ISO with the complete release.
Everything as usual contains, well, everything. :)
Additional information about known issues, the current progress and
state for future release, where and how the team can be reached and just
anything else Fedora on IBM System z related can be found here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/s390x/18
For architecture specific release notes, please read it as there are
changes in the interactive installation process. It's a wiki so don't
hesitate to add your knowledge there.
More information about Fedora on IBM System z can be found at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/s390x
Thanks go out to everyone involved in making this happen!
Your Fedora/s390x Maintainers
--
Dan Horák, RHCE
Senior Software Engineer, BaseOS
Red Hat Czech s.r.o., Purkyňova 99, 612 45 Brno
10 years, 10 months
Cooperative Bug Isolation for Fedora 18
by Ben Liblit
The Cooperative Bug Isolation Project (CBI) is now available for Fedora
18. We currently offer instrumented versions of Evolution, The GIMP,
GNOME Panel, Gnumeric, Liferea, Nautilus, Pidgin, and Rhythmbox.
Download at <http://research.cs.wisc.edu/cbi/downloads/>. Or just
download and install
<http://research.cs.wisc.edu/cbi/downloads/rpm/fedora-18-i386/RPMS.tools/c...>
to automatically configure your system to use the CBI repository.
It's that easy! Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! The more of
you there are, the more bugs we can find.
We still offer CBI packages for earlier releases as well, going all the
way back to Fedora 1. When and if you decide to upgrade to Fedora 18,
we'll be ready for you. Until then, your participation remains valuable
even on older distributions.
-- Dr. Ben, the CBI guy
10 years, 10 months
Reminder: Fedora 16 end of life on 2013-02-12
by Dennis Gilmore
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Greetings.
This is a reminder email about the end of life process for Fedora 16.
Fedora 16 will reach end of life on 2013-02-12, and no further updates
will be pushed out after that time. Additionally, with the recent
release of Fedora 18, no new packages will be added to the Fedora 16
collection.
Please see http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DistributionUpgrades for more
information on upgrading from Fedora 16 to a newer release.
Dennis
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10 years, 10 months
Announcing the release of Fedora 18.
by Robyn Bergeron
The Fedora Project is incredibly delighted to announce the release of Fedora 18 ("Spherical Cow"). Heck, we'd even say that getting this release to you has been a mooving experience.
Fedora is a leading-edge, free and open source operating system that continues to deliver innovative features to many users, with a new release about every six months...or so. :-D But no bull: Spherical Cow, is of course, Fedora's best release yet. You'll go through the hoof when you hear about the Grade A Prime F18 features. You can always cownt on us to bring you the best features first.
Can't wait for a taste? You can get started downloading now:
http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora
Detailed information about this release can be seen in the release notes:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/Release_Notes/
== What's New in Fedora 18? ==
The Fedora Project takes great pride in being able to show off features for all types of use cases, including traditional desktop users, systems administration, development, the cloud, and many more. But a few new features are guaranteed to be seen by nearly anyone installing Fedora and are improvements that deserve to be called out on their own.
The user interface for Fedora's installation software, Anaconda, has been completely re-written from the ground up. Making its debut in Fedora 18, the new UI introduces major improvements to the installation experience. It uses a hub-and-spoke model that makes installation easier for new users, offering them concise explanations about their choices. Advanced users and system administrators are of course still able to take advantage of more complex options. The general look and feel of the installation experience has been vastly upgraded, providing modern, clean, and comprehensible visuals during the process. While the new installer should work well for most users in most configurations, there are inevitably a few teething problems in the first release of such a major revision.
Known design limitations of the new installer in F18 are listed here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/NewInstaller
Known significant bugs can be seen here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F18_bugs#Installation_issues
We welcome your constructive and specific feedback as we continue to work on refining the installer for future releases.
The upgrade process for Fedora now uses a new tool called FedUp (Fedora Upgrader). FedUp replaces pre-upgrade as well as the DVD methods for upgrading that have been used in previous Fedora releases. FedUp integrates with systemd to enable the upgrade functionality, doing the work in a pristine boot environment.
Of course, it wouldn't be a release announcement without a spotted -- er, dotted -- list of all the other fantastic features you'll see in Fedora 18:
=== For desktop users ===
Moooove over, stale desktops. We've got a small herd of choices udderly suited to your preferences.
* GNOME 3.6: The newest version of the GNOME desktop provides an enhanced Messaging Tray, support for Microsoft Exchange and Skydrive, and many more new features.
* Cinnamon: Fedora users now have the option of using Cinnamon, an advanced desktop environment based on GNOME 3. Cinnamon takes advantage of advanced features provided by the GNOME backend while providing users with a more traditional desktop experience.
* MATE Desktop: The MATE desktop provides users with a classic GNOME 2.x style user interface. This desktop is perfect for users who have been running GNOME Classic or other window managers like XFCE as an alternative to GNOME 3.
* KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.9: KDE Plasma Workspaces has been updated with many new features and improved stability and performance, including updates to the Dolphin File Manager, Konsole, and KWin Window manager.
* Xfce 4.10: The lightweight and easy-to-use Xfce desktop has been updated to the 4.10 version with many bug fixes and enhancements, including a new MIME type editor, a reworked xfce4-run dialog, improved mouse settings, tabs in the Thunar file manager, and options to tile windows in xfwm4. Through all of these and more, Xfce continues to improve without getting in your way.
Regardless of your desktop choice, Fedora 18 offers...
* Improved storage management: SSM (System Storage Manager) is an easy-to-use command-line interface tool that presents a unified view of storage management tools. Devices, storage pools, volumes, and snapshots can now be managed with one tool, with the same syntax for managing all of your storage. (It's great for systems administrators, too!)
=== For developers ===
For developers there are all sorts of moo-tivating goodies:
* Fresh versions of programming languages: Using Perl, Rails, or Python? All three of these languages are updated in Fedora 18. We've got Rails 3.2, Python 3.3, and Perl 5.16 fresh off the farm.
* Clojure gets more love with the addition of tooling packages, including the Leinengen build tool, as well as Clojure libraries and frameworks, including Korma and Noir.
* DragonEgg connects GCC and LLVM: DragonEgg is a plugin for the GCC compilers to allow use of the LLVM optimization and code-generation framework. DragonEgg provides software developers with more optimization and code-generation options for use with the GCC compilers. DragonEgg also allows GCC to be used for cross-compilation to target architectures supported by LLVM without requiring any special cross-compilation compiler packages. Fedora continues to develop and use GCC as the standard default compiler.
=== For systems administrators ===
Keep track of your infrastructure herds with these new features:
* Offline system updates: Systems can now be updated offline, allowing for a more stable update of critical system components. This functionality is only integrated with GNOME Desktop Environment in this release but uses the distribution neutral PackageKit and systemd API's and hence can be made available for other desktop environments as well based on the interest from upstream developers.
* Storage enhancements: StorageManagement is a collection of tools and libraries for managing storage area networks (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS).
* Samba 4: This popular suite of tools has long provided file- and print-sharing services in heterogeneous operating system environments. The long-awaited Samba 4 introduces the first free and open source implementation of Active Directory protocols and includes a new scripting interface, allowing Python programs to interface to Samba's internals.
* Riak: A fault-tolerant key-value store, Riak provides easy operations and predictable scaling as a NoSQL database.
=== For clouds and virtualization ===
Do you spend your days <strike>grazing</strike> gazing into the clouds? Here's just a taste of some of the cloud and virt features you'll see in Fedora 18:
* Eucalyptus makes its first appearance in Fedora, with their 3.2 release included in F18. This platform for on-premise (private) Infrastructure-as-a-Service clouds uses existing infrastructure to create scalable and secure AWS-compatible cloud resources for compute, network, and storage.
* OpenStack: With the Folsom release in Fedora 18, OpenStack continues to have the newest releases in Fedora. This open source cloud computing platform enables users to deploy their own cloud infrastructures for private or public cloud deployments. Heat, an incubated OpenStack project, is also available in F18, providing an API that enables the orchestration of cloud applications using file or web based templates.
* oVirt Engine: The management application for the oVirt virtualization platform, oVirt Engine, is updated to the newest version, 3.1. This release includes extensive new features, including support for live snapshots, cloning virtual machines from snapshots, quotas, and more.
* Suspend and resume support for virt guests: Virtual machines get love with this feature, enabling the ability to suspend and resume guests, with the close of a laptop lid or menu option or via the command line.
And that's only the beginning. For a more complete list with details of all the new features in Fedora 18, steer over to:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/18/FeatureList
== Downloads, upgrades, documentation, and common bugs ==
The steaks are high--don't miss out on installing the best version of Fedora yet! Get it now:
http://get.fedoraproject.org/
If you are upgrading from a previous release of Fedora, refer to: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading
Fedora has replaced pre-upgrade with FedUp (excuse the pun.. or don't), a more robust solution, and pushed several bug fixes to older releases of Fedora to enable an easy upgrade to Fedora 18.
Graze...er, gaze...upon the full release notes for Fedora 18, guides for several languages, and learn about known bugs and how to report new ones, here:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
With all the changes to the installer, we particularly recommend reading the Installation Guide:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/Installation_Guide/ind...
Everyone makes missteaks. Fedora 18 common bugs are documented at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F18_bugs
This page includes information on several known bugs in the installer, so we recommend reading it before installing Fedora 18.
== Fedora Spins ==
Fedora spins are alternate versions of Fedora tailored for various types of users via hand-picked application set or customizations, from desktop options to spins for those interested in gaming, robotics, or design software. More information on our various spins is available at:
http://spins.fedoraproject.org
== Contributing ==
There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can help translate software and content, test and give feedback on software updates, write and edit documentation, design and do artwork, help with all sorts of promotional activities, and package free software for use by millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit http://join.fedoraproject.org today!
== Fedora 19 ==
Even as we continue to provide updates with enhancements and bug fixes to improve the Fedora number experience, our next release, Fedora 19, is already being developed in parallel and has been open for active development for several months already. We have an early plan for release at the end of May 2013, and the final schedule for F19 is going to be based on the results of the planning process:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/19/Schedule
== Feature Deprecation ==
Fedora has always been full of great features, but sometimes we need to cull the herd. Saying good-bye is always hard, but here are the ones we had to put out to pasture this time around.
* /etc/sysconfig Deprecations: Several system configurations have moved out of /etc/sysconfig. The goal of these changes is to reduce - as described in http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/the-new-configuration-files.html - the unnecessary differences between Linux distributions and share a standard location for common settings.
For a full list of changes read the release notes.
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/18/html/Release_Notes/index.html
== Contact information ==
If you are a journalist or reporter, you can find additional information here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Press
Enjoy!
-Robyn Bergeron
10 years, 10 months
Appointment to Fedora Board
by Robyn Bergeron
I'm happy to announce that Rex Dieter has accepted an appointment to the
remaining seat on the Fedora Project Board. This is the second
appointment of two in total for this upcoming cycle; Major Hayden was
previously announced as the first appointee for this cycle.
Many of you know Rex from various areas of the project, including his
work within the KDE SIG, initiation of the Community Working Group
(CWG), as well as his service as former elected Board Member, among
many, many other areas. Rex has proven himself to be fair, wise, and
adept in resolving conflicts, and I very much look forward to working
with him again.
I hope that everyone in the Fedora Project community will join me in
welcoming him (back) to the Board.
The new Board will meet together for the first time (hopefully) in some
form this week likely during FUDCon, though given that not all members
will be present this may be a hybrid of an in-person and phone and IRC
meeting, and we'll do our best to try and work around schedules but will
likely not be perfectly inclusive. :) Regular meetings should resume
next week, once a new meeting time has been finalized.
Finally, I'd like to thank our outgoing Board members for their time and
efforts over the past year. Toshio Kuratomi, David Nalley, Christoph
Wickert - your wisdom and contributions are appreciated by everyone, and
we all look forward to continuing to work with you in other areas of the
Fedora Project.
Cheers,
-Robyn
10 years, 10 months
Important for FUDCon: Airport pickup, RasPi hangout, and games
by Ruth Suehle
One week until FUDCon! My, my, how the time flies. There are a few things
that need your attention before you fly off to the land of Dorothy, Toto,
Clark Kent, and Looper. (Leave your blunderbusses and kryptonite at home.)
----------------------------
AIRPORT PICKUPS
----------------------------
The airport is about an hour from the hotel. There is Super Shuttle, but
it's $99. No, that's not a typo. If you would like a ride in our van very
kindly sponsored by Cloudstack, you should email me by the END OF THE DAY
FRIDAY with the time your flight lands.
We'll let you know before you leave where and how to find the vans.
-------------------------------------
RASPBERRY PI MEETUP
-------------------------------------
Thursday evening at 8 p.m., there is a global Raspberry Pi meetup over
Google Hangout. MAKE is the host and guests are Matt Richardson and Shawn
Wallace, authors of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi. All meetup attendees
will receive a free PDF download of MAKE Magazine Volume 33. The guests
will talk about the projects featured in that issue and discuss everything
Pi. There's a live chat where you can ask them questions as well as share
your own projects.
We'd like to gather to join the Hangout and then hang out amongst ourselves
talking Pi. Please add your name here if you'd like to join us so that
we're sure to have enough room:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013#Agenda
-------------
GAMES
-------------
Friday night, we've got a space reserved at the hotel for pizza, a
build-your-own-cupcake bar, and drinks. You can sit around chatting with
friends, hacking on your hackables, or play awesome board games.
If you're the gaming sort, please add what games you're bringing to the
list here so we don't get there with six copies of Carcassone and a box of
Uno missing all the wild cards.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013#Social_events
---------------
BOWLING
---------------
FUDpub is from 6:30-8:30, but if that's not enough party time for you,
there's a bowling alley next door. We're happy to reserve lanes, but we'd
like to know that you're interested. If you think you'd like to bowl a bit,
please add your name to that list:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013#Social_events
Thanks, and have a beefy and/or spherical day!
Ruth
10 years, 10 months
Fedora 18 Beta for ARM now available!
by Paul Whalen
The Fedora ARM team is pleased to announce that the Fedora 18 Beta release
for ARM is now available for download from:
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/test/18-Beta/Im...
The Beta release includes pre-built images for Versatile Express (QEMU),
Trimslice (Tegra), Pandaboard (OMAP4), GuruPlug (Kirkwood), and Beagleboard (OMAP3)
hardware platforms. The Fedora 18 Beta for ARM now includes an install tree in the
yum repository which may be used to PXE-boot a kickstart-based install on systems
that support it, such as the Calxeda EnergyCore (HighBank).
Please visit the announcement page for additional information and links to
specific images:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/Fedora_18_Beta
We invite you to download the Fedora 18 Beta release and provide your valuable
input to the Fedora ARM team.
Please join us on the IRC in #fedora-arm on Freenode or send feedback and
comments to the ARM mailing list.
On behalf of the Fedora ARM team,
Paul
10 years, 10 months
FUDCon Lawrence is coming! A few reminders
by Ian Weller
Hello, FUDCon Lawrence attendees:
The conference is just around the corner and it's kind of freaking me
out a little bit. Here are some things you should definitely know:
== Pre-registration ==
- If you are not yet pre-registered [1], you should do so ASAP. This
better helps us for who to expect to come.
- If you are having trouble pre-registering (because you don't have an
OpenID or because OpenID is weird), email me and I will add a
registration for you.
- If you are pre-registered but are no longer coming, and don't want to
log into the site to remove your registration, send me an email at
ianweller(a)fedoraproject.org and I will remove you. (It is preferable
if you use an email I can identify to be yours.)
[1]: http://fudconlawrence-ianweller.rhcloud.com/
Pre-registration gives you the following benefits:
- Your badge and witty comment are pre-printed at the conference so
people can actually read who you are
- We make sure to have food for you for Friday lunch and during FUDPub
(this is especially important if you are vegetarian or vegan)
== Hotel ==
- You should have your reservation for the hotel secured by this point.
If you do not have a reservation and are seeking a roommate, or have a
reservation and would like to share your room and do not yet have a
roommate, please contact Robyn Bergeron <rbergero(a)fedoraproject.org>.
She cannot make guarantees at this point but will do her best to help
you out.
== Transportation to and from FUDCon ==
- We are in the process of finalizing group transportation to and from
KCI, as well as onsite at FUDCon. Please keep your eyes out for
details, so you can haz ride from airport.
- If you are still planning on renting a car, it will help us out
greatly to know if you're able to transport people, particularly upon
departure. Let us know here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013/Flights
== Barcamp, Hackfests, and Lightning Talks, oh my ==
Get the most out of your FUDCon experience by participating in any of
these events.
If you don't know what these are, check out these pages:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_barcamp
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_hackfest
=== Pre-pitch your barcamp session ===
While we will still be doing traditional pitches for barcamp sessions on
Friday, it's useful to list your proposed session. Doing so allows us to
print off a sheet with your session name on it in advance and helps us
ensure we don't overlook your pitch. Pitch your session here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013#Technical_sessions_.2...
=== Hackfest Planning ===
A significant amount of time is set aside for hackfests at FUDCon.
Pre-listing your hackfest helps us to arrange timing, and helps you to
get more people in your session to Get Things Done. List your hackfest
here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013#Hackfests_.28Saturday...
=== Pre-registration for some hackfest events ===
If you are planning to participate in any of these things on Saturday,
please sign up in advance:
- GPG keysigning event:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013_GPG_Key_Signing_Event
- CAcert assurance event:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013_CAcert_Assurance_Event
=== Lightning Talks ===
Lightning talks are a great place to talk about something when you're
thinking you don't have a full hour of content, or if you want to even
talk about something that isn't necessarily related to Fedora, but is
totally awesome. Lightning talks are great for quick application demos,
telling stories about how you got others involved in Fedora, showing off
hacked devices (Summer of Fun Hardware, anyone?), or anything else you
can dream up.
The format isn't as strict as some other lightning talk-like things you
may have attended (Ignite, etc.) -- we don't even require you have
slides. As long as you don't talk for more than 5 minutes and have
something neat to talk about, we're glad to have you.
So far not a lot of people have signed up for a lightning talk! This is
bad.
If you're interested in giving a talk for about 5 minutes instead of 50,
put the title of your talk here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Lawrence_2013#Lightning_talks_.28Fri...
Then send your slides (if you are planning to use any) to me at
ianweller(a)fedoraproject.org.
We're doing lightning talks after lunch on Friday. The order will be set
that morning.
== What next from here? ==
In about a week, I'll be sending around a PDF that you can print off and
stick in your travel bag with important information you might need
before you get to Lawrence, such as transport from KCI airport and a
number you can call or text if something goes wrong. Look out for it!
Other than that, get ready for FUDCon!
--
Ian Weller <ian(a)ianweller.org>
10 years, 11 months
