Fedora 19 for Power Beta Available

[David Aquilina]

The Fedora for Power team is ready to take the cat out of the bag for
the beta release of Fedora 19, "Schrödinger's Cat", which is available
at your closest mirror: 

 http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/19-Beta/ppc64/


== What is the Beta release? ==

The Beta release is the last important milestone before the release of
Fedora 19. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates, leading up
to the general release of Fedora 19. Join us in making Fedora 19 a solid
release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback. 

Of course, this is a beta release, meaning that some problems may still
be lurking. Fedora for Power shares all of the bugs on the Common F19
bugs page, seen here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F19_bugs

Fedora 19 Beta's default configuration allows applications and users
with administrative privileges to install signed packages from the
official Fedora repositories (but no other packages) without
authentication or confirmation. This was inherited from PackageKit
upstream, is not Fedora's intended behavior, and will not be the case
for the Fedora 19 final release. More details on this issue and the
planned behavior for the final release can be found at
https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/1115 .

== Features ==

* Fedora for Power shares all of Fedora 19's features described in the
 Fedora 19 beta announcement:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F19_Beta_release_announcement

* Additionally, Fedora 19 for Power has now enabled the llvmpipe
 software renderer, resulting in dramatically improved graphics
 performance (including Gnome3 within VNC)

== Known Issues ==

* Firefox may crash the first time you start it. Subsequent launches
 will work without crashing. 

* When running Gnome3 under VNC, you may see an all-grey screen after
 answering the initial setup questions. Press the Escape key to go to
 the desktop.

* Graphical kickstart installations may fail when the same text-mode
 installation works.  See
 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=966761

* Installation to Software RAID sets may fail if you allow anaconda to
 automatically partition your disks, then manually change partition
 types.  See
 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=965865 and
 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=966795

* If you unselect a multipath disk, it will disappear.
 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=955664

* The system may hang on reboot when an ipr disk (non-virtualized) is
 present. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=954252

== Contributing ==

More information on Fedora for Power can be found at
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Arch:PPC. To get involved in testing and
development of Fedora for Power, join us on IRC in #fedora-ppc on
Freenode. 



for the entire Fedora for Power team, 
David

-- 
David Aquilina, RHCE
Release Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.

[Timo Schoeler]

On 05/28/2013 10:55 PM, thus David Aquilina spake:

>  The Fedora for Power team is ready to take the cat out of the bag
> for
>  the beta release of Fedora 19, "Schrödinger's Cat", which is available
>  at your closest mirror: 
>  
>   http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/19-Beta/ppc64/ 
Hi,

I just downloaded the ISO and am burning it right now -- it does *not*
fit onto a DVD-R or DVD+r medium, as it's too big. DL is mandatory.

Is that intended?

Best,

Timo

>  == What is the Beta release? ==
>  
>  The Beta release is the last important milestone before the release of
>  Fedora 19. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates, leading up
>  to the general release of Fedora 19. Join us in making Fedora 19 a solid
>  release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback. 
>  
>  Of course, this is a beta release, meaning that some problems may still
>  be lurking. Fedora for Power shares all of the bugs on the Common F19
>  bugs page, seen here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F19_bugs
>  
>  Fedora 19 Beta's default configuration allows applications and users
>  with administrative privileges to install signed packages from the
>  official Fedora repositories (but no other packages) without
>  authentication or confirmation. This was inherited from PackageKit
>  upstream, is not Fedora's intended behavior, and will not be the case
>  for the Fedora 19 final release. More details on this issue and the
>  planned behavior for the final release can be found at
>  https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/1115 .
>  
>  == Features ==
>  
>  * Fedora for Power shares all of Fedora 19's features described in the
>   Fedora 19 beta announcement:
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F19_Beta_release_announcement
>  
>  * Additionally, Fedora 19 for Power has now enabled the llvmpipe
>   software renderer, resulting in dramatically improved graphics
>   performance (including Gnome3 within VNC)
>  
>  == Known Issues ==
>  
>  * Firefox may crash the first time you start it. Subsequent launches
>   will work without crashing. 
>  
>  * When running Gnome3 under VNC, you may see an all-grey screen after
>   answering the initial setup questions. Press the Escape key to go to
>   the desktop.
>  
>  * Graphical kickstart installations may fail when the same text-mode
>   installation works.  See
>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=966761
>  
>  * Installation to Software RAID sets may fail if you allow anaconda to
>   automatically partition your disks, then manually change partition
>   types.  See
>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=965865 and
>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=966795
>  
>  * If you unselect a multipath disk, it will disappear.
>   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=955664
>  
>  * The system may hang on reboot when an ipr disk (non-virtualized) is
>   present. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=954252
>  
>  == Contributing ==
>  
>  More information on Fedora for Power can be found at
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Arch:PPC. To get involved in testing and
>  development of Fedora for Power, join us on IRC in #fedora-ppc on
>  Freenode. 
>  
>  
>  
>  for the entire Fedora for Power team, 
>  David
>

[David Aquilina]

On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 07:35:50AM +0200, Timo Schöler wrote:
>  Hi,
>  
>  I just downloaded the ISO and am burning it right now -- it does *not*
>  fit onto a DVD-R or DVD+r medium, as it's too big. DL is mandatory.
>  
>  Is that intended? 
That was an oversight - thanks for bringing it up! 

We'll fix that for GA, and the daily ISOs going forward as well. 

best, 
David

-- 
David Aquilina, RHCE
Release Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.

[Timo Schoeler]

On 05/29/2013 04:33 PM, David Aquilina wrote:
>  On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 07:35:50AM +0200, Timo Schöler wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I just downloaded the ISO and am burning it right now -- it does
> > *not* fit onto a DVD-R or DVD+r medium, as it's too big. DL is
> > mandatory.
> > 
> > Is that intended?
>  
>  That was an oversight - thanks for bringing it up!
>  
>  We'll fix that for GA, and the daily ISOs going forward as well. 
Cool, thanks. Unfortunately, I didn't have time today to install it
(P285). Maybe tomorrow.

>  best, David 
Best,

Timo

[Tony Breeds]

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 04:55:39PM -0400, David Aquilina wrote:

>  The Fedora for Power team is ready to take the cat out of the bag
> for
>  the beta release of Fedora 19, "Schrödinger's Cat", which is available
>  at your closest mirror: 
>  
>   http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/19-Beta/ppc64/ 
So I tried this on my G5 and got a python trace (when I can I'll get a
photo and upload it)

Unsupported PPC machine type: PMac

This is from python-blivet platform.py:

def getPlatform():
    """Check the architecture of the system and return an instance of a
       Platform subclass to match.  If the architecture could not be determined,
       raise an exception."""
    if arch.isPPC():
        ppcMachine = arch.getPPCMachine()

        if (ppcMachine == "PMac" and arch.getPPCMacGen() ==
"NewWorld"):
            return NewWorldPPC()
        elif ppcMachine in ["iSeries", "pSeries"]:
            return IPSeriesPPC()
        elif ppcMachine == "PS3":
            return PS3()
        else:
            raise SystemError, "Unsupported PPC machine type: %s" % ppcMachine


Now the only way is I should get this message is if arch.getPPCMacGen()
is returning something other than "NewWorld".  Looking at /proc/cpuinfo
it really is a NewWorld system.

Debugging this is made harder by the fact that none of the
anaconda/strorage/program logs are available in tmux so I can't actually
see what arch.getPPCMachine() and  arch.getPPCMacGen()  are returning.

Anyone know how to get the logs working and/or rebuilding
anaconda/blivet to allow me to get past this issue?

Yours Tony

[Gustavo Luiz Duarte]

>  Debugging this is made harder by the fact that none of the
>  anaconda/strorage/program logs are available in tmux so I can't actually
>  see what arch.getPPCMachine() and  arch.getPPCMacGen()  are returning. 
The logs should be in /tmp, though I'm not sure you will be able to 
figure out what arch.getPPCMacGen() is returning just reading the logs. 
You can pass the boot parameter rd.break. This will drop you into a 
dracut shell before it switch_root's into the root file system. You can 
then edit anaconda/blivet python scripts under /mnt/sysimage. Then 
exiting the shell will resume the boot/install process. You can edit 
anaconda/blivet python scripts either to circumvent an issue or to make 
it log whatever information you need.

I hope it helps.

[]'s
Gustavo

[Tony Breeds]

On Fri, Jun 07, 2013 at 12:30:03PM -0300, Gustavo Luiz Duarte wrote:
>  
>  
>  >Debugging this is made harder by the fact that none of the
>  >anaconda/strorage/program logs are available in tmux so I can't actually
>  >see what arch.getPPCMachine() and  arch.getPPCMacGen()  are returning.
>  
>  The logs should be in /tmp, though I'm not sure you will be able to
>  figure out what arch.getPPCMacGen() is returning just reading the
>  logs. 
Thank you.  The only files in /tmp are syslog (and one other) none
of the expected logs are thre :(

The blivet code has a log message to show what it is returning, so I was
hoping to find that messaage.

>        You can pass the boot parameter rd.break. This will drop you
>  into a dracut shell before it switch_root's into the root file
>  system. You can then edit anaconda/blivet python scripts under
>  /mnt/sysimage. Then exiting the shell will resume the boot/install
>  process. You can edit anaconda/blivet python scripts either to
>  circumvent an issue or to make it log whatever information you need.
>  
>  I hope it helps. 
Great thanks.  I'll that next time I'm in the office and have accss to
the system.

Yours Tony