This release is the culmination of nine months of development, and includes significant new versions of many key products and technologies. The following sections provide a brief overview of major changes from the last release of Fedora Core.

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

This section covers any specific information you may need to know about Fedora Core and the PPC hardware platform.

This section covers any specific information you may need to know about Fedora Core and the x86 hardware platform.

This section covers any specific information you may need to know about Fedora Core and the x86_64 hardware platform.

	x86_64 Does Not Use a Separate SMP Kernel
	The default kernel in x86_64 architecture provides SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processor) capabilities to handle multiple CPUs efficiently. This architecture does not have a separate SMP kernel unlike x86 and PPC systems.

su -c 'yum install yum-utils'

rpm -qa --queryformat "%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n"

%_query_all_fmt         %%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}

The coreutils package now follows the POSIX standard version 200112. This change in behavior might affect scripts and command arguments that were previously deprecated. For example, if you have a newer system but are running software that assumes an older version of POSIX and uses sort +1 or tail +10, you can work around any compatibility problems by setting _POSIX2_VERSION=199209 in your environment. Refer to the section on standards in the coreutils info manual for more information on this. You can run the following command to read this information.

info coreutils Standards

Fedora is building Firefox with the Pango system as the text renderer. This provides better support for certain language scripts, such as Indic and some CJK scripts. Pango is included with with permission of the Mozilla Corporation. This change is known to break rendering of MathML, and may negatively impact performance on some pages. To disable the use of Pango, set your environment before launching Firefox:

MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1 /usr/bin/firefox

Alternately, you can include this environment variable as part of a wrapper script.

The kernel implementation of smbfs to support the Windows file sharing protocol has been deprecated in favor of cifs, which is backwards compatible with smbfs in features and maintenance. It is recommended that you use the cifs filesystem in place of smbfs.

A yum plugin written by Red Hat developers is provided by default within the yum package which only retains the latest two kernels in addition to the one being installed when you perform updates on your system. This feature can be fine tuned to retain more or less kernels or disabled entirely through the /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/installonlyn.conf file. There are other plugins and utilities available as part of yum-utils package in Fedora Extras software repository. You can install them using the following command.

yum install yum-utils

By default, yum is now configured to remove headers and packages downloaded after a successful install to reduce the ongoing disk space requirements of updating a Fedora system. Most users have little or no need for the packages once they have been installed on the system. For cases where you wish to preserve the headers and packages (for example, if you share your /var/cache/yum directory between multiple machines), modify the keepcache option to 1 in /etc/yum.conf.

The hotplug and device handling subsystem has undergone significant changes in Fedora Core. The udev method now handles all module loading, both on system boot and for hotplugged devices. The hotplug package has been removed, as it is no longer needed.

Support for hotplug helpers via the /etc/hotplug, /etc/hotplug.d, and /etc/dev.d directories is deprecated, and may be removed in a future Fedora Core release. These helpers should be converted to udev rules. Please see http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html for examples.

The system-config-mouse configuration utility has been dropped in this release because synaptic and three-button mouse configuration is handled automatically. Serial mice are no longer supported.

The up2date and rhn-applet packages have been removed from Fedora Core 5. Users are encouraged to use the yum tool from the command line, and the Pirut software manager and Pup update tool from the desktop.

Fedora systems use Network Manager to automatically detect, select, and configure wired and wireless network connections. Wireless network devices may require third-party software or manual configuration to activate after the installation process completes. For this reason, Fedora Core provides Network Manager as an optional component.

Refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Tools/NetworkManager for more information on how to install and enable Network Manager.

Fedora Core includes a new version of the dovecot IMAP server software, which has many changes in its configuration file. These changes are of particular importance to users upgrading from a previous release. Refer to http://wiki.dovecot.org/UpgradingDovecot for more information on the changes.

The kudzu utility, libkudzu library, and /etc/sysconfig/hwconf hardware listing are all deprecated, and will be removed in a future release of Fedora Core. Applications which need to probe for available hardware should be ported to use the HAL library. More information on HAL is available at http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal.

The fstab-sync facility has been removed. In Fedora Core , the fstab-sync program is removed in favor of desktop specific solutions for mounting removable media. Entries for hotplug devices or inserted media are no longer automatically added to the /etc/fstab file. Command-line users may migrate to gnome-mount, which provides similar functionality.

As part of the changes to the mounting infrastructure, the desktop's automatic mountable devices detection now includes policy definitions that ignore all fixed disk devices from. This was done to increase security on multi-user systems. People on multi-user systems who want to make changes to disk mounting that could impact the multi-user environment are advised to understand the implications of the default HAL policy decisions and to review the HAL policy files in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/.

If you are on a single-user system and would like to recover the functionality to mount fixed disk items such as IDE partitions from the desktop, you can modify the default HAL policy. To enable deskop mounting for all fixed disks:

su -c 'mv /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/99-redhat-storage-policy-\
fixed-drives.fdi  /root/'
su -c '/sbin/service haldaemon restart'

If you need more fine-grained control and only want to expose certain fixed disks for desktop mounting, read over how to create additional HAL policy to selectively ignore/allow fixed disk devices.

The PostgreSQL backend for GnuCash has been removed, as it is unmaintained upstream, does not support the full set of GnuCash features, and can lead to crashes. Users who use the PostgreSQL backend should load their data and save it as an XML file before upgrading GnuCash.

The Mozilla application suite is deprecated. It is shipped in Fedora Core and applications can expect to build against mozilla-devel, however it will be removed in a future release of Fedora Core.

Booting Fedora Core without the use of an initrd is deprecated. Support for booting the system without an initrd may be removed in future releases of Fedora Core.

The libstdc++so7 package has been added. This package contains a preview of the GNU Standard C++ Library from libstdcxx_so_7-branch. It is considered experimental and unsupported. Do not build any production software against it, as its ABI and so-version will change in future upgrades. To build software using this library, invoke g++-libstdc++so_7 instead of g++.

The LinuxThreads library is no longer available. LinuxThreads was deprecated in Fedora Core 4 and is no longer available in this release. The Native POSIX Threading Library (NPTL), which has been the default threading library since Red Hat Linux 9, has replaced LinuxThreads completely.

This distribution is based on the 2.6 series of the Linux kernel. Fedora Core may include additional patches for improvements, bug fixes, or additional features. For this reason, the Fedora Core 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.fedora.redhat.com .

Fedora Core 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>-[xen0|xenU|kdump]-<arch>/ tree. Use the following command:

su -c 'yum install kernel-{xen0,xenU,kdump}-devel'

Select one or more of these flavors, separated by commas and no spaces, as appropriate. Enter the root password when prompted.

	x86_64 Default Kernel Provides SMP
	There is no separate SMP kernel available for the x86_64 architecture in Fedora Core 5.

	PowerPC Kernel Support
	There is no support for Xen or kdump for the PowerPC architecture in Fedora Core 5.

Kexec and kdump are new features in the 2.6 mainstream kernel. Major portions of these features are now in Fedora Core 5. Currently these features are available on x86, x86_64, and ppc64 platforms.

The purpose of these features is to ensure faster boot up and creation of reliable kernel vmcores for diagnostic purposes. Instructions on the kexec and kdump pages verify that the features work on your systems. For more information refer to:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Kernel/kexec

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Kernel/kdump

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 which are specific to Fedora.

Many of the tutorials, examples, and textbooks about Linux kernel development assume the kernel sources are installed under the /usr/src/linux/ directory. If you make a symbolic link, as shown below, you should be able to use those learning materials with the Fedora Core packages. Install the appropriate kernel sources, as shown earlier, and then run the following command:

su -c 'ln -s /usr/src/kernels/kernel-<all-the-rest> /usr/src/linux'

Enter the root password when prompted.

Fedora Core 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 this kernel flavors section.

	Instructions Refer to Current Kernel
	To simplify the following directions, we have assumed that you want to configure the kernel sources to match your currently-running kernel. In the steps below, the expression <version> refers to the kernel version shown by the command: uname -r .

Users who require access to Fedora Core original kernel sources can find them in the kernel .src.rpm package. To create an exploded source tree from this file, perform the following steps:

	Do Not Build Packages as Super-user (root)
	Building packages as the superuser is inherently dangerous and is not required, even for the kernel. These instructions allow you to install the kernel source as a normal user. Many general information sites refer to /usr/src/linux in their kernel instructions. If you use these instructions, simply substitute ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/kernel-<version>/linux-<version> .

An exploded source tree is not required to build a kernel module, such as your own device driver, against the currently in-use kernel. Only the kernel-devel package is required to build external modules. If you did not select it during installation, use Pirut to install it, going to Applications > Add/Remove software or use yum to install it. Run the following command to install the kernel-devel package using yum .

su -c 'yum install kernel-devel'

For example, to build the foo.ko module, create the following Makefile in the directory containing the foo.c file:

obj-m := foo.o

KDIR  := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
PWD   := $(shell pwd)

default:
    $(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) M=$(PWD) modules

Issue the make command to build the foo.ko module.

Fedora Core has support for clustered storage through the Global File System (GFS). GFS requires special kernel modules that work in conjunction with some user-space utilities, such as management daemons. To remove such a kernel, perhaps after an update, use the su -c 'yum remove kernel-<version>' command instead. The yum command automatically removes dependent packages, if necessary.

Fedora includes version 2 of Netatalk, a suite of software that enables Linux to interact with Macintosh systems using the AppleTalk network protocols.

Use Caution When Upgrading

You may experience data loss when upgrading from Netatalk version 1 to version 2. Version 2 of Netatalk stores file resource forks using a different method from the previous version, and may require a different file name encoding scheme. Please read the documentation and plan your migration before upgrading. Refer to the upgrade information available directly from the Netatalk site at http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/2.0/htmldocs/upgrade.html.

The documentation is also included in the netatalk package. Refer to either /usr/share/doc/netatalk-2.0.2/doc/htmldocs/upgrade.html or /usr/share/doc/netatalk-2.0.2/doc/Netatalk-Manual.pdf (numbered page 25, document page 33).

Fedora Core now includes version 2.2 of the Apache HTTP Server. This release brings a number of improvements over the 2.0 series, including:

The following changes have been made to the default httpd configuration:

The complete list of new features is available at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/new_features_2_2.html

For more information on upgrading existing installations, refer to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/upgrading.html.

Version 5.1 of PHP is now included in Fedora Core. This release brings a number of improvements since PHP 5.0, including:

The following extension modules have been added:

The following extension modules are no longer built:

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 Core is designed to let 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 installed properly, the root user should be able to switch between java and javac implementations using the alternatives command:

alternatives --config java
alternatives --config javac

Fedora Core includes many packages derived from the JPackage Project, which provides a Java software repository. These packages have been modified in Fedora to remove proprietary software dependencies and to make use of GCJ's ahead-of-time compilation feature. Fedora users should use the Fedora repositories for updates to these packages, and may 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 that 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.

Fedora can now browse Windows shares, a feature known as SMB browsing. In releases prior to Fedora Core 5, the firewall prevented the proper function of SMB browsing. With the addition of the ip_conntrack_netbios_ns kernel module to the 2.6.14 kernel, and corresponding enhancements to system-config-securitylevel, the firewall now properly handles SMB broadcasts and permits network browsing.

The default installation of Fedora Core includes Rhythmbox, Totem, and Helix Player for media playback. Many other programs are available in the Fedora Core and Fedora Extras repositories, including the popular XMMS package. Both GNOME and KDE have a selection of players that can be used with a variety of formats. Additional programs are available from third parties to handle other formats.

Fedora Core 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/.

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 source 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 Core and Fedora Extras cannot include support for MP3 or DVD playback or recording, because the MP3 and MPEG (DVD) formats are patented, and the patent owners have not provided the necessary licenses. Fedora also excludes several multimedia application programs due to patent or license restrictions, such as Flash Player and Real Player. For more on this subject, please refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems.

Fedora Core and Extras include a variety of tools for easily mastering and burning CDs and DVDs. GNOME users can burn directly from the Nautilus file manager, or choose the gnomebaker or graveman packages from Fedora Extras, or the older xcdroast package from Fedora Core. KDE users can use the robust k3b package for these tasks. Console tools include cdrecord, readcd, mkisofs, and other typical Linux applications.

You can use Fedora to create and play back screencasts, which are recorded desktop sessions, using open technologies. Fedora Extras 5 includes istanbul, which creates screencasts using the Theora video format. These videos can be played back using one of several players included in Fedora Core. 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 Core and Fedora Extras support the use of plugins to add support for additional media formats and sound output systems. Some use powerful backends, like gstreamer, to handle media format support and sound output. Plugin packages for these backends and for individual applications are available in Fedora Core and Fedora Extras, and additional plugins may be available from third parties to add even greater capabilities.