Hemlock - Linux - Red Hat 9 to Fedora Core 4

From upgrading this work machine from Red Hat 9 to Fedora Core 4, a few observations and complaints.

Boot Media

First, this is a SCSI/RAID-based system, so it must boot from either a floppy or CD, which Fedora doesn't do until after it installs and (attempts to) reboot. So after the installation/upgrade, it required booting in rescue mode and changing the root partition:

# chroot /mnt/sysimage

But the Linux kernel (this was 2.6.11) no longer fits on a floppy:

# /sbin/mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.6.11-1.1369-FC4smp

Insert a disk in /dev/fd0. Any information on the disk will be lost.
Press  to continue or ^C to abort: 
cp: writing `/tmp/mkbootdisk.M27218/vmlinuz': No space left on device
cp: writing `/tmp/mkbootdisk.M27218/initrd.img': No space left on device
cat: write error: No space left on device
cat: write error: No space left on device

so it required making an ISO:

# mkbootdisk --device /tmp/bootimg.iso --iso 2.6.11-1.1369-FC4smp

then burning the ISO to a CDR, and booting from it, just like it does/did from a floppy.

I/O Device Detection

The next problem was that the mouse was not detected well, resulting in X failing to start, and in sporadic messages about "atkbd.c" getting unhandled key releases.

This problem was "fixed" by switching from a Microsoft natural wireless keyboard and mouse to wired ones, both PS/2. But that resulted in X still not booting, until a link was made from /dev/mouse to /dev/mouse1, then running startx.

Upgrade Aborted

Finally, the upgrade process was scrapped, after several other issues. Fortunately, all data (under /usr/users and /home) were on separate partitions, so during the installation process, those two partitions were mounted at the same points, and naturally were not formatted. The (relatively) clean install took around six hours, even getting and tweaking various other packages not included with Fedora, versus nearly two work days for the upgrade.

Java Sockets Use IPv6

Fedora installs with the gcj version of Java, but, unfortunately, our projects depend on the Sun version. As of Java 1.4.2, this has the curious behavior of the Socket classes attempting to use IPv6, so even the following simple program does not work:

import java.net.*;

public class SocketTest
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        try {
            InetAddress ia = InetAddress.getByName(null);
            Socket s = new Socket(ia, 80);
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace(System.out);
        }
    }

}

However, this does work correctly on a machine running Fedora Core 3, with the 2.6.11-1.14_FC3 kernel. The problems seem to be isolated to FC4, as this error does not occur on an Ubuntu system, running a 2.6.12 kernel, also with IPv6 enabled.

The solution is to set the java.net.preferIPv4Stack property to true.

XMMS/MP3

Under FC4, the xmms-mp3 package does not sound as good as XMMS with xmms-mp123, as with my FC3 system. Specifically, on the FC4 box, playing MP3s results in skips. RealPlayer, included with FC4, handles MP3s without any problem. This may be because this system is a dual-processor.

SMBFS -> CIFS

Another surprise is that smbmount or mount -t smbfs no longer worked, with a number of bizarre, misleading error messages. The correct way to mount SMB shares is as of type CIFS, for example:

mount -f cifs //Someserver/share /mnt/share

Review of Fedora

Overall, Fedora's "comeback" is very impressive. As a Red Hat user since version 4.2, I've previously been unimpressed by its visual layout and quality, but primarily with its package manager (RPM), leading me to the habit of installing Red Hat and nearly never upgrading it. (No, I never tried up2date.)

My first experience with Fedora was with FC3, upgrading from Red Hat 9, on my primary personal machine. That was a difficult process, yet not horrendous. The main difference was apparent immediately: the desktop was beautiful. Easy-to-read fonts, rounded edges, tasteful gradients, and neutral, cool colors. Not only was it far better visually than Red Hat 9, it beat Windows 2000 and XP, as well as looking more professional, with which Windows took a major downturn with as of XP. (A puppy dog to help search for files? Shouldn't it have been a bloodhound anyway?)

Package management went from painful with RPM to pleasurable with yum. Installing, updating, and listing new releases is as simple as grep or ls.

Thus encouraged, I upgraded my primary work machine, as detailed above. Despite the difficulties, it was well worth it. Regarding Ubuntu versus Fedora, I've returned to the Red Hat camp, after nearly switching to Ubuntu for this machine, and having installed it on my secondary work machine. That said, for most users, especially those new to Unix/Linux, I would probably recommend Ubuntu over Fedora.

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