Fedora 9 (Sulphur)

Docs
Changes
Config

syncookies

Issues

Showstoppers

Nautilus
Firefox 3

Others
Touchpad

Docs

Changes

Blinking cursors are enabled by default in this release, and are centrally managed via a gconf setting. To turn it off, run the following command:

   $ gconftool-2 --type bool --set /desktop/gnome/interface/cursor_blink false

gdmsetup is missing (due to be replaced) from the new GDM, see http://live.gnome.org/GDM/2.22/Configuration for configuration details.

~/.Xclients and ~/.xsession are no longer read automatically at login time. If you use either of these files, install the xorg-x11-xinit-session package.

Kate is now in the kdesdk package

/etc/skel/.bash_logout no longer executes /usr/bin/clear

Config

Disable PackageKit notifications

   # yum remove PackageKit

Disable NetworkManager service and enable network service

   # chkconfig --level 2345 NetworkManager off
   # chkconfig --level 345 network on

syncookies

At some point Fedora started enabling tcp_syncookies (/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_syncookies) http://ipsysctl-tutorial.frozentux.net/ipsysctl-tutorial.html#AEN485

A recent thread on LKML brought up this message from David S. Miller (amongst over things, Linux's TCP/IP stack maintainer) http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0807.3/0050.html

Given this, I'm going to disable tcp_syncookies.

Issues

Showstoppers

Nautilus

Nautilus ignores the users umask

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516429
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=447927

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 uses fsync() over-aggressively, this can kill system responsiveness, in our case it'll just kill odin.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=421482 good to see Andrew Morton has got involved.

I did strace the Fedora shipped Firefox 3 beta 5 the other day and only saw a few fsync()'s.

Could comment #137 be what happened to Paul?

Some chat on the fsync() issue from Mike Shaver.

Thread on linux-fsdevel about fsync()/fdatasync()

NOTE: This isn't directly a Firefox 3 issue but SQLite.

Others

b0rked keyboard?, Check to see if Slow Keys is enabled and disable them; System --> Preferences --> Hardware --> Keyboard --> Accessibility

compiz seems somewhat busted. Works in 24bpp, need to enable EXA to make it usable. Possibly a Mesa regression.

The swap partition may need a UUID set, swapoff /dev/sda2; mkswap -U UUID /dev/sda2; swapon -U UUID

Check /etc/inittab is the upstart one and make default runlevel 5

~~Remove the 'flip-hebrew = no' line from /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf~~

Can't edit desktop application launcher properties http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=535230 Workaround is to just edit the .desktop file in ~/Desktop directly.

Touchpad

Seems a change in the synaptics driver has changed the default behaviour of tap to click to be off.

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-input-synaptics/commit/?id=fb98432436c5e1cc69b5f4b84f625e3700e51e04

There currently seems to be two options to resolve this.

Use a hacked version of the synaptics driver from ATrpms.
Edit xorg.conf

Editing xorg.conf is preferable.

In the "ServerLayout" section add a line

    InputDevice    "TouchPad" "CorePointer"

Create a new "InputDevice" section

 Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "TouchPad"
        Driver      "synaptics"
        Option      "RTCornerButton" "2"
        Option          "RBCornerButton" "3"
        Option          "TapButton1" "1"
        Option          "TapButton2" "2"
        Option          "TapButton3" "3"
EndSection

Optionally add a line in the above section to allow synaptics driver changes from userspace tools.

   Option        "SHMConfig" "on"

Note: After these changes, extra mice plugged in continue to work.
Note 2: Seems the SHMConfig thing is regarded as a "disaster" http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2008-July/037070.html

The good news is that Peter Hutterer has been working on an input properties mechanism based on RandR output properties.