Fedora 12 Alpha DVD comments

[zmdmw52]

I am downloading the Fedora 12 Alpha i386 DVD ISO right now.

From those using it: is it stable and are there any issues that one should be aware of ?

Thanks,

[jvillain]

Getting it to install can be any where from easy, to tricky to impossible in some cases. But once it is in and you do a 'yum upgrade' it seems pretty solid.

[zmdmw52]

Getting it to install can be any where from easy, to tricky to impossible in some cases. But once it is in and you do a 'yum upgrade' it seems pretty solid.

- What repo's does on need to add after installation (as the Standard & RPMFusion repo's would only be for the supported releases, viz. F10 & F11) ?
- Should I do an online Update immediatley afterwards ? (as is the case w/ F10 or F11)
- Did you feel the need to add nVidia (or ATI) drivers ? Or aws the open-source Nouveau good enough ?

(Above, of course is provided I manage to get a successful install of F12; currently using F10 but that is not working properly after online Update to a new kernel)

[jvillain]

The first thing is that you should keep in mind is that alpha software from any vendor has the potential to blow up, eat your system, your dog and destroy the world with out notice, for no reason and at any time. Even after having run fine for a while. That is the nature of alpha software. If you aren't ready for the consequences I would recommend doing an install of 11 and waiting for 12 to at least make it to the beta release then switch your repositories to rawhide and run an update.

Having said that you learn far more when stuff is breaking than you do when it is running smoothly. I am a Linux sysadmin by day. But my servers for the most part just work. To keep my skills up I like to do crazy stuff on my setup at home. Like install Centos on cobalt servers and then do a live upgrade to RHEL and then do a live upgrade to Fedora. It's insane but I like the challenge.

Now as for your questions.

- Should I do an online Update immediately afterwards ? (as is the case w/ F10 or F11)

Ya absolutely. There are people out there kicking ass triaging and fixing the issues that are popping up. They need feed back on whether the new fixes are working or not. Once they fix a bug they don't need more reports on it. Besides those fixes will usually make your system more stable.

- What repo's does on need to add after installation (as the Standard & RPMFusion repo's would only be for the supported releases, viz. F10 & F11) ?

If your primary goal it to help with the bug squash then you really shouldn't be adding other repositories. The Fedora guys are going to want to trouble shoot their code not some one elses. If you aren't interested in helping out then RPMFusion is a good one to add but keep in mind there may be licensing issues depending on where you live.

The F12 alpha install will point you to the rawhide repository by default. When the F12 release comes out it will point you to the main branch and updates. You will have to manually to go back in and modify your repo files to get back on the rawhide track at that point if you choose to.

- Did you feel the need to add nVidia (or ATI) drivers ? Or aws the open-source Nouveau good enough ?

Depends on what you are doing. Nouveau was a train crash for me until a couple of days ago. Now it is working. But I can't say it will for you. There is also the question of whether you will need all the features your video card is capable of. If your just serving the web or using your system as a server then probably not. I would try nouveau first and see what kind of mileage you get from it. From an upgrading stand point it will be a hell of a lot easier to deal with than the blob. Keep in mind that most every one will be taking advantage of KMS where as NVidia has already given it the finger for their driver. Whether that causes a problem down the road is yet to be seen.

[AdamW]

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F12_bugs

[scottro]

Basically, it's a big mess and it's all Adam's fault. :D:D

Seriously, I think jvillain put it most aptly, it's sometimes easy, sometimes hard. *I* haven't run into too many issues, possibly because I do a fairly minimal installation.

[AdamW]

Happy to oblige! =)