Upgrading from Fedora 6 to 16.

[GregLee]

I see that I last visited 26th September 2007, and I just felt like saying hello, again. I'm running Fedora 6 (I think), but it's getting a little flaky, probably because of some minor hardware glitches and outdated libraries, so I decided to treat myself to a new computer (HP p7-1220) and distribution (and what else besides Fedora 16?).

The thread title is not intended to imply that I'm going to be modifying my Fedora 6 -- I'll start afresh, then when Fedora 16 is installed, try to migrate a few things over from my old computer (before it finally dies). I look forward to complaining about the new system, but it's too early to have opinions, yet, since I've never even seen it.

No questions so far, but I'm open to advice.

[VernDog]

Well, welcome back, and hope to see you again when Fedora 26 rolls around

You've been running on EOL for years, correct?

[GregLee]

Thank you, glad to be here. EOL? Sure -- lots of EOLs in my past.

[SteveGYBE]

Yes - welcome back!

My advice would be that Fedora 16 is now more than 3 months old, if you have a good Internet connection use the Network Install CD rather than download the DVD ISO.

The network install has both the base release and updates repositories enabled so you install the latest updates for all the packages whereas the DVD (and the live images) do not include subsequent updates to packages. Saves having to update 250Mb of files immediately after installing, in addition to all the packages you download in the ISO for options you do not select.

If you're feeling really brave, you could try boot.fedoraproject.org - but be warned, this only supports a limited range of network adapters, so check the FAQs first - no nVidia nForce support, for example...

[GregLee]

Thanks for the suggestions. Wisely or not, I already ordered distribution DVDs from OSDisc.com. My network connection is only so-so.

[GregLee]

I finally tried installing Fedora 16 on my new HP p7-1220 desktop. It's not going well. I have Ubuntu 12.04 installed on one hard disk, and Fedora 16 installed on the other. But

1. Although Fedora seemed to install okay, I can't boot into it automatically. To get it up, I have to interrupt the HP boot sequence and tell the HP that I want to boot to the second drive.
2. Once I get into the Fedora system, I'm told that Gnome 3 is entering a fallback mode, because my video card is incapable.
3. Using Firefox, I can't go anywhere on the web -- Firefox just complains that it can't find a server.

For 1, I tried using GPartEd to remove the boot flag from the boot partition on the disk that has an Ubuntu system, and checking that the boot partition on the second disk that has Fedora was marked with a boot flag. But it didn't make any difference. The HP still insisted on booting from the first (Ubuntu) drive.

For 2, it seems to me that the onboard video on my computer, HD 6550D, should be capable of 3d.

For 3, I have no idea why I can't browse outside my system. Maybe it's a name server problem? The network interfaces -- I have both wired and wireless -- seem to be in working order, and I don't have this problem when I boot into the Ubuntu system.

I'm pretty discouraged.

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by GregLee

I have to interrupt the HP boot sequence and tell the HP that I want to boot to the second drive

That's because you chose to install the GRUB bootloader on the second hard drive, when the default is the first hard drive. And setting boot flags on the partition table won't matter to your PC's BIOS. So either go into the BIOS and switch the boot order there, or install Fedora's GRUB on /dev/sda, or add Fedora to your Ubuntu's GRUB menu.

Originally Posted by GregLee

it seems to me that the onboard video on my computer, HD 6550D, should be capable of 3d.

Not with the free radeon driver, which supports 3D hardware acceleration only up to the HD 5970 series. For your card you'll need to install AMD's proprietary Catalyst drivers.

Originally Posted by GregLee

Maybe it's a name server problem?

Have you checked to see if it actually is a name server problem? How did you set up networking during the install? You've given us virtually no information with which to help you.

[GregLee]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

Have you checked to see if it actually is a name server problem? How did you set up networking during the install? You've given us virtually no information with which to help you.

It's hard to know what information would be helpful. I've just done some more testing. Here are some possibly relevant facts:

0. During install, I just accepted the wired ethernet interface that the installer said it had found.

1. ping to my local router works, and ping to a named non-local server works (e.g. lists.fedoraproject.org).

2. I could download software during installation, and I can download new programs now -- I downloaded the Midori GTK browser.

3. Firefox seems to be working normally, except that I can't browse to any non-local site -- I get the message "Firefox can't find a server at ...". But I can browse to the web page of my router on my local network, giving its IP numbered address.

4. I changed Firefox's proxy setting to "no proxy" (I don't go through a proxy). Didn't help.

5. Midori seems to have exactly the same problem as Firefox. I tried changing its proxy setting to "no proxy" also. Didn't help.

6. The IP numbers given for the network interface info for my address, DNS, etc., are what I expect -- I don't see a problem.

7. I also have an Ubuntu system on this computer (I'm using it now) which doesn't have any such problem with browsing.

[GregLee]

Thanks for your help. I posted about my problem with browsing in the Install subforum, http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=277575, and found that a fix for that was to disable IPV6 network addressing for Firefox.