FC5 not ready yet

galatei · #1 17th April 2006, 01:56 PM

Hello,

I've been trying the new FC5 release, and what I've found just throw me on my knees.
I've never seen so buggy system, not able to boot, not able to install correctly, not able to work correctly after (finally) install, hanging in random places while booting, hanging graphical display.
It is just me, or the whole FC5 has been screwed up? I've found FC3/FC4 working great while this distro is just acting like pre alpha stage release.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Regards

pparks1 · #2 17th April 2006, 02:06 PM

There were significant changes made with regard to the installer routine that have caused a variety of hardware to have problems. No doubt about that from reading posts here.

However, many have gotten FC5 to install without a problem and are very satisfied with the release. Personally, I've had no install problems....but I have trouble with cifs and my 2003 domain controller file server so until that is corrected, FC5 is a no-go for me. But my FC4 box is running just fine, so no reason that upgrading is necessary for me.

enabl · #3 17th April 2006, 02:15 PM

As with previous releases, the install went fine and everything works for me.

Christy · #4 17th April 2006, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enabl

As with previous releases, the install went fine and everything works for me.

Same here. I have no trouble with anything in installing or using FC5. I have managed to break a few things

, but that's my fault, not the FC's

galatei · #5 17th April 2006, 02:41 PM

Now, after I've finally installed it on my machine, I can't properly boot it to even do some configuration. I can't underdstand, why the hell, there is no option to choose text or graphical boot-up interface.
Most of the time, FC5 is hanging on load of iptables, HAL, loopback interface or even on Logical volume mgmt services. Which service has actually hang the sys is a random pick. Once I've got so far to reach the login screen, so I've logged in to KDE and logged of, unfortunately X couldn't return to the login screen, causing some extensive screen flickering. I've switched to console (C+A+F1), but X has just stolen the focus and was constantly switching to itself.
No go = reboot.
In another boot up session, the situation with hanging the services happened again.

Everytime when it hangs on any service, I can't switch to console, C+A+Bkspc is not working as well.
I've never experienced such serious boot-up problems with any previous FC distro.

Could anyone help me with it, please?

Regards

Distro: FC5 x86 DVD
My hw: AMD Athlon64 3400+, 1GB DDR PC3200, Chaintech ZNF3-250 mobo, GeForce 6600 128MB AGP, WD 80GB ATA100 + WD 250GB SATA HDD, LiteON DVD-R/RW + LiteON CD-RW, SB Live!, ETH-int.
No single problem with hardware on any other op. sys.

JN4OldSchool · #6 17th April 2006, 02:45 PM

I love Fedora, will support FC5 100% and Linux in general the same way. That said, I too think FC5 was released too early. As far as I can see most of the problems have been worked out now, but, and correct me if I'm wrong here, it is my understanding that the ISO image you download today is the same image that was released over a month ago. It contains that first faulty kernel and until you manage to get it installed and updated you are no better off now than you were then. Wouldnt it be smarter for Fedora to just re-release the newest ISO image? For most people that initial impression will make or break any given OS for them, and FC5 is just too good a distro to have that bad of an initial impression.

code_astronomer · #7 17th April 2006, 02:56 PM

I am still undecided about my FC5 installation.
My FC4 was almost perfect (apart from certain things that I only know about now because of FC5...i.e. speed).

I am was blown away when I installed FC5, but there are some really annoying problems that makes me wish I had kept FC4 until things had been sorted out, but on the other hand, the speed of gnome is incredible compared to the older gnome and the look of FC5 is beautiful.

There are good points and bad points about FC5, but I'm sure these things will get ironed out.
One problem for me (whether directly related to FC5 or not is beyond me) is my wireless modem seems to randomly dissapear during bootup. If it isn't recognised I have to unplug it and replug it before it is recognised. (This happens every now and then and is pretty random) I also had a problem with my USB memory sticks...I inserted them and they weren't recognised. I rebooted and plugged them in and everything was fine. I don't know why this is or whether it is related to FC5.

I never had problems installing FC5, but have had a lot of problems with drivers and certain software installations (VMWare and the pwc drivers being the latest problems - still not got them working).

tashirosgt · #8 17th April 2006, 03:18 PM

It doesn't surprise me when new Fedoras don't work on particular hardware. What does surprise me is how the same old problems resurface over and over again. Many involve the familiar "only root can...." situation. Only root can unmount the cd, only root can use the scanner (or nobody can use the scanner unless the scanner is plugged-in after the user logs on). Only root can use cdrecord with all the buffering features turned-on.

One conjecture as to why this happens is that these are not viewed as problems by people making a distribution that could be used on corporate networks where tight controls are sometimes put on such operations. Or perhaps the developers always run as root! What I expect from Fedora is that the default set will not be convenient for a single-user pc.

prayatn · #9 17th April 2006, 06:36 PM

I installed FC5 on my machine. It hung during post install because of multiple linux on same machine. I installed next time and asked it to overwrite the boot loader on my machine and then it installed fine but the newly installed FC5 hangs during booting. If I boot using emergency option then it boots fine and give me a shell. How can I debug what is hanging? When the system hangs it prints at the end :
Initializing udev ....

or 2 steps after Initializing udev :
Setting up hostname ...
<hangs here>

Previously I had installed FC2 and FC3 and I was pretty happy with FC3.
Is FC5 really ready?

prayatn · #10 17th April 2006, 06:40 PM

Can I upgrade kernel in emergency boot. I remounted the / partition in read write mode. Will manually downloading the new kernel rpm work on emergency boot?

mnisay · #11 17th April 2006, 07:10 PM

i never experienced hanging with FC5 with and without the kernel upgrade. just one note,
that annoying
"Cannot allocate PCI resources"
bootup message is still pending with redhat bugzilla though, however, it does noy affect (yet) any performance and services that i needed most so far.

well done.

tashirosgt · #12 18th April 2006, 02:36 AM

I think all prayatn can do is try adding options to the grub boot line, such as noapci, nousb, lowres etc.

SHtRO · #13 18th April 2006, 03:47 AM

This is the first Fedora release I took on early. While I adore Fedora and am very impressed with the release, I also think it was too early. The change in print system has lost me 3 hours before finally giving up and going to buy an HP printer. Net-net, I lost hours of work and hours worth of $$$ for this particular upgrade. It will all even out in the end, but have some time available before you try the upgrade.

Also, I, too, would like to upgrade my Athlon to FC5 but fear the initial kernel issue. Can I install the new kernel from rescue disc? Is there a better way to upgrade than the regular installer if I have the install disks?

nicstevens42 · #14 18th April 2006, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by galatei

Hello,

I've been trying the new FC5 release, and what I've found just throw me on my knees.
I've never seen so buggy system, not able to boot, not able to install correctly, not able to work correctly after (finally) install, hanging in random places while booting, hanging graphical display.
It is just me, or the whole FC5 has been screwed up? I've found FC3/FC4 working great while this distro is just acting like pre alpha stage release.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Regards

I installed FC5 on a Compaq laptop. My only gripe is that ATI's drivers don't work on it when they worked on FC4. Aside from that everything works. I can't blame Red Hat for ATI's drivers not working...

prayatn · #15 18th April 2006, 07:22 PM

Today I tried to do the interactive boot by "Pressing I" at the time init starts.
Luckily for the first time, I was able to startup. Gui also appears. I didn't started
the network. I should have upgraded the kernel immediately using yum. I will
try to install the new kernel.

BTW can somebody points me to the location of new kernel of FC5. I can download separately and install it in emergency boot (may be)

Is there any way in grub options to tell to start services interactively ?