Fedora Core 2 testX Notes

Most common problem(s)

• ECN is known to break things, and its enabled in the 2.6 line of kernels. No, the kernel isn't broken, its the sites you're trying to visit that are borked. Turning ECN off will help. (adding it to sysctl.conf will mean its fairly permanent)
• SELinux might give you grief at the start, but really it's good for you. Read Karsten Wade's SELinux FAQ.
• It should be noted that upgrading from a test release is not supported (but can work). The right way to upgrade from a test release would be to reinstall the system.

Other stuff 

• Installing Fedora with only EXT3 or XFS as a filesystem will work with regards to SELinux - a filesystem like JFS/Reiser doesn't support extended attributes, and will not work. #119486
  
• kernel-2.6.4-1.303 seems to panic before mounting the root file system - booting with the boot option vdso=0 is the solution till the next build goes out. (some GRUB instructions or you can hit 'e' during the GRUB splash screen)
  
• GOK won't start, since it can't read any keyboards - it's #118504.
• PC speaker not beeping any longer? modprobe pcspkr will solve this for you.
• When new SELinux policy packages get downloaded, there are some steps you need to follow - James Morris confirms the list.
• Want to know the best way to get started running SELinux and testing it? James Morris shows us what he's done to get started. Russell Coker has his thoughts too (and tells us it works fine even when you don't have the machine nearby).
• With CIFS giving quite a lot of issues, Dave Jones might turn SMBFS back on in FC2 test3.
• Fedora Core 2 test1 already has XFS enabled, just like the upstream 2.6 branch of kernels.
• Want to help with SELinux? Russell Coker has mentioned the #selinux IRC channel on the Freenode IRC network. where there is almost one Red Hat employee present 24/7, while there are other knowledgeable people with general SELinux knowledge, on other distributions. This is for quick interaction, rather than 100K long AVC messages of "what went wrong", where e-mail would be a lot better. Sopwith came up with a guide, while there are some useful links that Stephen Smalley points to.
• Arguing that SELinux code should be disabled because it was developed by the NSA and can have hidden items, is more of an urban legend rather than fact. SELinux is in Kernel 2.6, and it has been scrutinized along the way - so stop worrying!
• Rick Johnson e-mailed to state that a couple more FC2 test1 issues niggle users: PCMCIA slots don't work unless people manually load yenta_socket, and then restart pcmcia (modprobe yenta_socket and then service pcmcia restart - this works till the next reboot); and for laptop users, there's an error with the clock-speed during start-up - fixes for this are in the archives of fedora-test-list.
• Keep in mind that packages in Rawhide are not GPG-signed, so apt (and others) will complain. Running it with the "-o rpm::gpg-check=false" option will temporarily disable the action of wanting GPG signed packages.
• ide-scsi has been disabled in the 2.6 line, so if your CD burner is an IDE device, specifying cdrecord with options such as "--dev=/dev/hdc" for example would be necessary (otherwise, edit the cdrecord.conf file). Arjan's 2.6 notes come in quite handy.
• Matthias Saou has gotten an FC2 test1 apt repository set up. And if you need a newer apt, Panu Matilainen points it out: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-February/msg00355.html.
• Dave Jones mentions the fewer kernels being shipped with FC2 test1. Kernel 2.6 actually means including an Athlon only kernel becomes largely unnecessary.
• Many are complaining about the spatial view that Nautilus has taken on. Telsa Gwynne mentions that this is the intended view (from GNOME upstream). Alan Cox then shows us how he has basically forced the default behaviour to change.
• /dev/psaux emulation has disappeared - so mice and X might before quirky (i.e. they won't work); they need to point to /dev/input/mice instead. Tim Quinn actually takes us through all the files that need changes at http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2004-February/msg00903.html. Bugzilla reference: #116118