Fedora Linux 18

[big_teee]

Fedora just put out their new stable version, Fedora 18.
Fedora is the free Open Source version of RedHat.
I downloaded it with the Gnome Desktop, 3.6.2.
It is very fast.
Don't think it will be as versatile as the Linux Mint 14, but it's been a Hoot so far!
Distribution Release: Fedora 18 (DistroWatch.com News)

[bob p]

I got forced into running F18 when it was in alpha back in Nov-Dec. I had bought a new AMD-FX 8-core CPU and an ASUS M5A97 motherboard, which turned out to be a real headache. The mobo was a "Ready for Windows 8" motherboard, which turned out to be a curse. The ASUS bios was released with Secure Boot enabled, and not capable of being disabled. This means that at the time, the motherboard would run Windows 8 and only Windows 8. Back in November, there wasn't any version of linux that would install a bootable system on Windows-8-compatible motherboards that had secure boot enabled, because Secure Boot requires a signed OS, and only Microsoft had an OS that contained a signed Secure Boot Key. I beat my head against the wall, trying everything. Eventually F18 in it's alpha release turned out to be the first distribution I could load that had made a work around for the secure boot problem. F18 had a lot of bugs in the Alpha stage. I opened at least a dozen on Redhat Bugzilla. It seems to be stable now. Glad to hear that it's working for you.

[big_teee]

I got forced into running F18 when it was in alpha back in Nov-Dec. I had bought a new AMD-FX 8-core CPU and an ASUS M5A97 motherboard, which turned out to be a real headache. The mobo was a "Ready for Windows 8" motherboard, which turned out to be a curse. The ASUS bios was released with Secure Boot enabled, and not capable of being disabled. This means that at the time, the motherboard would run Windows 8 and only Windows 8. Back in November, there wasn't any version of linux that would install a bootable system on Windows-8-compatible motherboards that had secure boot enabled, because Secure Boot requires a signed OS, and only Microsoft had an OS that contained a signed Secure Boot Key. I beat my head against the wall, trying everything. Eventually F18 in it's alpha release turned out to be the first distribution I could load that had made a work around for the secure boot problem. F18 had a lot of bugs in the Alpha stage. I opened at least a dozen on Redhat Bugzilla. It seems to be stable now. Glad to hear that it's working for you.

I wouldn't get hung up on the secure boot thing.
I have already moved on from Fedora 18.
F18 Still has lots of issues, and the new partition tool and installer is getting bad reviews.
Tried about 50 different distros, and a better alternative to F18, is the new OpenSuse 12.3 Beta 1.
I downloaded the Suse because it was available in Gnome 3.6 Desktop.
Still IMHO the best Linux Version available is Linux Mint 14, with Mate Desktop.
It is the most polished, and #1 downloaded out of the Box Distro, and everything works.
Mint 14 is downloaded nearly 3600 times daily.
I'm hooked on linux!
Comparing using Linux to being an Alcoholic, I am WinDoZ Free for 3 months now.
I don't plan on falling off the wagon anytime soon.
T

[Steve Conner]

I'm rediscovering the joy of Linux on the Raspberry Pi.

[bob p]

everyone has favorite linux distributions, and i like to stay out of the conversations about which distro is best. use what you like, if it works, but sometimes it doesn't. then you have a problem. that's what happened to me.

I don't know how i could NOT get hung up on the secure boot/UEFI thing -- my "Designed for Windows 8" / Secure Boot motherboard was an absolute roadblock to getting ANY OS installed that was not windows. That means that no linux distribution would install -- including both mint and any version of fedora -- because of collusion between MSFT and ASUS to prevent any non-win OS from working with the hardware.

that roadblock remained in place until fedora fixed the secure boot problem with a shim, and other distributions started copying fedora's solution. that period in time when NO linux distribution could be installed on my motherboard was very aggravating. it took a lot of faith to not return the hardware, and hold onto it in the hopes that the software people could find a way around the hardware vendors deals with Microsoft, and render my motherboard usable with linux. that "NO-linux" period was followed by a period of time in which F18alpha was the ONLY linux distribution that would install on my motherboard. now we may be at a period in time where other linux distributions can be installed on a secure-boot only motherboard because they've copied fedora's shim method, but that's not something that motivates me wipe the system that i finally got running and go distro-hopping. i don't have time for that.

one thing that i will agree with completely is that the new version of anaconda is a stinker. basically, anaconda had not been updated in a LONG LONG TIME, and it was so old that it just HAD to be updated with a complete rewrite. well, that's going to be a long and painful process that won't be cleared up anytime soon. the developers are turning a blind eye to many anaconda bug reports because the job of getting the new anaconda to work is simply overwhelming them. i wouldn't be looking for anaconda to provide improved granularity in control of software package installation anytime soon, which is REALLY annoying. i like to select programs to be installed, not groups of programs. i hate bloat.

Steve, I'm really interested in the R-Pi, just haven't had time to mess with one yet. It's lean and mean, and to me, that's much of the appeal of linux. I'm thinking that the R-Pi it would be the ultimate way to do a low-cost/low-power LAMP server to host your own site.

[big_teee]

everyone has favorite linux distributions, and i like to stay out of the conversations about which distro is best. use what you like, if it works, but sometimes it doesn't. then you have a problem. that's what happened to me.

I don't know how i could NOT get hung up on the secure boot/UEFI thing -- my "Designed for Windows 8" / Secure Boot motherboard was an absolute roadblock to getting ANY OS installed that was not windows. That means that no linux distribution would install -- including both mint and any version of fedora -- because of collusion between MSFT and ASUS to prevent any non-win OS from working with the hardware.

that roadblock remained in place until fedora fixed the secure boot problem with a shim, and other distributions started copying fedora's solution. that period in time when NO linux distribution could be installed on my motherboard was very aggravating. it took a lot of faith to not return the hardware, and hold onto it in the hopes that the software people could find a way around the hardware vendors deals with Microsoft, and render my motherboard usable with linux. that "NO-linux" period was followed by a period of time in which F18alpha was the ONLY linux distribution that would install on my motherboard. now we may be at a period in time where other linux distributions can be installed on a secure-boot only motherboard because they've copied fedora's shim method, but that's not something that motivates me wipe the system that i finally got running and go distro-hopping. i don't have time for that.

one thing that i will agree with completely is that the new version of anaconda is a stinker. basically, anaconda had not been updated in a LONG LONG TIME, and it was so old that it just HAD to be updated with a complete rewrite. well, that's going to be a long and painful process that won't be cleared up anytime soon. the developers are turning a blind eye to many anaconda bug reports because the job of getting the new anaconda to work is simply overwhelming them. i wouldn't be looking for anaconda to provide improved granularity in control of software package installation anytime soon, which is REALLY annoying. i like to select programs to be installed, not groups of programs. i hate bloat.

Steve, I'm really interested in the R-Pi, just haven't had time to mess with one yet. It's lean and mean, and to me, that's much of the appeal of linux. I'm thinking that the R-Pi it would be the ultimate way to do a low-cost/low-power LAMP server to host your own site.

Glad you got it working.
As far as distro hopping, I Ioad and run them on 32GB Flash drives.
I have a new one in the works most of the time.
I'm not tearing up the hard drive each time.
So far My favs are the Ubuntu based systems, like Mint, and next to those is the OpenSuse projects.
So without the distro hopping and trying different ones, I don't know how I would know which I like best.
Hope the Priority bios isn't going to be a future trend.
I'm wanting to buy another Laptop, and all have windoz 8 on them.
I will try to do some more research on the secure boot issue.
T
** Research Update.
My Fairly new Lenova N586 Laptop Bios has the UEFI, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (Secure Boot) Mode.
It can either be Enabled, or disabled, I have it Disabled, at present.
It was set one way, but I had to Either Enable, or Disable it to get one of the earlier Fedora Loads to work.
So hopefully all machines will have this enable, disable capability.

[bob p]

When I was doing my research, the problem with Secure Boot/UEFI keeping linux off of the hardware wasn't something that anyone was willing to admit. ASUS wouldn't talk about it, NewEgg and Tiger woudln't talk about it. Vendors took measures to hide the incompatibility information. What happened was that everyone who bought the certain boards for linux ended up doing an RMA returns because they thought the boards were defective. AFAIK I was the first guy to figure this out and to try to post about it in the on-line hardware reviews on Tiger and Newegg, and no surprise: the vendors refused to publish my reviews, which only served to perpetuate the problem.

ASUS shipped all of these boards with a BIOS that would not allow Secure Boot/UEFI to be disabled, effectively locking the boards into Windows 8. So if anyone is searching for a new Mobo for linux, you'd be best off avoiding anything that's "Made for Windows 8" if you want to avoid problems. From what I've been able to tell, most of the motherboards in inventory at the online stores have shipped with old BIOS, and it seems to be the rule rather than the exception that these BIOS versions don't have the ability to disable secure boot/uefi in bios settings. That was the case with my ASUS board. There was no facility for disabling Secure Boot/UEFI, even with the latest BIOS flash. The hardware was specifically designed to load windows and only windows.

Interestingly, everything changed as soon as RedHat released the Secure Boot bypass "shim" for F18 alpha. ASUS then countered by releasing a BIOS update that allowed you to turn UEFI/Secure Boot off. IMO they should have done that in the first place, but they delayed in doing that as lon as they could, which was advantageous for their partner, MSFT.


Yes, distro-hopping by USB drives is a nice way to do it, if you're into that sort of thing. Be forewarned though -- if you run into a UEFI/SEcure boot problem, a pocket full of USB sticks isn't going to help you. If the hardware won't let the OS install, it won't let the OS install, regardless of your storage medium. BTDT.

If anyone is shopping for a new PC for linux, pay close attention to whether not your hardware allows UEFI to be disabled, and whether the distro you plan to work with incorporates the secure boot bypass shim. There's the possibility that you'll be pulling your hair out if you're not careful.

[big_teee]

Don't know if Asus will address the issue, but that should be something that Asus could make a firmware download for.
I have other issues with my Lenovo N586 AMD Processor.
Video Issues. Several of the older Linux issues won't run my AMD A6 graphics.
So like said earlier, you have to come up with a linux load that will work on your hardware.
I Want another Laptop, and will probably get one with a Intel Processor.
It's all fun, and it's all free!
Later,
T