Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 Upgrade Notes

PreUpgrade

Start out with the PreUpgrade instructions. There may be some problems with package dependencies, e.g. Livna pine-4.64-7.lvn8

% sudo yum update . . .Error: Missing Dependency: libc-client2006 >= 2006k is needed by package pine
Error: Missing Dependency: libc-client.so.2006 is needed by package pine

Uninstall any packages that need uninstalling (e.g. pine), install and run preupgrade:

% sudo rpm -e pine % sudo yum update% sudo yum -y install preupgrade % sudo preupgrade-cli "Fedora 9 (Sulphur)"

preupgrade can be made to use a proxy instead with this command line:

sudo env http_proxy="http://localhost:3128" preupgrade-cli "Fedora 9 (Sulphur)"

If you have a Samsung hard disk, you may run into redhat bug 442457:

Bug 442457 does not have a fix, which makes it necessary to switch to doing the upgrade via yum.

Upgrading with Yum

Install fedora-release and fedora-release-notes from http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Everything/i386/os/Packages/

sudo rpm -Uvh fedora-release-9-2.noarch.rpm fedora-release-notes-9.0.0-1.noarch.rpm

Switch as root into /var/cache/yum/anaconda-upgrade/packages and start the upgrade. If you are concerned about power outages, you can try to do some of the updates individually to limit damages:

% sudo su - # cd /var/cache/yum/anaconda-upgrade/packages # for i in *.rpm; do rpm -Uvh "$i" && /bin/rm "$i" done

The gtk2 package does not seem to properly declare its dependency on the new version of glib2.That can be fixed by updating glib2:

% sudo rpm --force -Uvh gtk2-2.12.9-5.fc9.i386.rpm warning: waiting for transaction lock on /var/lib/rpm/__db.000 Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:gtk2 ########################################### [100%] g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-tiff.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-tiff.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/svg_loader.so: /usr/lib/libORBit-2.so.0: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-gif.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-gif.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-bmp.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-bmp.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-ani.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-ani.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-xpm.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-xpm.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message g_module_open() failed for /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-ico.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-ico.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr Cannot load module /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-multipress.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-multipress.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-multipress.so does not export GTK+ IM module API: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-multipress.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr Cannot load module /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-xim.so: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-xim.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-xim.so does not export GTK+ IM module API: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules/im-xim.so: undefined symbol: g_assertion_message_expr error: %post(gtk2-2.12.9-5.fc9.i386) scriptlet failed, exit status 1 % sudo rpm -Uvh glib2-* glibc-*

These individual package updates might get you down to around eight hundred something packages. A lot of the remaining packages might be in package/package-devel or package/package-libs pairs, so you might try to run a second command to try and catch these groups:

# for i in `ls | cut -d- -f1 | uniq`; do rpm -Uvh $i-* && /bin/rm $i-* done

This might get you down to something around 600 packages.

Many of the remaining packages rely solely on libstdc++, which one can upgrade with:

% sudo rpm -Uvh libstdc++* gcc* cpp* *gcj* *gomp* glib-java* cairo-java* libgconf-java* libgtk-java* % sudo rm -flibstdc++* gcc* cpp* *gcj* *gomp* glib-java* cairo-java* libgconf-java* libgtk-java*

That and some combination of the above for loops should get you down to a lower number of packages—maybe around five hundred. Do the rest with yum — first uninstalling any packages that need removing:

yum clean all rpm -e ckermit transcode mysqlclient14 perl-Geo-IP cdecl dvdrip subtitleripper DVDRipOMatic mv/var/cache/yum/anaconda-upgrade/packages/*.rpm /var/cache/yum/fedora/packages/
yum -y upgrade

Pay attention, if possible, to which rpmnew/rpmsave files are created, and resolve any conflicts:

sudo mv /etc/inittab.rpmnew /etc/inittab

Reboot to get your system off of SysVInit and onto upstart, the new init. During the boot-up process, rebuilding selinux will take a long time.

Thunderbird fails to install properly

Thunderbird fails to update/upgrade/install properly. Luckily, this does not affect the successful completion of yum upgrade. Fix it by uninstalling and reinstalling it:

sudo yum -y remove thunderbird sudo yum -y install thunderbird

MadWIFI

Livna madwifi is removed during yum upgrade. You can get it again at:

wget http://livna-dl.reloumirrors.net/fedora/9/i386/kmod-madwifi-2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686-0.9.4-34.lvn9.i686.rpm http://livna-dl.reloumirrors.net/fedora/9/i386/kmod-madwifi-0.9.4-34.lvn9.i686.rpm http://livna-dl.reloumirrors.net/fedora/9/i386/madwifi-0.9.4-1.lvn9.i386.rpm
sudo rpm -Uvh *madwifi*.rpm
sudo /sbin/ifup Wireless

(replace Wireless with the name of your ifcfg device name)

TOR upgrade error

error: %postun(tor-lsb-0.1.2.17-1.fc8.i386) scriptlet failed, exit status 1

Upstart: Default init level changed to text only/no X11

The system boots into text only mode, because the default initlevel distributed with the upstart distribution is text only. To fix this on the existing session, run:

sudo /sbin/telinit 5

To fix it for future reboots, edit /etc/inittab and change the line:

id:3:initdefault:
to read:id:5:initdefault:

Compiz re-activates top right hot corner

The compiz scale plugin somehow reactivated the top right hand hot corner which is especially annoying if your bolume control applet is in that corner.

Deactivate it by running gconf-editor and clearing the value of /apps/compiz/plugins/scale/allscreens/options/initiate_edge. If you had /apps/compiz/plugins/scale/allscreens/options/initiate_all_edge set up, you might have to change it back (e.g. to BottomLeft)

Xine movie playback colors too saturated

Videos played in Xine have their colors too bright and saturated by default. This problem appeared somewhere around the time Fedora 8 was released, and still exists in Fedora 9. The settings can probably be adjusted somewhere in Xine's complicated settings dialog, but you can also change the settings in totem (Sound & Video : Movie Player / Edit : Preferences : Display : Color Balance). The new settings get carried over the next time you run Xine.

Where did the trash go?

Trash is no longer located in $HOME/.Trash/ aka ~/.Trash/. It has been moved to $HOME/.local/share/Trash/files/

Firefox 3 Back and Forward buttons

The back and forward buttons in Firefox disappeared during the upgrade to Firefox 3. They can be retrieved by:

Right clicking on one of the other buttons (reload/stop/home) or in the menu (file/edit/view/etc
Select "Customize..."
Drag the back/forward buttons from the dialog that pops up onto the toolbar where you want them.

Firefox 3 Firebug extension

Firebug does have a firefox 3 version, but the upgrade isn't detected automatically. You have to go get it manually from addons.mozilla.org.

Firefox 3 Default Download Directory

The upgrade switches the download directory (e.g. from ~/Desktop to ~/Downloads or somesuch). If the Downloads directory doesn't exist, the downloads end up in your home directory. Fix the preference in Edit:Preferences

Xine volume starts out muted

Xine's volume is muted at startup, sometimes

British English Spelling Dictionary Issues

Firefox (and presumably other applications, under the new, combined spell check dictionaries) marks "colour" as okay (bad), "color" as okay (good!), but "neighborhoods" as misspelled (bad). My locale is set to en_US.UTF-8, so this shouldn't be happening. I figure this problem will "go away" with some future package updates.

Skype, Pulseaudio, outgoing audio quality

The old Skype 1 static OSS version, skype_static-1.4.0.118-oss, has some transient problems with microphone recording/sound in/audio input/outgoing audio when used with padsp. Microphone input is not working. The new version, skype-2.0.0.72-fc5.i586 supports pulseaudio output for the first time. However, if you have your "Sound In" option set to pulse, skype 2 causes the Xorg X Server process, the pulseaudio daemon and skype itself to consume a lot of CPU, which then causes outgoing voice to sound very digital — stuttering and crackling as if there were a lot of packet loss, even though the network is fine. PerfectSetup suggests editing /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, and howtoforge has a few suggestions as well, but the minimal change that works for me is changing the Sound In device in Skype options to the correct hw device for your microphone (not pulse, and not default). This causes CPU use to go down, and the audio to work properly.

CPU usage can be further reduced by turning off animated emoticons in Skype options.

Madwifi wireless card

When Fedora 9 (with Livna madwifi module) tries to set the wifi card to Ad-Hoc mode, either using system-config-network or /sbin/ifup Wireless or /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode ad-hoc, this error appears:

Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) : SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

The card is reported as 01:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01) with /sbin/lspci

The kernel version is Linux capella 2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686 #1 SMP Tue Jun 10 16:27:49 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

and the madwifi RPMs are:
madwifi-0.9.4-1.lvn9.i386 kmod-madwifi-2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686-0.9.4-34.lvn9.i686 kmod-madwifi-0.9.4-34.lvn9.i686

Now that DKMS is working again after a brief stint of being broken in Fedora 8, the problem can be fixed by removing the livna RPMs, installing the freshrpms madwifi module and rebooting.