Common F12 bugs

This page documents common bugs in Fedora 12 and, if available, fixes or workarounds for these problems. If you find your problem in this page, do not file a bug for it, unless otherwise instructed. Where appropriate, a reference to the current bug(s) in Bugzilla is included.

Fedora 12 has not yet been released. During this pre-release period, this page will cover known issues in the Fedora 12 pre-releases. Issues that are fixed will be removed from the page once a fix is available (for instance, an issue that affects the Beta but is fixed in the final release will be removed at the time of that release).

Release Summary, Announcement and Notes

Read the F12 Beta Announcement and the draft Fedora 12 release notes for specific information about changes in Fedora 12: known issues, and other general information.

My bug is not listed

Not every bug is listed in this page, but Bugzilla should be a comprehensive database of known bugs. This page is a sampling of the bugs most commonly discussed on our mailing lists and forums.

To see if your bug has already been reported, you can search Bugzilla. If it has not yet been reported, we encourage you to do so to help improve Fedora for yourself and others. A guide to Bugs and feature requests has been prepared to assist you.

If you believe an already-reported bug report should be added to this page because it is commonly encountered, you can:

• Add it yourself, if you have wiki access. Remember to try and follow the style and guidelines explained in the comments in the page source.
• Add the CommonBugs keyword to the bug report, and contact the Fedora QA team with the Bugzilla report number explaining why you believe that particular report qualifies as a common issue. You can contact Fedora QA through any of the methods listed here.

Issues when upgrading from previous releases

As usual, the supported methods for upgrading from previous Fedora releases are to do an 'upgrade install' from the regular installation media, or to use preupgrade (see How_to_use_PreUpgrade). Upgrading by using yum directly is not supported, but may in practice work. For known issues when upgrading via yum, see the page on this upgrade method.

Installation issues

/boot must be a minimum of 500 MB

link to this item - Bugzilla: #510970

If you use a separate /boot partition, it is highly recommended that it be at least 500MB in size.

Installation or upgrade fails with traceback in getDefaultTimeZone

link to this item - Bugzilla: #528317

Due to a bug in the installer, there is a known failure when installing or upgrading with certain location settings. The problem occurs with any locale not listed in the fourth column of this table. Commonly affected locales include Australia, the United Kingdom and any other non-US English locale, When upgrading a system set to any such locale from a previous release of Fedora to Fedora 12 Beta, or when installing from a live edition of Fedora 12 Beta having selected such a locale at login time, the installation will fail with a traceback in getDefaultTimeZone. We are working to fix this bug for the final release of Fedora 12. To work around it, if installing from the live CD, stick with the default US locale (or any other working locale per the table) when installing. If upgrading, change the system locale to en_US.UTF-8 (or any other working locale per the table) prior to the upgrade.

First boot wizard unusable (buttons invisible) on some multiple display configurations

link to this item - Bugzilla: #526836

The first boot wizard - which runs on the first boot of a newly-installed system to display license information, handle user creation and offer to submit hardware information to the Smolt database - does not display consistently on multiple display configurations in Fedora 12 Beta. On some configurations, the wizard may be usable but stretched across all connected monitors. On others, it may be restricted to one monitor only. In the worst case, the wizard will display in such a way that the buttons needed to progress through the steps (which should be shown at the bottom-right hand corner) are invisible, being rendered outside the boundaries of all connected monitors.

This issue has been fixed in a later version of the firstboot package, but the fix was too late to be included in the Beta. It will be included in the final release. If you encounter this bug in the Beta, there are two main possible workarounds. You can either use the tab and enter keys to activate the buttons without seeing them, or reboot the system with only one monitor connected to work through the first boot wizard, then reboot again with all monitors connected once you have made it through the wizard.

In rare cases, you may encounter this bug on a system with only one display, when it intersects with an X.org driver bug which causes your system to believe extra displays are connected when in fact they aren't. In this case, you can use the tab/enter workaround described above, or boot to runlevel 3 by adding the number 3 as a kernel parameter. This will cause a text configuration wizard to be displayed instead of the graphical firstboot wizard. If you have not yet created a user account, you should do so from this wizard. Then you can reboot as normal. If you find yourself in this situation, please file a bug on the phantom extra display problem, following these instructions.

First boot wizard does not prompt you to upload hardware information to Smolt

link to this item

Due to a bug, the first boot wizard module which should ask you to upload the system hardware information to Smolt fails to run, so this step of the first boot wizard is never seen in Fedora 12 Beta. This has no other consequences, the rest of the first boot wizard and the booted system will work as normal. This issue will be resolved in the final release of Fedora 12.

First boot after installation fails on Apple Mac PowerPC systems

link to this item - Bugzilla: #529035

After a standard installation on an Apple Mac PowerPC system, booting the system fails with the message Unknown or corrupt filesystem. This is due to the installer (Anaconda) failing to ensure the hfsutils package is installed on such systems.

To workaround this issue, use the manual package selection option during installation and ensure that the hfsutils package is selected for installation. Due to hfsutils not being on the DVD media, you will need to either do a network install, or configure the rawhide repository as an additional installation source to select the package.

This issue should be resolved in the final release of Fedora 12.

CD tray problems or slow boot after installation from live CD

link to this item - Bugzilla: #527781

In an installation from a live CD, the anaconda package is installed on the system. It includes some custom udev rules in the file /lib/udev/rules.d/70-anaconda.rules. These rules have been reported to cause various problems, ranging from CD trays closing again right after ejecting a CD or boot hanging in udev for more a long time.

If your system shows these symptoms, you can simply remove the anaconda package.

Hardware-related issues

Miscellaneous problems with Intel graphics adapters

link to this item

If you are suffering from problems with an Intel graphics adapter such as failure of X to start at all, hangs or freezes or crashes in the graphical environment, display corruption, failure of 3D accelerated applications to work properly or similar problems, and your issue is not specifically covered elsewhere on this page, the following general advice may be of use.

Several such issues may be worked around by disabling kernel mode setting. To do this, add

nomodeset

as a kernel parameter. If this solves your problem, please check whether a bug has already been reported for it, and if not, file a new bug report on the xorg-x11-drv-intel component, explaining your symptoms, and providing all the usual information required for X.org bug reports. In future kernel mode setting will be the only available method, and so we wish to ensure all problems caused by kernel mode setting are fixed.

If this does not resolve your issue, one other potential workaround is to change to a different acceleration method. To do this, add a line:

Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"

or:

Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

to the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If that file does not exist, see How_to_create_xorg.conf for instructions on how to create it. Again, if doing this works around the problem you are experiencing, please check whether a bug report on the problem has already been filed, and if not, please file a new bug report on the xorg-x11-drv-intel component, explaining your symptoms, and providing all the usual information required for X.org bug reports. These legacy acceleration methods will be removed in future, so any bugs in the new acceleration method (UXA) need to be fixed.

Miscellaneous problems with ATI / AMD graphics adapters

link to this item - Bugzilla: #498457

If you are experiencing failure to start the graphical desktop, hanging or freezing, corruption, or slow performance with an ATI / AMD graphics adapter, you may try the following.

Some issues may be worked around by disabling kernel mode setting. To do this, add

nomodeset

as a kernel parameter. If this solves your problem, please check whether a bug has already been reported for it, and if not, file a new bug report on the xorg-x11-drv-ati component, explaining your symptoms, and providing all the usual information required for X.org bug reports. In future kernel mode setting will be the only available method, and so we wish to ensure all problems caused by kernel mode setting are fixed.

If this does not resolve your issue, one other potential workaround is to change to a different acceleration method. To do this, add a line:

Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

to the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If that file does not exist, see How_to_create_xorg.conf for instructions on how to create it. Again, if doing this works around the problem you are experiencing, please check whether a bug report on the problem has already been filed, and if not, please file a new bug report on the xorg-x11-drv-ati component, explaining your symptoms, and providing all the usual information required for X.org bug reports. These legacy acceleration methods will be removed in future, so any bugs in the new acceleration method (EXA) need to be fixed.

If this does not resolve your issue, there is another configuration option to try. Add a line:

Option "AccelDFS" "off"

to the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If that file does not exist, see How_to_create_xorg.conf for instructions on how to create it. Again, if doing this works around the problem you are experiencing, please check whether a bug report on the problem has already been filed, and if not, please file a new bug report on the xorg-x11-drv-ati component, explaining your symptoms, and providing all the usual information required for X.org bug reports.

Finally, if this still does not resolve your issue, try adding this line:

Option "DRI" "off"

to the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Again, if doing this works around the problem you are experiencing, please check whether a bug report on the problem has already been filed, and if not, please file a new bug report on the xorg-x11-drv-ati component, explaining your symptoms, and providing all the usual information required for X.org bug reports.

Systems with ATI / AMD Radeon HD 2xxx and later graphics adapters on Intel motherboards unstable, hang after a short time

link to this item - Bugzilla: #528593

A bug in Fedora 12 beta causes systems with ATI / AMD Radeon graphics adapters based on r600+ chipsets (anything from the Radeon HD 2xxx series or later) and recent Intel chipset-based motherboards - a common combination - to hang after running for a short time. The cause of this problem has been identified and fixed. If you are experiencing this problem, adding the kernel parameter nomodeset should work around it. You can edit the kernel command line by pressing tab during the bootloader screen, then following the on-screen instructions to change the boot options. Then you can update to the latest Fedora 12 packages - just update the system as normal - and the issue should be resolved. The fix is present in any kernel versioned 2.6.31.5-112.fc12 or later. You should be able to reboot without the 'nomodeset' parameter and the hang should no longer happen.

Software issues

Encrypted disks can't be unencrypted for non-graphical boot

link to this item - Bugzilla: #530896

Due to an unidentified bug early in the boot cycle, some users are unable to decrypt disks at boot up when using a non graphical boot splash.

This issue can be worked around by booting with

rhgb vga=0x318

on the kernel command line (specified at grub time).

A workaround for the bug has been built into the plymouth package as a 0-day errata update (FEDORA-2009-11334). You may need to rebuild your initial ramdisk after applying the update on an installed Fedora 12 system by running the following command

/usr/libexec/plymouth/plymouth-update-initrd

Users doing fresh installs of Fedora 12 can prevent this issue from happening by ensuring they enable updates when doing the initial install. Users with graphical boot are not affected by this issue.

ALSA sequencer unavailable by default

link to this item - Bugzilla: #505421

Due to a misconfiguration, in Fedora 12 Beta, the snd-seq module - which provides the ALSA sequencer interface - is not loaded by default. This affects applications which use the sequencer, such as qjackctl - "Could not open ALSA sequencer as a client", "ALSA MIDI patchbay will not be available" - and tuxguitar.

To work around this problem, create a file with the following contents:

install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm && /sbin/modprobe snd-seq

and save it as /etc/modprobe.d/dist-alsa.conf. This issue should be resolved in the final release of Fedora 12.

Unable to login to GDM using network authentication

link to this item - Bugzilla: #527920

Fedora 12 Beta systems configured for a network authentication system (e.g. kerberos or ldap) may be unable to login using the GNOME Display Manager (GDM). Systems exhibiting this problem will not permit login for remote user accounts and may not offer a dialog to manually enter the remote username. A suggested workaround involves adding a temporary entry in /etc/passwd for affected users. One method to accomplish this is demonstrated below.

# getent passwd <username> >> /etc/passwd

NetworkManager applet crashes at each login

link to this item - Bugzilla: #529766

Fedora 12 Beta systems running GNOME with updates may experience a bug where the NetworkManager notification icon crashes the first time it tries to run (usually, when a user logs in). To work around this problem, just run nm-applet manually from a console or the GNOME Run dialog box: nm-applet --sm-disable.

This issue was fixed in the updated NetworkManager-0.7.996-5.git20091021.fc12 package set. To solve the issue, update your Fedora 12 Beta installation as usual. You should no longer encounter this issue after updating to that version or later of NetworkManager and related packages.

System does a disk check at every reboot because 'timestamp is in the future'

link to this item - Bugzilla: #522969

On Fedora 12 Beta systems where the system clock is set to local time rather than UTC, depending on the time zone, the system may decide on startup that the last access to a filesystem occurred in the future, and force a filesystem consistency check.

This issue was fixed in the updated e2fsprogs-1.41.9-5.fc12 package. To solve the issue, update your Fedora 12 Beta installation as usual. You should no longer encounter this issue after updating to that version or later of e2fsprogs.

Live boot attempts to access encrypted partitions and mdraid sets present on the system

link to this item - Bugzilla: #525877

Most Fedora 12 Beta live images will attempt to access any LUKS-encrypted partitions and/or mdraid sets found on the host system when booting. This is not expected behaviour for a live boot, which should leave the host system untouched unless specifically instructed otherwise. This behaviour will be changed in the final release, where live boots will not attempt to access these devices. If you are booting a Fedora 12 live image on a system with LUKS-encrypted partition(s) whose passphrases you do not know, you can enter a blank or incorrect passphrase to progress beyond this stage of the boot process. Obviously, the encrypted partition(s) will not be accessible in this case.

Adobe Reader fails to run

link to this item

We encourage Fedora users to use a free alternative to Adobe reader, such as Evince, whenever possible.

The latest release of Adobe Reader (AdobeReader_enu-9.2-1.i486) works in Fedora 12. Previous releases of Adobe Reader do not run by default on Fedora 12. To work around this problem, launch Adobe Reader with the following command:

GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1 acroread

Non-Fedora Mozilla/Firefox binaries may crash

There is a conflict between binary software downloaded from Mozilla and software included in Fedora which may lead to a crash, often seen when using Flash. See details and workarounds.

Missing printer drivers

link to this item - Bugzilla: #536831

The foomatic package is not installed by default. If you have a PostScript printer, or your printer requires an older driver such as one of the ghostscript built-in drivers, you may need to install this package. To install it, select System->Administration->Add/Remove Software from the main menu and search for "foomatic", or run this command from the command line:

yum install foomatic