Common F15 bugs

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This page documents common bugs in Fedora 15 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.

Release Notes

Read the Fedora 15 announcement and the Fedora 15 release notes for specific information about changes in Fedora 15: 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. Please follow the style and guidelines explained in the comments in the page source.
• Or, add the CommonBugs keyword to the bug report. Someone from the QA team will then inspect the issue to determine whether the bug should be listed as a common bug. To expedite your request, please add a comment to the bug that includes
  1. a summary of the problem
  2. any known workarounds
  3. an assessment on the impact to Fedora users

For reference, you can query Bugzilla for bugs tagged CommonBugs:

• CommonBugs? (bugs with CommonBugs keyword, but do not yet have a link to this page)
• CommonBugs+ (bugs with CommonBugs keyword and contain a link to this page)

Resolved issues

System fan runs constantly on laptops with Intel integrated graphics

link to this item - Bugzilla: #703511

On some laptops with Intel integrated graphics, a bug in the intel_ips kernel module may cause the system load to appear permanently high, resulting in the system fan running constantly at high speed. The system load reading is in error, so the system is not in any danger of temperature-related damage, but the constant fan noise may be annoying.

This issue was fixed in the updated kernel-2.6.38.6-27.fc15 package. To solve the issue, update your Fedora 15 installation as usual and reboot. You should no longer encounter this issue after updating to that version or later of kernel.

Installation issues

Unable to retrieve FTP repodata

link to this item - Bugzilla: #679709

Due to a bug in the installer, when adding FTP-based package repositories during installation, the installer may report a failure while attempting to access FTP-based repository. No fix is available at this time. To workaround the problem, users are advised to first add an HTTP-based package repository URL (such as http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/15/Fedora/x86_64/os). Once added, you may edit the newly created package repository, and change the repository URL to the desired FTP-based repository URL.

For additional guidance on installation package repositories, consult the installation guide.

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'rfind

link to this item - Bugzilla: #706542

There is a known failure that may occur while partitioning your system during installation. A manual workaround may be required if you encounter a failure similar to

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'rfind'

The problem will be fixed in future releases of Fedora, and an updates.img is available to resolve this issue for Fedora 15. For additional guidance on using an updates.img, consult Anaconda/Updates.

Installation failure when using ksdevice=bootif without bootif=

link to this item - Bugzilla: #704188

When installing Fedora 15 while using the boot argument ksdevice=bootif, the installer will fail abnormally if no BOOTIF= value is provided by the PXE server. Future versions of Fedora will not exhibit this failure. In the meantime, ensure your PXE server is making proper use of the IPAPPEND configuration variable. This variable controls what networking arguments are passed to the kernel, and is typically responsible for providing a BOOTIF= value.

For additional guidance, consult the syslinux IPAPPEND documentation.

Installation requires more memory

#installer-requires-more-memory link to this item - Bugzilla: #682555

The installer in Fedora 15 has undergone some changes in Fedora 15, a side effect of which it may require more than 512 MB and upto 768 MB may be required to finish the installation. 1 GB is recommended. A number of changes are being done in the installer to reduce this requirement but the amount of changes are too intrusive and hence won't be done in the Fedora 15 branch. Installer team is working on lowering memory requirements again for Fedora 16.

repomd.xml file reported missing or broken

link to this item - Bugzilla: #703025

When adding Fedora 15 to a PXE server and using a PXE boot menu to upgrade, the installer will complain about a bad or missing repomd.xml file. This happens when the PXE upgraded machine has no internet connectivity (for example because it is crosscabled to a PXE server). You can hit the "edit" button, and then fix the url to your local http server (usually running on the PXE server). Then you will hit the same issue again, as the installer also searches for the "updates testing" repo. Just point it with url to the same "base" f15 repo on your PXE/http server. Don't forget to unselect the "is mirror URL" tickbox.

Unclear how to reboot after installing from desktop live image

link to this item - Bugzilla: #705189

If you install Fedora 15 from the 'desktop' - GNOME 3 - live image, when the final screen of the installer prompts you to reboot your system, you may find yourself asking 'yes, but how?' The GNOME 3 interface does not offer shutdown or reboot options at first glance. To shut down or reboot, you can either log out from the User menu (top right hand corner of the screen) and then shut down or reboot from the login screen, or open the User menu and then hold down the 'alt' key: the Suspend entry will turn into a Power off... entry as long as the 'alt' key is held down, which when clicked will give you the option to shut down or reboot.

Systems using EFI BIOS are unsupported

link to this item - Bugzilla: #717605

Many systems using EFI (Extended Firmware Interface) do not work with Fedora 15 due to bugs in their EFI implementations. Either disable EFI in the system BIOS settings or boot the system with the "noefi" option. Note that some systems may simply hang at boot time without any error message.

Issues when upgrading from previous releases

Service not enabled after upgrading from Fedora 14

link to this item - Bugzilla: #703234, #703221, #703227, #703230, #703236, #703235, #703233, #703232

In Fedora 15, upstart has been replaced by a service called systemd. Due to improper rpm package upgrade scripts, some system services previously enabled in Fedora 14, may not be enabled after upgrading to Fedora 15. To determine if a service is impacted, run the systemctl status command as shown below.

# systemctl is-enabled foo.service && echo "Enabled on boot" || echo "Disabled on boot"

To enable a service on boot, run the following systemctl command (where foo is replaced with the name of the service):

# systemctl enable foo.service

Corrected packages may be available in the Fedora 15 updates repository. Depending on how you upgrade your Fedora 14 system (DVD-upgrade, or network upgrade), if the updates repository is included, packages with corrected upgrade scripts will be included and properly transfer your Fedora 14 service configuration to Fedora 15.

Graphical login does not start after upgrade

link to this item - Bugzilla: #698654

Depending on how Fedora 14 was initially installed, your system may not select the appropriate systemd boot target after upgrading to Fedora 15. The problem is caused by the %postinstall rpm script from the Fedora 14 package systemd-units. Since systemd isn't the default in Fedora 14, the problem will not manifest until you upgrade to Fedora 15.

If you change the Fedora 14 default runlevel at any time by modifying the file /etc/inittab, those changes will not affect the configured systemd default target. After upgrade, you may need to manually adjust the configured systemd default target links using the following procedure.

To configure systemd to start a graphical login menu on boot (similar to runlevel 5 in Fedora 14):

# ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target
# ln -sf graphical.target /lib/systemd/system/default.target

To configure systemd to start a text login prompt on boot (similar to runlevel 3 in Fedora 14):

# ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/runlevel3.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target
# ln -sf runlevel3.target /lib/systemd/system/default.target

USB 3.0 ports not working anymore after upgrade from F14

link to this item

If The USB 3.0 ports have been enabled in F14 using the guide in Common F14 bugs, USB 3.0 may not be working anymore after the upgrade to F15.

To enable the ports again, revert the changes made for F14: Remove the kernel parameter xhci.enable=1 (or xhci_hcd.enable=1) and remove the file /etc/pm/config.d/xhci, if existing.

Hardware issues

Poor transfer speeds with Atheros-based wireless chipsets

link to this item - Bugzilla: #702722

Several users have reported very slow transfers with Atheros-based wireless network adapters using the ath9k driver. It seems to be possible in many cases to work around this issue by creating a file named /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf with the contents:

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

This disables the use of hardware encryption; it will result in slightly higher CPU usage as the system CPU will be used to handle encryption of the wireless connection.

Software issues

Add-ons (extensions) disappear after update to Firefox 7.0

link to this item - Mozilla: #680802

Firefox 7.0 contains a bug which means that any add-on (extension) that has a pending update (automatically downloaded, but not yet installed) when Firefox is updated to 7.0 will apparently disappear from Firefox.

This issue will be resolved in Firefox 7.0.1, which should arrive as an update shortly. In the meantime, you can try installing this extension as a workaround: it should cause the 'missing' add-ons to return.

Live USB overlay (persistent storage) not mounted on boot

link to this item - Bugzilla: #706122

Due to a defect in dracut, overlay (persistent storage) is not properly mounted on boot. An updated dracut-009-11.fc15 is available to resolve the issue, however this update will not correct existing Fedora 15 live images.

To temporarily workaround this problem with Fedora 15 live media...

1. When booting live media, press [Tab] at the bootloader screen
2. Add the following boot arguments

   rd.break=pre-trigger

3. When the boot process stops and presents a shell prompt, type the following commands

    mkdir /overlayfs ; exit 

4. When the boot process stops again and presents a shell prompt, type the following command

   exit 

For a permanent fix, you may rebuild the Fedora 15 live media to include the updated dracut package following instructions at How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD.

General buggy or missing functions in GNOME Shell network applet

link to this item

GNOME Shell features an integrated NetworkManager configuration interface, provided by an applet in the top panel and a configuration interface in System Settings. However, as of Fedora 15 Beta, these tools have not yet achieved feature parity with the configuration interface from GNOME 2, provided by the old nm-applet. Some features are still missing and there are known bugs with others. Major ones will be listed individually here, but as a general principle, if you encounter problems or missing features trying to configure your network using the GNOME 3 applet and System Settings interface, you can run the standalone nm-connection-editor tool, which makes all the operations not yet implemented in the GNOME 3 interface available. You can launch nm-connection-editor from a console, from the alt-f2 Run dialog, or from the overview (type nm-connection-editor or search for an entry named Network Connections).

GNOME 3's fallback mode uses the old nm-applet, and is not subject to this issue.

Laptop screen dims when switching to battery power or idle mode but never brightens again

link to this item - GNOME Bugzilla: #650405

Due to a bug in the screen brightness control logic in gnome-power-manager, laptop screens will dim as expected when switching from mains to battery power and dim further when the system is idle in battery mode, but will never brighten again when the system is no longer idle, or when you connect back to the mains. Eventually the screen will end up at its lowest possible brightness and be stuck there.

The only workaround is to disable screen dimming via the control center, or to manually reset the brightness to 100% via the keyboard (if you have brightness keys) or the control center every so often.

An updated gnome-power-manager package has been submitted to the updates-testing repository for testing. Users experiencing this problem are encouraged to test this update and report to Bodhi whether it solves the problem. To test the update, run this command:

su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update gnome-power-manager'

System memory in use rises constantly (memory leak) when using GNOME Shell

link to this item - Bugzilla: #672117

Some users have noticed memory leaks in GNOME Shell; that is, when Shell is running, the system memory in use by the gnome-shell process rises constantly. The severity of the leak can vary from system to system, but it usually starts out using around 60-70MB of system memory, and rises to over 200MB after a day or two. To work around the problem, simply restart the Shell when its memory usage gets too high: run killall gnome-shell, or from the Run dialog - triggered by the key combination alt-f2 - simply type the single letter r and hit enter.

Cannot log in to GNOME 3 with Iranian (fa_IR) locale selected

link to this item - Bugzilla: #703060

A bug in GNOME Shell makes log in to that environment fail if the fa_IR (Iranian) locale is selected as the system locale. Various errors related to Argument 'text' (type utf8) may not be null will be present in the ~/.xsession-errors file.

You can work around the issue by using a different locale, or by removing these lines from the file /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/environment.js:

    Date.prototype.toLocaleFormat = function(format) {
        return Shell.util_format_date(format, this.getTime());
    };

Cannot select language or keyboard layout at login screen

link to this item - Bugzilla: #681750

In previous Fedora releases, the login screen (when using the gdm login manager, as is the default from a network, DVD or desktop live image install) had menus for selecting the language and keyboard layout to be used in the session. In Fedora 15, these menus are removed from gdm. To set the system language and keyboard layout you will need to open the User menu (at the top right hand corner of the screen), click on System Settings, and then click on Region and Language in the window that opens up.

"could not add package update for fedora-release-rawhide-15-3(noarch)updates: fedora-release-rawhide-15-3.noarch"

link to this item - Bugzilla: #716752

A bug in PackageKit (which does not affect updating via yum on the command line) prevents easily updating to fedora-release-15-3. Other updates can still be applied using PackageKit if the update for fedora-release-15-3 is unchecked first. To update fedora-release-15-3 itself using PackageKit, first click on the + sign next to "fedora-release-15-3 (noarch)" to see both of the associated package updates (fedora-release-15-3 and fedora-release-rawhide-15-3), then uncheck fedora-release-rawhide-15-3, then click "Install Updates". It asks to confirm removing "Rawhide repo definitions". Click "Continue" and it will then work. (Note that the fedora-release-rawhide package is only needed in order to upgrade to Rawhide, and can still be installed manually for this purpose.)