Architectures/ARM/Fedora 17 GA

Fedora 17 ARM GA

We are pleased to announce the general availability (GA) of Fedora 17/ARM. Installable images, kernels, and tar files are now available for download from:

http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/17/Images/

What is included in the GA release?

The GA release includes prebuilt images for Versatile Express (QEMU), Trimslice, Beagleboard xM, Pandaboard, Kirkwood Plugs, Highbank and iMX based hardware platforms. Prebuilt images with kernels that can be written directly to SD Card, USB, or SATA drive and booted without any additional steps or configuration. Additionally, separate kernels and tar balls are provided for those who wish to roll their own images.

Featured Images

Below is a list of currently supplied prebuilt images for the Fedora 17 ARM GA release.

File	Media	Targets	Notes
arm armhfp	tar.xz	arm - armv5tel armhfp - armv7hl	This is a simple tarball of a Fedora 17 root filesystem without any kernels or X packages installed. Boots to a getty login prompt, typically on a serial port. Requires a separate kernel.
arm armhfp	tar.xz	arm - armv5tel armhfp - armv7hl	This is a simple tarball of a Fedora 17 root filesystem without any kernels, but with the full XFCE package set installed. Boots to an X login prompt. Requires a separate kernel with frame buffer support.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Trimslice Bare/Value Pro/H/H250 (Tegra)	This is a Fedora 17 Hard Float Trimslice Image suitable for writing to an SD card and placed in the Trimslice's Full Size SD slot (Front slot) and booting without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/mmcblkX, and you're ready to go. Boots to a serial console.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	USB SATA	Trimslice Pro/H/H250 (Tegra)	This is a Fedora 17 Hard Float Trimslice Image suitable for writing to a Trimslice's internal SSD or Hard Drive and booting without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/sdX, and you're ready to go. When using the internal SSD as your installation target, you may need to first boot with the SD image, then copy the SATA image to the SSD. Boots to a serial console.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	Native SATA	Highbank (Calxeda)	This is a Fedora 17 Hard Float Trimslice Image suitable for writing to a Highbank system's SATA or SSD Drive and booting without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/sdX, and you're ready to go. Boots to a "serial" console.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Pandaboard+XFCE (OMAP)	This is a Fedora 17 Hard Float Pandaboard+XFCE Image suitable for writing to an SD card and booting without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/mmcblkX, put in the device, and you're ready to go. Boots to a full XFCE environment with login GUI.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Pandaboard Console (OMAP)	This is the Fedora 17 Hard Float Pandaboard Image suitable for writing to an SD card and booting without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/mmcblkX, put in the device, and you're ready to go. Boots to a serial console.
HardFP Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel SoftFP Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Beagleboard xM Hard & Soft Float (OMAP)	These are Fedora 17 Hard and Soft Float Beagleboard xM Images suitable for writing to an SD card and booting without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/mmcblkX, put in the device, and you're ready to go. Boots to a serial console.
HardFP Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel SoftFP Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Versatile Express Console (Qemu)	These are the Fedora 17 Hard and Soft Float Versatile Express Images suitable for booting with qemu-system-arm without further modification. Requires an external kernel and initrd with a good qemu-system-arm command line; all of which is provided in the boot directory of the kernel file link (or you can extract the files from the main image). Use the included boot-vexpress script to boot to a serial console.
HardFP Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel SoftFP Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Versatile Express+XFCE (Qemu)	These are the Fedora 17 Hard and Soft Float Versatile Express + XFCE Images suitable for booting with qemu-system-arm without further modification. Requires an external kernel and initrd with a good qemu-system-arm command line; all of which is provided in the boot directory of the kernel file link (or you can extract the files from the main image). Use the included boot-vexpress+x script to boot to a full XFCE login GUI.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	iMX	This is a Fedora 17 Hard Float iMX Image suitable for writing to an SD card and booting on devices like the Efika Smarttop without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/mmcblkX, put in the device, and you're ready to go. Boots to a serial console. This kernel does *not* provide a framebuffer or work with X.
Image+Kernel Optional-Kernel	SD Card	Sheevaplug, Guruplug, Dreamplug (Kirkwood)	This is a Fedora 17 Soft Float Kirkwood Image suitable for writing to an SD card and booting on devices such as the GuruPlug, SheevaPlug, and DreamPlug Computers without further modification. Write with xzcat file.xz > /dev/mmcblkX, put in the device, and boot by hand. Boots to a serial console. Suggested u-boot commands: USB Boot: fatload usb 0 0x6400000 uImage-kirkwood; fatload usb 0 0x7400000 uInitrd-kirkwood; bootm 0x6400000 0x7400000 SD Boot: fatload mmc 0 0x6400000 uImage-kirkwood; fatload mmc 0 0x7400000 uInitrd-kirkwood; bootm 0x6400000 0x7400000
Nightlies	SD Card	Raspberry Pi	Raspberry Pi support is not included in Fedora 17 GA because it does not meet the Fedora release guidelines. Specifically, the Raspberry Pi relies upon a custom kernel version, not upstream, as well as special GPU binary blobs which are not acceptable under the current firmware exception. Nonetheless, an unsupported "nightly" Fedora 17 snapshot is available on the linked page. Likewise, an official Fedora 17 Raspberry Pi Remix will be available shortly and announced separately.

Known Issues

• Yum requires the system time be correct for HTTPS to function. If yum updates are not working check your clock.
• Genesi Efika MX SmartTop generates a kernel warning on reboot and requires use of the reset button to actually reboot.
• Versatile Express images require the kernel parameter 'physmap.enabled=0' be passed to boot correctly. This is included in the boot-vexpress and boot-vexpress+x scripts.
• BeagleBoard-xM generates a kernel warning on reboot and requires use of the reset button to actually reboot.
• The tar.xz rootfs archives do not preserve SELinux information or file capabilities. If you use these to create your own filesystem image it is recommended that you switch SELinux to use warnings instead of enforcing for first boot, then relabel and reinstall packages that rely upon filesystem capabilities such as glibc-common and ping.
• Images are designed to be written to 2GB (console) or 4GB (xfce) SD cards. On first boot the partition will be resized to the maximum allowable amount. On the second boot the filesystem will be resized to fill the expanded partition. This works for SD cards, SATA Disks, and SSD drives.
• Known release issues

Contributing to Fedora ARM

Please join us on the IRC in #fedora-arm on Freenode or on our mailing list arm@lists.fedoraproject.org. For more information on common and known bugs or tips on how to report bugs please refer to the release notes:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/

There are many ways to contribute beyond bug reporting. You can help translate software and content, test and give feedback on software updates, write and edit documentation, help with all sorts of promotional activities, and package free software for use by millions of Fedora users worldwide. To get started, visit http://join.fedoraproject.org today!