Pidora 18 (Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix) Released!

Former Member over 12 years ago

Pidora 18 (Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix) Release

We're excited to announce the release of Pidora 18 --

an optimized Fedora Remix for the Raspberry Pi.

It is based on a brand new build of Fedora for the ARMv6

architecture with greater speed and includes packages

from the Fedora 18 package set.

* * *

There are some interesting new features we'd like to highlight:

* Almost all of the Fedora 18 package set available via yum

(thousands of packages were built from the official Fedora

repository and made available online)

* Compiled specifically to take advantage of the hardware already

built into the Raspberry Pi

* Graphical firstboot configuration (with additional modules

specifically made for the Raspberry Pi)

* Compact initial image size (for fast downloads) and auto-resize

(for maximum storage afterwards)

* Auto swap creation available to allow for larger memory usage

* C, Python, & Perl programming languages available & included

in the SD card image

* Initial release of headless mode can be used with setups

lacking a monitor or display

* IP address information can be read over the speakers and

flashed with the LED light

* For graphical operation, Gedit text editor can be used with

plugins (python console, file manager, syntax highlighting)

to serve as a mini-graphical IDE

* For console operation, easy-to-use text editors are included

(nled, nano, vi) plus Midnight Commander for file management

* Includes libraries capable of supporting external hardware

such as motors and robotics (via GPIO, I2C, SPI)

* * *

For further documentation, downloads, faq's, read-me's,

how-to's, tutorials, or videos:

http://pidora.ca/

* * *

Pidora 18 is a Fedora Remix -- a combination of software packages

from the Fedora Project with other software.

The Fedora Project is a global community of contributors working

to advance open source software. For more information or to join

the Fedora Project, see http://fedoraproject.org

Pidora is a project of the Seneca Centre for Development of Open

Technology (CDOT). To connect with CDOT, please visit

http://cdot.senecacollege.ca

The Raspberry Pi is a small, inexpensive computer board designed

to provoke curiosity and experimentation in programming and

computer electronics. For more information, see the Raspberry

Pi Foundation website at http://raspberrypi.org

* * *

- - -

The CDOT team at Seneca College

Parents

Former Member over 12 years ago

Andrew,
   Thanks for showing up in this forum to make the announcement!

   Can you tell us if this release fixes the firmware problem that
prevented the previous F18 release from working with Hynix memory?
http://trac.proximity.on.ca/projects/rpfr/ticket/161
https://fedorahosted.org/arm/ticket/65

Will there be release notes showing what problem reports have been closed?

   Can you tell us if there are any plans to maintain this release,
unlike the F14, F17, and F18 releases?

   Can you tell us if there are any plans to consolidate your two
bug tracking systems into a single system (and remove the spam)?
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Coder27,

The current firmware we are using is Version 20130415git1c339b1, this is the firmware that was last committed on May 14th.

More information will be posted on pidora.ca or the pidora wiki when available. We will be maintaining this release.

Bug tracking should be done with, as stated by the pidora wiki: http://trac.proximity.on.ca/projects/rpfr/

The current process for tracking bugs will be updated in the wiki: http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_18_Bug_Tracking
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
Yay, we're making some progress!

You say
>> I can't even find Pidora mentioned with the other releases at:
>> http://scotland.proximity.on.ca/raspberrypi/raspberrypi-fedora-remix/ Should not be there.
>Should be found at http://pidora.ca/

This isn't a big deal, but I don't see why Pidora should have less
visibility than the other Fedora RPi Remixes.

You say the F18 soft-float release notes are fixed at:
http://scotland.proximity.on.ca/raspberrypi/raspberrypi-fedora-remix/18/images/RaspberryPi-Fedora-Remix-18-Release-Notes.txt
but I don't see any corrections.

The new Pidora release notes at:
http://pidora.ca/pidora/releases/18/release-notes.txt
still fail to say what problem reports have been fixed.
The problem most anxiously awaited is the Hynix RAM
problem:
http://trac.proximity.on.ca/projects/rpfr/ticket/161
https://fedorahosted.org/arm/ticket/65
but I don't see any mention of it.

Please add the kernel patch date to the release notes if possible.
Edited to add: believed to be 3.6.11-5.20130415git197d15b
http://japan.proximity.on.ca/koji/buildinfo?buildID=40348

"Model A has been redesigned to have 256Mb RAM"
This should be MB (bytes not bits) as indicated above.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
You wrote:
>Related to making windows faster using the GPU, you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(display_server_protocol). I believe they have released support for the raspberry pi as well.

This doesn't address my question. I was specifically asking about X11 acceleration using the GPU,
which I don't think Wayland does. Wayland isn't a direct replacement for X11, so an X11 application
would be running on top of X11 which would be running on top of Wayland, which would be no faster
than before at drawing the contents of windows, although moving windows around on the display
would presumably be faster.

Can you give us a clear statement about whether work or planned work on X11 acceleration using the
GPU as described in the wiki has been abandoned?

Edited to add:

Today we saw examples of unclear statements on X11 GPU acceleration plans from RPF moderator Davespice,
who wrote:
"(ottd is a bit slow though since it runs under the X desktop for which there are no GPU drivers for the Pi yet)"
and
"Not all software on the Pi makes use of the GPU though, for example the X desktop. This is all being drawn by the main ARM CPU which is why web browsing is so slow. It is hoped that X GPU drivers for the Pi will be released at some point whereupon the X desktop responsiveness will be as good as one would expect."

on this thread:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=44663

On October 24, 2012 we were told by Alex Bradbury:
"There’s still the problem of optimising client-side rendering of each window. Simon Hall has done some interesting work on XOrg that we’re working with him to package up."
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2221#comment-34969

But on May 24, 2013 Eben told us:
"We’ve made the decision to bypass X completely."
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4053
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Coder27,

>This isn't a big deal, but I don't see why Pidora should have less
>visibility than the other Fedora RPi Remixes.

The idea is that by using pidora.ca, it will get more visibility

>The new Pidora release notes at:
> http://pidora.ca/pidora/releases/18/release-notes.txt
>still fail to say what problem reports have been fixed.
>The problem most anxiously awaited is the Hynix RAM
>problem:

We will be looking into what is left to get working.

More information and corrections are still to come. A lot of your questions might also be better directed in IRC freenode #seneca, some of the arm ones in #fedora-arm. Don't mean to turn you away, but unfortunately I cannot give answers to most of them.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
I prefer to use this forum to ask RPi related questions, where the answers are
visible to others here. We have been carefully tracking Fedora's progress here
and puzzling about its silence for an entire year:

http://www.element14.com/community/thread/18095?tstart=0

It's wonderful that someone finally has come to respond, even to a limited extent.
This forum is wide open for Seneca to publicize what it's doing.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
The Pidora installation instructions say:
"Do not use a MicroSD card with an adapter -- it will not be recognized by the Raspberry Pi."
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_Installation

I think this bug has been fixed for a while now.

The Pidora administration instructions at:
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora#System_Administration:_Managing_the_Raspberry_Pi_Fedora_Remix
mistakenly refer to:
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Raspberry_Pi_Fedora_Remix_Administration
rather than
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_Administration

The Pidora FAQ says:
"It includes some software which cannot be included in Fedora because it is not licensed under any of the licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative."
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_FAQ#What_is_Pidora.3F

I don't think this is true. The ARM-based code has been opensourced, and
I believe Fedora policy allows the RPi's firmware to be proprietary.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:Main#Binary_Firmware

The Pidora "getting help" instructions neglect to mention the active
RPi community at element14, and also neglect to mention any OSTEP
resources (blogs, mailing lists, meeting minutes).
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora#Getting_Help

The main purpose of Pidora is to enable hard-float, in order to make floating point
operations faster, but the word "float" or "floating point" does not appear
anywhere in the Pidora Announcement nor Pidora Release Notes.

The Pidora Release Notes should make clear that the firmware is actually
dated May 15, even though is named "0415", which would be April 15.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
Are there plans to publicize OSTEP?
I notice that it is not included by name in the "projects" panel on the
left side of the CDOT main page at:
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

The OSTEP page at:
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Category:OSTEP
neglects to include a link to the OSTEP meeting minutes at:
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Category:OSTEP_Meeting

And Chris Tyler's OSTEP blog post at
http://blog.chris.tylers.info/index.php?/archives/268-The-OSTEP-Team.html
doesn't link to the OSTEP page (or vice versa).
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Coder27,

>The Pidora installation instructions say:
>"Do not use a MicroSD card with an adapter -- it will not be recognized by the Raspberry Pi."
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_Installation
>
>I think this bug has been fixed for a while now.

You are correct, this bug is fixed. Changes made.

>The Pidora administration instructions at:
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora#System_Administration:_Managing_the_Raspberry_Pi_Fedora_Remix
>mistakenly refer to:
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Raspberry_Pi_Fedora_Remix_Administration
>rather than
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_Administration

Fixed.

>The Pidora FAQ says:
>"It includes some software which cannot be included in Fedora because it is not licensed under any of the licenses >approved by the Open Source Initiative."
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_FAQ#What_is_Pidora.3F

>I don't think this is true. The ARM-based code has been opensourced, and
>I believe Fedora policy allows the RPi's firmware to be proprietary.
>https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:Main#Binary_Firmware

Yes, Fedora does allow the firmware. Changes made.

>The Pidora "getting help" instructions neglect to mention the active
>RPi community at element14, and also neglect to mention any OSTEP
>resources (blogs, mailing lists, meeting minutes).
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora#Getting_Help

Looking into this. Will get some of this done soon.

>The Pidora Release Notes should make clear that the firmware is actually
>dated May 15, even though is named "0415", which would be April 15.

Fixed in release notes.

>Are there plans to publicize OSTEP?
>I notice that it is not included by name in the "projects" panel on the
>left side of the CDOT main page at:
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Pidora was added to projects, will have to look into plans for OSTEP. Changes are taking place.

>The OSTEP page at:
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Category:OSTEP
>neglects to include a link to the OSTEP meeting minutes at:
>http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Category:OSTEP_Meeting

Good point. Changed.

>And Chris Tyler's OSTEP blog post at
>http://blog.chris.tylers.info/index.php?/archives/268-The-OSTEP-Team.html
>doesn't link to the OSTEP page (or vice versa).

I'll look into this.

Thanks again for the help.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
Good job! Thanks.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Andrew,
    The Pidora FAQ still has an obsolete reference (that I didn't originally point out) to
"proprietary" software that can't be included in Fedora:

"In the case of the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, the proprietary software provided by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the SOC vendor Broadcom cannot be included directly in Fedora."
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_FAQ#What_does_the_term_.22Fedora_Remix.22_mean.3F

I think the sticking point now is that the RPi software although no longer proprietary,
is not suitable for inclusion in Fedora due to for example the nonstandard use of FIQ
in the USB driver.

Edited to add:
The Pidora wiki at:
   http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora#Helping_with_the_Remix
says: To learn why this is a Remix and not a direct Fedora release, please see the FAQ.
but should say "see the Pidora FAQ" at:
   http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/Pidora_FAQ
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

The Register has an article on Pidora at
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/27/fedora_pidora_linux_for_raspberry_pi/

Unfortunately, it quotes two of the misconceptions I've been suggesting be fixed:

     The use of the term “remix” is important because the Fedora folk point out it denotes the release includes “proprietary software provided by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the SOC vendor Broadcom cannot be included directly in Fedora.”

     There's also a headless mode that may appeal because the FAQ for the new OS points out: “The GUI in particular is slow, because the 2D graphics (the X Window System) are not yet connected to the 3D graphics processing unit on the SOC.”
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

The Register has an article on Pidora at
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/27/fedora_pidora_linux_for_raspberry_pi/

Unfortunately, it quotes two of the misconceptions I've been suggesting be fixed:

     The use of the term “remix” is important because the Fedora folk point out it denotes the release includes “proprietary software provided by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the SOC vendor Broadcom cannot be included directly in Fedora.”

     There's also a headless mode that may appeal because the FAQ for the new OS points out: “The GUI in particular is slow, because the 2D graphics (the X Window System) are not yet connected to the 3D graphics processing unit on the SOC.”
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