Some performance criticisms of F25
by Michael Catanzaro
Hi,
Jiri found this review (among many) of Fedora 25:
http://www.hecticgeek.com/2016/12/fedora-25-review/
It includes a couple recommendations:
* We should restore systemd-readahead to speed boot time by ~30% for
users without SSDs. Endless has a downstream patch for this. Or we
could use Ubuntu's readahead utility.
* We should switch from CFQ to deadline I/O scheduler (which Ubuntu
has been using for years) for subjective massive responsiveness
improvements when the system is under load
Of these, the later seems easier to change and more important. Anyone
know why we're still using CFQ? If the answer is "it's better for
servers" then perhaps we need a mechanism to adjust this on a per-
product basis.
Just wanted to put these issues back on the radar....
Michael
5 years, 8 months
User's Feedback
by Jiri Eischmann
Hi,
last week I asked on my Czech blog what people are missing on the Linux
desktop, mainly Fedora Workstation. It was picked by all major Czech
Linux sites and received literally hundreds of responses. I went
through them and created a summary for you. Some of it are well-known
issues/features, some points were new to me. If something is not clear,
just let me know and I'll be happy to explain it:
INSTALLER
It was mentioned several times as something that put off users when
trying Fedora. In pretty much all cases it was partitioning that was
the problem (too complicated, different to what they're used to). Some
of the experiences were a couple of years old, so it might have
improved, but apparently we still have reserves here. One of the more
concrete points:
* Missing ability to choose where to place the bootloader (it's there,
but very well hidden and cumbersome to set up).
UPDATES
Quite a few people complained about having to restart to install
updates. I know objective reasons for this, but it's important to
understand that it's perceived as annoying by users and we should
strive for minimizing the number of packages that need to be updated
offline.
UPGRADES
One of the most frequent request was an LTS version. When I asked why,
the answer was typically that upgrades still bring incompatibilities,
regressions, lost settings. The most frequently mentioned offender was
NM, other mentioned problems were mostly hardware related (regressions
in graphics, dockin station support, sound).
SHELL
* the Activities hot corner is triggered too easily. We used to have
the "pressure" feature on X11 which prevented accidental triggering,
but it seems to be gone on Wayland. It's a UX problem for many users.
* Ability to turn off effects on less powerful computers.
* Some extensions make the Shell crash.
* Switching between keyboard layouts loses focus (e.g. when you press
Super+Space while e.g. typing in a search field you need to click to
the search field again to continue typing)
* When you use one of the tiling gestures you then can't change the
size of the tiled window.
* There is no presentation mode which would disable notifications,
screensaver inhibitor etc.
* Multitouch gestures more widely used and unified across the desktop
(GTK vs Qt).
GDM
* You can not turn NumLock on by default.
* You have to restart to switch from GNOME Classic to GNOME (perhaps a
bug in F25?).
WAYLAND
Not really big surprises here:
* Missing remote desktop (one of the most frequent comments at all).
* Missing color picker support.
* Missing screen sharing.
* Missing something like xdotool (shotcuts for window manipulations,
e.g. to show/hide a window of certain app)
SETTINGS
* Many people complained about splitting settings into g-c-c and g-t-t,
tried to explain the reason, but nevertheless it's one of the most
common complaints.
LOCALIZATION
Users don't get a fully localized system after installing Fedora. Many
languages don't have all l10n packages on the installation ISO and
users have to run 'sudo dnf install langpacks-*' manually to install
missing packages, but most users don't have a clue about this and just
think that the missing localization is not in Fedora at all. Mainly
LibreOffice suffers from this not being localized at all. This is a
long known problem and we should really fix it and install the missing
packages automatically either during installation or in the initial
experience.
There have been a couple of other complaints about locatization,
everything language specific. But localization seems to be very
important to users and they're very sensitive to untranslated pieces of
UI, especially if it's what's perceived as part of the system, it makes
the system look amateurish.
PDF
Many complaints about PDF support, mostly:
* Evince doesn't support non-ascii characters in PDF forms, this is a
major problem for many people.
* Some PDF forms refuse to work with anything but Acrobat Reader
although they may work just fine with Evince, faking a reader's
identity might be a solution here.
* Incomplete support for PDF 1.7.
DIALOGS
* "file save dialog" doesn't have "Recent" any more and if you save a
couple of files in the same location, you have to go through the full
path every time instead of clicking Recent and pick the destination
folder directly.
APPLICATIONS
* gnome-software has problems to fetch content (e.g. screenshots)
behind a proxy.
* A new chat app (unlikely to happen due to the nature of current IM
services).
* More modern and better looking presentation templates and graphs in
LibreOffice.
* Ability to install Android apps.
* Difficult Thunderbird<->Evolution migration.
* OneDrive integration in Nautilus/GOA.
* Firefox should have tabs integrated into the title bar just like on
Window.
* Cannot connect to GOA accounts after log out and log in to the
account (it's a known systemd bug, but a pretty annoying one and we
have had it for several releases already).
GPU
as expected a very hot area, most frequent complaints:
* Nvidia driver is hard to install and it breaks with kernel updates.
* Support for switchable graphics cards (not sure the complainers have
tried F25 and newer).
* Support for video output through different cards.
HARDWARE
People ask for supported laptop models where stuff like suspend, hot
keys, wifi, bluetooth would be quaranteed to work on Fedora.
* Canon printers need to be set up after every kernel update.
* Better battery life.
* Missing a "Pan/Scroll" feature in Wacom tablet support.
* Fedora support for ARM laptops (Chromebooks).
* Bad support for screen between 120 and 192 DPI which is a vast
majority of monitors with better DPI in the market. Users can partly
fix it by manual tweaks (larger fonts etc.), but they can't be done per
screen.
SOUND
* Can't control volume of a connected bluetooth speaker (general
problem or device specific?).
* PulseAudio doesn't remember settings for multichannel setups after
restart.
GRUB
* a tool on a live ISO the user can boot and fix their broken
bootloader.
BUG HANDLING
A couple of users complained that bug reports in RHBZ get ignored which
discourages them to report problems.
Jiri
5 years, 10 months
Proposal: Add negativo17.org nvidia-driver repo to
fedora-workstation-repositories
by Hans de Goede
Hi All,
As discussed in various venues before we have been working on getting the
nvidia binary driver packaged in a way where users who want to can install
it without having there being a significant chance of their Fedora installation
ending up broken somehow.
As part of this we've moved to libglvnd as the libGL (and friends) implementation
so that the mesa and nvidia OpenGL stacks can co-exist without needing to
play LD_LIBRARY_PATH tricks.
Also the Xserver's config file syntax has been extended so that we can now make it
automatically configure everything the right way even when the nvidia driver is
used on optimus setups as well as automatically switch between the mesa / nouveau
DDX and OpenGL stacks based on which kernel driver is loaded. TL;DR: userspace
will no fully automatically use the right stack depending on which kernel driver
is loaded, meaning that if the nvidia driver fails to load for some reason
(e.g. it does not build after a kernel update) users will now simply get the
nouveau stack rather then a black screen. Also see:
http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/16668.html
I've been working together with Simone Caronni from the negativo17 repo to
make sure that the nvidia packages there use the new Xorg syntax and that
autofallback works smoothly. We're now at a point where I believe the
nvidia-driver packages from the negativo17 repo are ready for general
consumption and I would like to add the repo to the
fedora-workstation-repositories package. Specifically I plan to add
the following .repo file:
[fedora-nvidia]
name=negativo17 - Nvidia
baseurl=https://negativo17.org/repos/nvidia/fedora-$releasever/$basearch/
enabled=0
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://negativo17.org/repos/RPM-GPG-KEY-slaanesh
enabled_metadata=1
metadata_expire=6h
[fedora-nvidia-source]
name=negativo17 - Nvidia - Source
baseurl=https://negativo17.org/repos/nvidia/fedora-$releasever/SRPMS
enabled=0
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://negativo17.org/repos/RPM-GPG-KEY-slaanesh
enabled_metadata=1
metadata_expire=6h
If I understand the procedure correctly the Workstation Working Group
needs to have a meeting and vote on this before I move forward with
adding this .repo file, hence this mail.
Regards,
Hans
5 years, 10 months
Workstation WG meeting recap 2017-May-22
by Paul W. Frields
Minutes: https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/teams/workstation/workstation.2017-05-2...
Minutes (text): https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/teams/workstation/workstation.2017-05-2...
Log: https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/teams/workstation/workstation.2017-05-2...
* * *
=================================
#fedora-meeting-2: Workstation WG
=================================
Meeting started by stickster at 13:01:54 UTC. The full logs are
available at
https://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-2/2017-05-22/workstation...
.
Meeting summary
---------------
* Roll call (stickster, 13:02:01)
* stickster is coming in cold after three weeks away, so pardon the
mess (stickster, 13:02:49)
* gnome-nautilus-terminal by default (stickster, 13:06:53)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/10 (stickster,
13:06:58)
* ACTION: mclasen follow up with kalev to get this package into the
complement as was expected last month (stickster, 13:10:38)
* fedora-workstation-repositories not in default install (stickster,
13:11:01)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/17 (stickster,
13:11:03)
* LINK: https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/fedora-repos
(ryanlerch, 13:16:33)
* ACTION: cschalle check with mboddu about adding -workstation
subpackage to fedora-repos as a solution to getting Workstation
specific repos in (stickster, 13:31:17)
* Default apps decided by Workstation WG (stickster, 13:39:53)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/17 (stickster,
13:39:55)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/14 (mcatanzaro_,
13:41:08)
* LINK: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/14 (mcatanzaro_,
13:41:16)
* anaconda requires blivet-gui so the .desktop file is being dragged
in by default... a blocker criterion here would allow us to force a
solution (stickster, 13:45:45)
* LINK: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1449752
(mcatanzaro_, 13:46:53)
* ACTION: mcatanzaro_ consult with QA and make change in our
guidelines for Final blocker, so we can get blivet-gui removed from
the default Workstation install (stickster, 13:53:15)
* Next meeting (stickster, 13:55:11)
* Next meeting is 09:00am EDT (1300 UTC) on 2017-Jun-05, see you then!
(stickster, 13:55:37)
* ACTION: stickster file updates on all Pagure issues covered in this
meeting (stickster, 13:55:54)
Meeting ended at 13:56:34 UTC.
Action Items
------------
* mclasen follow up with kalev to get this package into the complement
as was expected last month
* cschalle check with mboddu about adding -workstation subpackage to
fedora-repos as a solution to getting Workstation specific repos in
* mcatanzaro_ consult with QA and make change in our guidelines for
Final blocker, so we can get blivet-gui removed from the default
Workstation install
* stickster file updates on all Pagure issues covered in this meeting
Action Items, by person
-----------------------
* cschalle
* cschalle check with mboddu about adding -workstation subpackage to
fedora-repos as a solution to getting Workstation specific repos in
* mcatanzaro_
* mcatanzaro_ consult with QA and make change in our guidelines for
Final blocker, so we can get blivet-gui removed from the default
Workstation install
* mclasen
* mclasen follow up with kalev to get this package into the complement
as was expected last month
* stickster
* stickster file updates on all Pagure issues covered in this meeting
* **UNASSIGNED**
* (none)
People Present (lines said)
---------------------------
* stickster (83)
* mcatanzaro_ (32)
* sgallagh (22)
* cschalle (16)
* juhp_ (16)
* zodbot (13)
* ryanlerch (10)
* mclasen (10)
* rdieter (0)
Generated by `MeetBot`_ 0.1.4
.. _`MeetBot`: http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
The open source story continues to grow: http://opensource.com
5 years, 10 months
Background image and Fedora logo not going well together
by Christian Schaller
Hi,
Just noticed that with the current F26 background image the Fedora logo is invisible since we use the white Fedora logo and the bottom right corner of the background image is also white. We should change the background image so we got something visible :)
Christian
5 years, 10 months
Fedora 26 Beta blocker status mail #1
by Adam Williamson
Hi folks! The Fedora 26 Beta freeze is fast approaching (it's 2017-05-
16), so it's time for a blocker status mail.
tl;dr action summary
====================
1. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1448923
ACTION: Preferably, Firefox maintainer (mstransky) to fix build on ARM
2. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1443415
ACTION: dnf team to investigate problem and come up with a fix
3. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1446432
ACTION: QA to build a test image and verify fix
4. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1447777
ACTION: dracut maintainer (harald) to review patch, merge, and build
5. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1403352
ACTION: QA to run upgrade test and verify all is good
6. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1443206
ACTION: GNOME team (fmuellner) to investigate and fix remaining crashes (#1446879...)
7. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1438046
ACTION: maintainer (mkolman) to submit update, QA to verify
8. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348688
ACTION: lvm/blivet folks (prajnoha / vpodzime) to investigate and fix
9. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1445302
ACTION: QA to build test image and verify fix
Bug-by-bug detail
=================
1. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1448923 - comps - NEW
Xfce ARM image default browser is unavailable (image fails to build)
There is apparently a build problem with Firefox 53 on ARM:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1443938
and the maintainer decided to just go ahead and disable ARM and
build 53. The result of this is that all ARM images with Firefox
in them fail to compose, including the Xfce image, which is a
release-blocking image. We really want Firefox fixed, here, but
*technically* the blocker could be resolved by shipping a different
default browser. No-one thinks that's a good idea, though.
2. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1443415 - dnf - NEW
[TRACKING] Upgrade f25 to f26 get stuck in Cleanup
This was reported against ppc64le (which is not a release-blocking
arch) but was reported by pwhalen to also occur on armhfp (which is).
Not sure where we stand on identifying/fixing it at present. FWIW,
I have not seen this hit the openQA upgrade tests on i386/x86_64.
3. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1446432 - dnf - MODIFIED
Minimal install option install full gnome desktop
This is a problem with package selection during install (changing
the default package group results in the default group *and* the
newly-selected group both being installed). A fix is just now
heading to updates-testing, so QA will need to build an image and
check that this is fixed.
4. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1447777 - dracut - POST
Since curl-7.53.1-7.fc26 , curl TLS transactions in initramfs environment are broken
A change in how curl handles CA trust resulted in TLS transactions
using curl not working from the initramfs environment. This mainly
affects the installer (it means you can't use kickstarts or updates
images from HTTPS servers). I've submitted a fix for this, it's
waiting on dracut maintainer review and merge (and package build).
5. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1403352 - freeipa - ON_QA
FreeIPA server install fails (and existing servers probably fail to start)...
This is very likely resolved, but we're leaving it open because we
still haven't got around to testing that an upgrade of an existing
FreeIPA server from Fedora 25 to Fedora 26 works correctly. I will
get on that next week.
6. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1443206 - libgweather - ON_QA
gnome-shell consistently crashes in the middle of first-login gnome-initial-setup
The initial crash here actually has been diagnosed and fixed, but
the update was rejected because multiple testers saw a different
crash. That crash is filed as
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1446879, and we are now
waiting on a fix for *that* crash from the GNOME team, so an update
can go out that will pass testing.
7. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1438046 - initial-setup - POST
initial-setup.service: Failed to set up stdin: Inappropriate ioctl for device
A fix for this has just showed up today, and a tester verified that
a scratch build appears to work. We now need mkolman to send out a
proper build/update.
8. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1348688 - lvm2 - ASSIGNED
Anaconda cannot access LVM partitions in a LUKS-encrypted disk partition after decryption
This is about accessing a particular combined LVM/LUKS partitioning
setup. We are waiting for a fix from the maintainers, here. A clear
explanation of the offending setup is in comment #39. I am not sure
if this is really an lvm2 issue or a blivet issue, so CCing both
maintainers.
9. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1445302 - python-blivet - ON_QA
partition on a FW RAID used as a PV is put into a list of filtered devices by blivet
This is basically an issue with installing to firmware RAID, in the
default setup where LVM is used. Updates appear to be pending, so
QA needs to build an installer image with the relevant updates, and
test it.
Conclusion
==========
Nine blockers is quite a few at this point, and several are waiting
for analysis and fixes (not just testing), so it'd be great if the devs
could get cracking on these soon. QA folks, we have several fixes to
verify, and also more Beta tests to run, so please look at
testcase_stats and run any missing tests! Thanks everyone!
https://www.happyassassin.net/testcase_stats/26/
--
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | XMPP: adamw AT happyassassin . net
http://www.happyassassin.net
5 years, 10 months
