6. Architecture Specific Notes
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This section provides notes that are specific to the supported hardware architectures of Fedora.
6.1. RPM multiarch support on 64-bit platforms (x86_64, ppc64)
RPM supports parallel installation of
multiple architectures of the same package. A default package
listing such as rpm -qa might appear to include
duplicate packages, since the architecture is not displayed.
Instead, use the repoquery command, part of the
yum-utils package, which displays architecture
by default. To install yum-utils , run the
following command:
su -c "yum install yum-utils"
To list all packages with their architecture using
rpm, run the following command:
rpm -qa --queryformat "%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n"
You can add this to /etc/rpm/macros (for a
system wide setting) or ~/.rpmmacros (for a
per-user setting). It changes the default query to list the
architecture:
%_query_all_fmt %%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}
6.2. PPC Specifics for Fedora
This section covers specific information about Fedora and the PPC hardware platform.
6.2.1. Hardware Requirements for PPC
6.2.1.1. Processor and memory
Minimum CPU: PowerPC G3 / POWER3.
Fedora 9 supports only the "New World" generation of Apple Power Macintosh, shipped from circa 1999 onward. Although "Old World" machines should work, they require a special bootloader which is not included in the Fedora distribution.
Fedora 9 supports IBM RS/6000, pSeries, iSeries, and Cell Broadband Engine machines.
Fedora 9 also supports the Sony PlayStation 3 and Genesi Pegasos II and Efika.
Fedora 9 includes new hardware support for the P.A. Semiconductor 'Electra' machines.
Recommended for text-mode: 233 MHz G3 or better, 128MiB RAM.
Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz G3 or better, 256MiB RAM.
6.2.1.2. Hard disk space
The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk space.
Final size is entirely determined by the installing spin and
the packages selected during installation. Additional disk
space is required during installation to support the
installation environment. This additional disk space
corresponds to the size of
/Fedora/base/stage2.img (on Installation
Disc 1) plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the installed
system.
In practical terms, additional space requirements may range from as little as 90 MiB for a minimal installation to as much as an additional 175 MiB for a larger installation.
Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space should be maintained for proper system operation.
6.2.2. 4 KiB Pages on 64-bit machines
After a brief experiment with 64KiB pages in Fedora Core 6, the PowerPC64 kernel has now been switched back to 4KiB pages. The installer should reformat any swap partitions automatically during an upgrade.
6.2.3. The Apple keyboard
The Option key on Apple systems is equivalent to the Alt key on the PC. Where documentation and the installer refer to the Alt key, use the Option key. For some key combinations you may need to use the Option key in conjunction with the Fn key, such as Option+Fn+F3 to switch to virtual terminal tty3.
6.2.4. PPC installation notes
Fedora Installation Disc 1 is bootable on supported hardware. In
addition, a bootable CD image appears in the
images/ directory of
this disc. These images behave differently according to your
system hardware:
On most machines, the bootloader automatically boots the appropriate 32-bit or 64-bit installer from the install disc.
64-bit IBM pSeries (POWER4/POWER5), current iSeries models. After using OpenFirmware to boot the CD, the bootloader,
yaboot, automatically boots the 64-bit installer.IBM "Legacy" iSeries (POWER4). So-called "Legacy" iSeries models, which do not use OpenFirmware, require use of the boot image located in the
images/iSeriesdirectory of the installation tree.32-bit CHRP (IBM RS/6000 and others). After using OpenFirmware to boot the CD, select the
linux32boot image at theboot:prompt to start the 32-bit installer. Otherwise, the 64-bit installer starts and fails.-
Genesi Pegasos II / Efika 5200B. The Fedora kernel supports both Pegasos and Efika without the need to use the "Device Tree Supplement" from powerdeveloper.org. However, the lack of full support for ISO9660 in the firmware means that booting via yaboot from the CD is not possible. Boot the 'netboot' image instead, either from the CD or over the network. Because of the size of the image, you must set the firmware's
load-basevariable to load files at a high address such as 32MiB instead of the default 4MiB:setenv load-base 0x2000000
At the OpenFirmware prompt, enter the following command to boot the Efika update, if necessary, or the netboot image from the CD:
boot cd: /images/netboot/ppc32.img
Or from the network:
boot eth ppc32.img
You must also manually configure OpenFirmware to make the installed Fedora system bootable. To do this, set the
boot-deviceandboot-fileenvironment variables appropriately, to load yaboot from the/bootpartition. For example, a default installation might require the following:setenv boot-device hd:0 setenv boot-file /yaboot/yaboot setenv auto-boot? true
PA Semi Electra. The Electra firmware does not yet support yaboot; to install on Electra, you can boot the
ppc64.imgnetboot image. After the installation, you will need to manually configure the firmware to load the installed kernel and initrd from the/bootpartition. Refer to the firmware documentation for further details.-
Sony PlayStation 3. For installation on PlayStation 3, first update to firmware 1.60 or later. The "Other OS" boot loader must be installed into the flash, following the instructions at http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/manual.html. A suitable boot loader image can be found on Sony's "ADDON" CD, available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/.
Once the boot loader is installed, the PlayStation 3 should be able to boot from the Fedora install media. Please note that network installation works best with NFS, since that takes less memory than FTP or HTTP methods. Using the
textoption also reduces the amount of memory taken by the installer.For more information on Fedora and the PlayStation3 or Fedora on PowerPC in general, join the Fedora-PPC mailing list or the
#fedora-ppcchannel on FreeNode. -
Network booting. Combined images containing the installer kernel and ramdisk are located in the
images/netboot/directory of the installation tree. They are intended for network booting with TFTP, but can be used in many ways.The
yabootloader supports TFTP booting for IBM pSeries and Apple Macintosh. The Fedora Project encourages the use ofyabootover thenetbootimages.
6.2.5. PPC Specific Packages
The ppc64-utils package has been split out
into individual packages reflecting upstream packaging
(ps3pf-utils,
powerpc-utils,
powerpc-utils-papr). Although the
mkzimage command is no longer supplied, you
can use the wrapper script from the
kernel-bootwrapper package:
wrapper -i initrd-${KERN_VERSION}.img -o zImage-${KERN_VERSION}.img vmlinuz-${KERN_VERSION}
6.3. x86 Specifics for Fedora
This section covers specific information about Fedora and the x86 hardware platform.
6.3.1. Hardware requirements for x86
In order to use specific features of Fedora 9 during or after installation, you may need to know details of other hardware components such as video and network cards.
6.3.1.1. Processor and memory
The following CPU specifications are stated in terms of Intel processors. Other processors, such as those from AMD, Cyrix, and VIA that are compatible with and equivalent to the following Intel processors, may also be used with Fedora.
Fedora 9 requires an Intel Pentium or better processor, and is optimized for Pentium 4 and later processors.
Recommended for text-mode: 200 MHz Pentium-class or better.
Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz Pentium II or better.
Minimum RAM for text-mode: 128MiB.
Minimum RAM for graphical: 192MiB.
Recommended RAM for graphical: 256MiB.
6.3.1.2. Hard disk space
The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk space.
Final size is entirely determined by the installing spin and
the packages selected during installation. Additional disk
space is required during installation to support the
installation environment. This additional disk space
corresponds to the size of
/Fedora/base/stage2.img (on Installation
Disc 1) plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the installed
system.
In practical terms, additional space requirements may range from as little as 90 MiB for a minimal installation to as much as an additional 175 MiB for a larger installation.
Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space should be maintained for proper system operation.
6.4. x86_64 Specifics for Fedora
This section covers specific information about Fedora and the x86_64 hardware platform.
6.4.1. Hardware requirements for x86_64
In order to use specific features of Fedora 9 during or after installation, you may need to know details of other hardware components such as video and network cards.
6.4.1.1. Memory requirements for x86_64
Minimum RAM for text-mode: 256MiB.
Minimum RAM for graphical: 384MiB.
Recommended RAM for graphical: 512MiB.
6.4.1.2. Hard disk space requirements for x86_64
The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk space.
Final size is entirely determined by the installing spin and
the packages selected during installation. Additional disk
space is required during installation to support the
installation environment. This additional disk space
corresponds to the size of
/Fedora/base/stage2.img (on Installation
Disc 1) plus the size of the files in /var/lib/rpm on the installed
system.
In practical terms, additional space requirements may range from as little as 90 MiB for a minimal installation to as much as an additional 175 MiB for a larger installation.
Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space should be maintained for proper system operation.