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6. Architecture Specific Notes

[Tip] Latest Release Notes on the Web

These release notes may be updated. To view the latest release notes for Fedora, visit:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/

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.

  • Fedora 9 also supports IBM pSeries, IBM iSeries, IBM RS/6000, Genesi Pegasos II, and IBM Cell Broadband Engine machines.

  • Fedora 9 includes new hardware support for Genesi Efika, and for the Sony PlayStation 3.

  • 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 disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by Fedora 9 after installation is complete. However, 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 an "everything" installation. The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk space.

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/iSeries directory of the installation tree.

  • 32-bit CHRP (IBM RS/6000 and others).  After using OpenFirmware to boot the CD, select the linux32 boot image at the boot: prompt to start the 32-bit installer. Otherwise, the 64-bit installer starts and fails.

  • Genesi Pegasos II.  At the time of writing, firmware with full support for ISO9660 file systems has not yet been released for the Pegasos. You can use the network boot image, however. At the OpenFirmware prompt, enter the following command:

    boot cd: /images/netboot/ppc32.img

    You must also manually configure OpenFirmware on the Pegasos to make the installed Fedora system bootable. To do this, set the boot-device and boot-file environment variables appropriately.

  • Genesi Efika 5200B.  To run Linux correctly on the Efika, download the "Device Tree Supplement" from http://www.powerdeveloper.org/platforms/efika/devicetree and install according to the documentation therein. At the time of writing, the firmware of the Efika has bugs which prevent correct operation of the yaboot bootloader. Genesi stated that a fixed firmware would be made available by April 2007. As of November 2007, it is not yet available.

  • 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. Type linux64 xdriver=fbdev at the boot prompt, which will work around https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=370761. Please note that network installation works best with NFS, since that takes less memory than FTP or HTTP methods. Using the text option 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-ppc channel 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 yaboot loader supports TFTP booting for IBM pSeries and Apple Macintosh. The Fedora Project encourages the use of yaboot over the netboot images.

6.2.5. PPC Specific Packages

ppc64-utils has been split out into individual packages reflecting upstream packaging (ps3pf-utils, powerpc-utils, powerpc-utils-papr). The mkzimage command is no longer supplied, you can use the wrapper script from kernel-bootwrapper package - eg:

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 disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by Fedora 9 after the installation is complete. However, additional disk space is required during the 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 an "everything" installation. The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk space.

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 disk space requirements listed below represent the disk space taken up by Fedora 9 after the installation is complete. However, additional disk space is required during the 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 an "everything" installation. The complete packages can occupy over 9 GB of disk space.

Additional space is also required for any user data, and at least 5% free space should be maintained for proper system operation.

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