bodom_lx at task3 dot cc

I’ve never been a big fan of rpm-based Gnu/Linux distributions, since I’ve always preferred the stability of Debian and Debian based distros, with their great dpkg system.
The problem with Debian on Macbooks is that I do not see both the stability and performance anymore, as I have to use Lenny/Sid. Etch is too old and I don’t have the time (*sic*) to play with it to make it work well. Lenny should be next to be released but I don’t feel the very famous stability AND lightness of Debian distributions on this release, like I was accustomed in the past years. Is this because I own a Macbook? Maybe, but a Macbook Santa Rosa is nothing more than an Intel-powered notebook with some strange input devices and a strange non-bios system

Regarding Ubuntu, I believe that this distribution has become naff and really slow. See this Slashdot discussion on this topic.

Yesterday I stumbled to Scientechie review of Fedora 10, which convinced me to try it out.
The software shipped with Fedora 10 is aligned with the one provided with the other distributions: Gnome 2.24.0, kernel 2.6.27.5, NetworkManager 0.7.0 (svn) and so on. Read the release notes for more information.

Fedora 10 really surprises me, as it is the first Gnu/Linux distribution in many, many years that makes me feel again the great stability and performance of the Penguin. Therefore I’m writing this review that is also a how-to, as it contains some fixes for Fedora 10 and Macbooks.

The installation went fine. Yes, this is what I can say about it, it just went fine, there were no surprises, no strange GTP synchronizations to be done, everything went fine, I felt I was not trying to install on a Macbook.

Fedora 10 Desktop is shiny and polished at the same time, I like their artwork so much:

Here is another screenshot with a couple of applications opened:

I don’t like the default settings of Nautilus shipped with Fedora (window on the left), the same settings you can find when you install Debian.
However, you can easily turn it to a more modern file-manager (as on the window on the right) clicking on “Always open in browser windows” under Edit->Preferences->Behavior.

I find Fedora’s yum package manager reactive and user-friendly. They improved it so much since my last try a couple of years ago.
An example:

# yum search gnome-terminal
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
=========================== Matched: gnome-terminal ============================
gnome-terminal.i386 : GNOME Terminal
roxterm.i386 : A fast terminal emulator

Everything in a couple of seconds.
The graphical software managergnome packagekit is also great, as it is a light application which works better than Debian’s Synaptic.

Updates are also managed easily with an applet and a nice notification system.

The best of Fedora 10, at least on Macbook notebooks, is that you don’t hear the fan rotation and everything remains cold and fresh. I REALLY love the response you get when you open an application. Even if you activate Desktop Effects, everything stays fresh and speedy. I also feel a great stability, which is something missing from Ubuntu since 3-4 releases.

Softkeys do also work out-of-the-box, you don’t need to install pommed as Gnome 2.24 handles them.
Even the audio system recognizes the card and sound works!

UPDATE: applesmc module is not loaded by default. This is really strange, as it should be loaded by default if the distribution detects an Apple notebook. AppleSMC handles the control of fans, temperature sensors, motion sensors and leds. See this post on how to fix it

Trackpad does not work out-of-the-box, but you can easily fix it by creating the file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/appletouch.fdi with the contents of the provided file.
You can also use this command to have the job done:

su -c 'yum install wget'
su -c 'wget -O /etc/hal/fdi/policy/appletouch.fdi http://download.task3.cc/appletouch.fdi'

Wget is not present by default on the system! I found that there are some packages such wget, vim and openoffice.org that are not installd by default.
No problem, you can always install them with either yum or packagekit.
I also recommend to add the command syndaemon -t -d at Gnome startup, to disable the trackpad when typing. After a reboot everything should be fine.

Wireless network was the only thing that needed some work to be enabled. My broadcom card needs ndiswrapper and windows drivers, but ndiswrapper is NOT present on Fedora repositories, maybe because there is not an official version that works with the shipped 2.6.27.5 kernel.

UPDATE: you may also install ndiwrapper from RPM Fusion repositories.

You have to install the “Development Tools”, equivalent to Debian “build-essential”, and kernel headers:

su -c 'yum groupinstall "Development Tools"'
su -c 'yum install kernel-devel.i686'

Then compile the custom ndiswrapper for 2.6.27 kernels that I reported on my last post.

UPDATE: for more hardware configurations, like Bluetooth, see this post , but I don’t suggest to use his /etx/X11/xorg.conf tips, as they are deprecated and won’t probably work in the future. Use instead my tips regarding HAL policies.

They had to reach their 10th release, but finally they build a distribution which looks great, is speedy and lightweight. Great job Fedora developers!

Related posts

• Testing Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) beta on a Macbook (updated!) (6)
• gOS 3 Gadgets (Beta) Review (11)
• Publications (0)
• Introduction To Software Testing (0)
• Intel Graphic cards, Linux, Xorg and UXA performance boost (5)