Some problems with FC2T3

[Fernando Perez]

Hi all,

I'd like to report some issues with a recent install of FC2T3 which I haven't
found on the list or in bugzilla yet.  If they are confirmed, I can go ahead
and file bugzilla reports for them.

These notes detail various problems encountered with Fedora2.  Except for
things noted here, the installation was successful.

System description
==================

Clean, custom (over FTP) install of Fedora2 Test 3.

System: Dell Optiplex GX-270 (Pentium 4, 2.8GHz, 40 GB Hard disk, 1 GB RAM, 
NVidia GeForce 4MX video card, Dell 2000FP LCD, correctly identified and 
working at 1600x1200 resolution).  This machine was previously running 
Fedora1, but a clean install (not an upgrade) was done.

/ was formatted with ext3, a 1 GB swap partition was also fromatted. An 
existing ext3 /scratch partition was kept (it had data).

/home and /usr/local are NFS served by a RedHat9 box, and this setup had been 
successfully used for about a year (first with RedHat and then with Fedora1 on 
the client). The only problem was the lack of sound support under Fedora1 for 
the Intel ICH5 chip: this is now working with Fedora2.

Installation Issues
===================

- Individual package selection seems to have been removed.  If a package is 
not included in the default groups, it has to be manually  installed later. 
Generating a nice, clean kickstart template is now much harder, since one has 
to manually track packages to do it.  The old method of doing a single install 
carefully and using the resulting anaconda-ks.cfg file as a starter can't be 
used anymore.

- At this point, SELinux is best left off.  Set 'selinux=0 enforcing=0' as 
kernel flags.  Otherwise SELinux is on, and things like rpm will generate an 
endless stream of warnings.

- At the end of the install, Fedora wouldn't e hject my CD.  Minor annoyance.


BUGS
====

rsync - CRITICAL
----------------

Trying to rsync an NFS mounted directory to a usb flash drive.  The same
process worked fine on the same box under Fedora1, and still works on a
Fedora1 box next to this one.  The output of rsync is:

building file list ... done
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (8 bytes read so far)
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(342)

code 12 is a memory error.  If I try to sync a small amount of files things 
work as expected, but when I attempt the rsync with the full set (approx. 
300Mb), it crashes.

I am also seeing rsync problems trying to rsync some files from /etc in a
central server to this box:

/etc/cron.hourly/etc_sync:

unexpected tag 102
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(315)
unexpected tag 102
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(315)
unexpected tag 102
rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(315)

This etc_sync script runs to multiple hosts, and the only one giving error
messages is the Fedora2 one.

We use rsync for a LOT of internal things daily, so if there really is an 
rsync problem in Fedora2, this is an absolute showstopper for us.


system-config-users
-------------------

This simply crashes instantly:

root at planck[/etc]# system-config-users

** (system-config-users.py:8462): WARNING **: entry is incorrectly formatted

** (system-config-users.py:8462): WARNING **: entry is incorrectly formatted

** (system-config-users.py:8462): WARNING **: entry is incorrectly formatted

** (system-config-users.py:8462): WARNING **: entry is incorrectly formatted

(system-config-users.py:8462): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: file gvaluearray.c:
line 42 (g_value_array_get_nth): assertion `value_array != NULL' failed

** ERROR **: file user.c: line 658 (merge_ent_array_duplicates): should not be
reached
aborting...
/usr/share/system-config-users/system-config-users: line 4:  8462 Aborted
/usr/bin/python2 /usr/share/system-config-users/system-config-users.py


OpenOffice
----------

It simply won't start.  The splash screen comes up, and when the progress bar
finishes, it just stays there.  I tried removing the user old .openoffice
directory, but this did not help.


LVM manager
-----------

It tries to come on always during boot (I didn't configure it), and it fails. 
  It's just an annoyance to see, since it doesn't seem to cause problems 
otherwise.


MessageBus
----------

The bootup message is [OK], but at shutdown it gives a [FAILED].  I don't
really know if it's a problem or not.


Thanks for any feedback,

Fernando.