## Release Notes	{#idp48355808}

### _Release Notes for Fedora 21_

### ![Logo][1]

#### Edited by

### The Fedora Docs Team

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Abstract

This document provides the release notes for Fedora 21. It describes major changes offered as compared to Fedora 20. For a detailed listing of all changes, refer to the Fedora Technical Notes.

----

## 1\. Welcome to Fedora 21	{#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora_21}

### 1\.1. Welcome to Fedora	{#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora}

You can help the Fedora Project community continue to improve Fedora if you file bug reports and enhancement requests. Refer to [Bugs And Feature Requests](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugsAndFeatureRequests), on the Fedora wiki, for more information about bug and feature reporting. Thank you for your participation.

To find out more general information about Fedora, refer to the following pages, on the Fedora wiki (<http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/>):

* [Fedora Overview](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview)

* [Fedora FAQ](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ)

* [Help and Discussions](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate)

* [Participate in the Fedora Project](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join)

#### 1\.1.1. Need Help?	{#idp48695312}

There are a number of places you can get assistance should you run into problems.

If you run into a problem and would like some assistance, go to <http://ask.fedoraproject.org>. Many answers are already there, but if you don't find yours, you can simply post a new question. This has the advantage that anyone else with the same problem can find the answer, too.

You may also find assistance on the `#fedora` channel on the IRC net `irc.freenode.net`. Keep in mind that the channel is populated by volunteers wanting to help, but folks knowledgeable about a specific topic might not always be available.

### 1\.2. Overview	{#sect-Release_Notes-Overview}

As always, Fedora continues to develop ([Red Hat contributions](http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Red_Hat_contributions)) and integrate the latest free and open source software. The following sections provide a brief overview of major changes from the last release of Fedora.

For more details about the features that are included in Fedora 21 refer to the individual wiki pages that detail feature goals and progress: <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/21/ChangeSet>

### 1\.3. Hardware Overview	{#hardware_overview}

Fedora 21 provides software to suit a wide variety of applications. The storage, memory and processing requirements vary depending on usage. For example, a high traffic database server requires much more memory and storage than a business desktop, which in turn has higher requirements than a single-purpose virtual machine.

### PPC 32bit discontinued

Support for 32 bit PowerPC systems has been fully discontinued with Fedora 21.

#### 1\.3.1. Minimum System Configuration	{#hardware_overview-specs}

The figures below are a recommended minimum for the default installation. Your requirements may differ, and most applications will benefit from more than the minimum resources.

|1GHz or faster processor|
|1GB System Memory|
|10GB unallocated drive space|

### Low memory installations

Fedora 21 can be installed and used on systems with limited resources for some applications. Text, vnc, or kickstart installations are advised over graphical installation for systems with very low memory. Larger package sets require more memory during installation, so users with less than 768MB of system memory may have better results preforming a minimal install and adding to it afterward.

For best results on systems with less than 1GB of memory, use the DVD installation image.

#### 1\.3.2. Display resolution	{#hardware_overview-resolution}

### Graphical Installation requires 800x600 resolution or higher

Graphical installation of Fedora 19 requires a minimum screen resolution of 800x600. Owners of devices with lower resolution, such as some netbooks, should use text or VNC installation.

Once installed, Fedora will support these lower resolution devices. The minimum resolution requirement applies only to graphical installation.

#### 1\.3.3. Graphics Hardware	{#hardware_overview-graphics}

##### 1\.3.3.1. Minimum Hardware for Accelerated Desktops	{#hardware_overview-graphics-legacy_gpus}

Fedora 21 supports most display adapters. Modern, feature-rich desktop environments like GNOME3 and KDE Plasma Workspaces use video devices to provide 3D-accelerated desktops. Older graphics hardware may _not support_ acceleration:

|Intel prior to GMA9xx|
|NVIDIA prior to NV30 (GeForce FX5xxx series)|
|Radeon prior to R300 (Radeon 9500)|

##### 1\.3.3.2. CPU Accelerated Graphics	{#hardware_overview-graphics-cpu_acceleration}

Systems with older or no graphics acceleration devices can have accelerated desktop environments using LLVMpipe technology, which uses the CPU to render graphics. LLVMpipe requires a processor with `SSE2` extensions. The extensions supported by your processor are listed in the `flags:` section of `/proc/cpuinfo`

##### 1\.3.3.3. Choosing a Desktop Environment for your hardware	{#hardware_overview-graphics-desktops}

Fedora 21's default desktop environment, GNOME3, functions best with hardware acceleration. Alternative desktops are recommended for users with older graphics hardware or those seeing insufficient performance with LLVMpipe.

Desktop environments can be added to an existing installation and selected at login. To list the available desktops, use the **yum grouplist** command:

	        **yum grouplist -v hidden | grep desktop**

Install the desired group:

	        **yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"**

Or, use the short group name to install:

	        **yum install @mate-desktop-environment**

### 1\.4. Feedback	{#sect-Release_Notes-Feedback}

Thank you for taking the time to provide your comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the Fedora community; this helps improve the state of Fedora, Linux, and free software worldwide.

#### 1\.4.1. Providing Feedback on Fedora Software	{#idp51345024}

To provide feedback on Fedora software or other system elements, please refer to [ Bugs And Feature Requests](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugsAndFeatureRequests). A list of commonly reported bugs and known issues for this release is available from [ Common F21 bugs](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F19_bugs), on the wiki.

#### 1\.4.2. Providing Feedback on Release Notes	{#idp10284400}

If you feel these release notes could be improved in any way, you can provide your feedback directly to the beat writers. There are several ways to provide feedback, in order of preference:

* If you have a Fedora account, edit content directly at [ Docs-Beats](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats) page on the wiki.

* Fill out a bug request using [http://bugzilla.redhat.com/](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora Documentation&component=release-notes) - _This link is ONLY for feedback on the release notes themselves._ Refer to the admonition above for details.

* E-mail the Release-Note mailing list at &lt;[relnotes@fedoraproject.org](mailto:relnotes@fedoraproject.org)&gt;

## 2\. Fedora Products	{#sect-Products}

For more than ten eays, the Fedora Project has provided a distribution at the leading edge of the open source ecosystem. Fedora's releases have offered the latest technologies, integrating new and exciting upstream developments into a vast and diverse set of packages.

Users have build powerful desktops, reliable servers, and more recently, versatile cloud instances from the high quality packages in the Fedora repository. Fedora's strong commitment to upstream integrity gives developers a place to showcase their work, and benefit from Fedora's active testing and development volunteers.

In those ten years, much has changed. The `Fedora.next` initiative represents a considered strategy for maintaining the quality of the distribution and Fedora's position in introducing new technologies, while also providing a more consistent target for developers.

The result of this initiative is three distinct Fedora flagship products. Fedora Cloud for scalable infrastucture, Fedora Server for organizational infrastructure, and Fedora Workstation for the developer and desktop user.

Fedora Spins, such as live media featuring alternative desktop environments, will continue to be produced.

### 2\.1. Fedora Cloud	{#Products-Cloud}

### 2\.2. Fedora Server	{#Products-Server}

### 2\.3. Fedora Workstation	{#Products-Workstation}

The Fedora Workstation product provides an easy to use, powerful environment for developers to both work and play. Desktop users can enjoy the familar GNOME Desktop Environment, with support for devices and applications used every day. Developers will appreciate how Workstation is configured for their needs, and provides useful tools like DevAssist.

#### 2\.3.1. GNOME powered	{#Workstation-GNOME}

Fedora Workstation developers have provided many enhancements to streamline and improve the GNOME Desktop Environment. Read more about changes to GNOME in Fedora 21 in [Section 4.1.1, “GNOME 3.14”](#desktop-GNOME "4.1.1. GNOME 3.14")

#### 2\.3.2. Captive Portal Detection	{#idp52028224}

Fedora Workstation, by default, enables a captive portal detection that requests known content from a trusted Fedora server. If the request is redirected, a window automatically appears for you to interact with the portal's login webpage.

To disable this feature, remove `/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-connectivity-fedora.conf`

#### 2\.3.3. Developer oriented firewall	{#idp35283568}

Developers often run test servers that run on high numbered ports, and interconnectivity with many modern consumer devices also requires these ports. The firewall in Fedora Workstation, `firewalld`, is configured to allow these things.

Ports numbered under 1024, with the exceptions of `sshd` and clients for samba and DHCPv6, are blocked to prevent access to system services. Ports above 1024, used for user-initiated applications, are open by default.

Refer to <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FirewallD> for details on customizing the firewall configuration, or install the firewall-config package for a graphical tool.

### 2\.4. Fedora Spins	{#Products-Spins}

## 3\. Changes in Fedora for System Administrators	{#sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_Sysadmin}

### 3\.1. Installation	{#sect-installation}

#### 3\.1.1. zRAM Swap Support	{#sect-installation-zram-swap}

The Anaconda installer now supports `swap` on zRAM during the installation.

zRAM is a standard block device with compressed contents. Placing `swap` into such a device during the installation allows the installer to store more data in RAM instead of in the hard drive. This is especially helpful on low-memory systems; on these systems, the installation can be performed much faster with this feature enabled.

This feature is automatically enabled if Anaconda detects 2 GB or less memory, and disabled on systems with more memory. To force zRAM swap on or off, use the `inst.zram=on` or `inst.zram=off` boot option within the boot menu.

Specific limits, numbers and way of implementation may be changed in the future.

#### 3\.1.2. Built-in Help in the Graphical Interface	{#sect-installation-help}

The installer's graphical user interface now supports built-in help. Every screen in the installer, as well as the Initial Setup utility which runs the first time you reboot your system after the installation, now contains a Help button. This button opens a section of the _Fedora Installation Guide_ relevant to the current screen in the Yelp help browser.

At the same time, the _Installation Guide_ is being rewritten to better match the installer's structure.

Help for text mode installations is not available.

#### 3\.1.3. Changes in Boot Options	{#sect-installation-boot-options}

A _boot option_ is used to modify the installer's behavior using the boot command line. The following boot options have been added in Fedora 21:

* `inst.zram=`: Use this option to force zRAM swap on (`inst.zram=on`) or off (`inst.zram=off`).

* `inst.dnf`: Use the experimental DNF backend for package installation instead of YUM.

* `inst.memcheck`: Perform a check at the beginning of the installation to determine if there is enough available RAM. If there is not enough memory detected, the installation will stop with an error message. This option is enabled by default; use `inst.memcheck=0` to disable it.

#### 3\.1.4. Changes in Anaconda Command Line Options	{#sect-installation-cli-options}

Anaconda command line options are used when running the installer from a terminal within an already installed system, as for example, when installing into a disk image.

* The built-in help available through the **anaconda -h** command now provides descriptions for all available commands.

* `--memcheck`: Check if the system has sufficient RAM to complete the installation and abort the installation if it does not. This check is approximate. Memory usage during installation depends on the package selection, user interface (graphical/text) and other parameters.

* `--nomemcheck`: Do not check if the system has enough memory to complete the installation.

* `--leavebootorder`: Boot drives in their existing order - used to override the default of booting into the newly installed drive on IBM Power Systems servers and EFI systems. This is useful for systems that, for example, should network boot first before falling back to a local boot.

* `--extlinux`: Use extlinux as the boot loader. Note that there is no attempt to check whether this will work for your platform, which means your system may be unable to boot after completing the installation if you use this option.

* `--dnf`: Use the experimental DNF package management backend to replace the default YUM package manager. See <http://dnf.baseurl.org> for more information about the DNF project.

#### 3\.1.5. Changes in Kickstart Syntax	{#sect-installation-kickstart}

This section provides a list of changes to _Kickstart_ commands and options. A list of these changes can also be viewed using the following command on a Fedora system:

	`$`**ksverdiff -f F20 -t F21**

This command will only work on Fedora 21 with the pykickstart package installed.

##### 3\.1.5.1. New Commands and Options	{#sect-installation-kickstart-new}

* **fcoe --autovlan**: Enable automatic discovery of VLANs.

* **bootloader --disabled**: Do not attempt to install a boot loader. This option overrides all other boot loader configuration; all other boot loader options will be ignored and no boot loader packages will be installed.

* **network --interfacename=**: Specify a custom interface name for a VLAN device. This option should be used when the default name generated by the `--vlanid=` option is not desired, and it must always be used together with `--vlanid=`.

* **ostreesetup**: New optional command. Used for OSTree installations. Available options are:

  * `--osname=` (required): Management root for OS installation.

  * `--remote=` (optional): Name of the remote repository.

  * `--url=` (required): Repository URL.

  * `--ref=` (required): Name of branch inside the repository.

  * `--nogpgcheck` (optional): Disable GPG key verification.

    See <https://wiki.gnome.org/action/show/Projects/OSTree> for more information about OSTree.

* **clearpart --disklabel=**: Create a custom disk label when relabeling disks.

* **autopart --fstype=**: Specify a file system type (such as `ext4` or `xfs`) to replace the default when doing automatic partitioning.

* **repo --install**: Writes the repository information into the `/etc/yum.repos.d/` directory. This makes the repository configured in Kickstart available on the installed system as well.

* Changes in the **%packages** section:

  * You can now specify an _environment_ to be installed in the **%packages** section by adding an environment name prefixed by `@^`. For example:

	%packages
	@core
	_@^Infrastructure Server_
	%end

  * The **%packages --nocore** option can now be used to disable installing of the `Core` package group.

  * You can now exclude the kernel from installing. This is done the same way as excluding any other package - by prefixing the package name with `-`:

	%packages
	@core
	_-kernel_
	%end

##### 3\.1.5.2. Changes in Existing Commands and Options	{#sect-installation-kickstart-changed}

* **volgroup --pesize=**: This option now does not have a default value in Kickstart. The default size of a new volume group's physical extents is now determined by the installer during both manual and Kickstart installation. This means that the behavior of Kickstart and manual installations is now the same. The previous default value for Kickstart installations was `32768`.

#### 3\.1.6. Additional Changes	{#sect-installation-additional-changes}

* Software RAID configuration in the graphical user interface has been tweaked.

* You can now use the **+** and **-** keys as shortcuts in the manual partitioning screen in the graphical user interface.

* The **ksverdiff** utility (part of the pykickstart package) has a new option: `--listversions`. Use this option to list all available operating system versions which can be used as arguments for the `--from=` and `--to=` options.

### 3\.2. Security	{#idp10228176}

### 3\.3. File Systems	{#idm582656}

### 3\.4. Virtualization	{#idp51561040}

### 3\.5. Database Servers	{#idp51398816}

### 3\.6. Mail Servers	{#idp10187920}

### 3\.7. Samba	{#idp3529200}

### 3\.8. Systemd	{#systemd}

#### 3\.8.1. Journald	{#systemd-journald}

* _Journal Logging_

    Journal messages can be forwarded to remote systems, without using a syslog daemon. The systemd-journal-remote and systemd-journal-upload packages provide receiver and sender daemons. Communication is done over HTTPS.

#### 3\.8.2. Isolating Services	{#systemd-private}

Two new security-related options are now available to limit long-running services that do not require access to physical devices or the network.

The `PrivateDevices` setting, when set to `yes`, provides the service with a private, minimal `/dev` that does not include physical devices. This allows long-running services to have limited access, increasing security.

The `PrivateNetwork` setting, when set to `yes`, provides the service with a network isolated to only a loopback interface. This ensures that long-running services that do not require network access are cut off from the network.

For detailed information, refer to <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/PrivateDevicesAndPrivateNetwork>

#### 3\.8.3. Stateless Systems	{#systemd-stateless}

The [usrmove](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/UsrMove) Feature in Fedora 17 began a convention of distribution provided configurations residing in `/usr`, with overriding administrator provided configurations in `/etc`. The systemd project's stateless systems effort goes a step further, to ensure that a system can boot _without_ the configuration files in `/etc`.

This capabiity allows systems to be reset to a factory state, or various installation types to share a predictable base system. Read <http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/stateless.html> to learn about the potential of stateless systems.

Changes to `systemd` that enable stateless systems include:

* _systemd-sysusers_

    The `systemd-sysitems` utlity creates system users in `/etc/passwd` and system groups in `/etc/groups` based on declared entries in `/usr/lib/sysusers.d/`. This ensures that crucial accounts are available in early boot.

* _tmpfiles snippet for `/etc/filename`_

    `/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/etc.conf` rebuilds essential files in `/etc`, should they be missing. Notably, a symlink is created linking `/etc/os-release` to `/usr/lib/os-release`.

* _ConditionNeedsUpdate directive_

    Service units can conditionally run only when related files in `/etc` or `/var` are older than the correlating files in `/usr`

* _systemd presets_

    The new command **systemctl preset-all** applices service preset settings to all unit files. The equivalent operation if the system is booted with an empty `/etc`. Preset files for crucial services are provided with systemd in `/usr/lib/systemd/system-preset/`

## 4\. Changes in Fedora for Desktop Users	{#sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_Desktop}

### 4\.1. Desktop	{#sect-Desktop}

#### 4\.1.1. GNOME 3.14	{#desktop-GNOME}

* _Terminal Improvments_

    Developers and administrators alike use a lot of terminal sessions. A new search provider for gnome-shell makes navigating between multiple terminal windows quick and easy. Just type into the overview to match running processes, ssh sessions, and more.

    Users configuring their own profiles for gnome-terminal will welcome the return of background transparency.

### 4\.2. Networking	{#networking}

### 4\.3. Internationalization	{#i18n}

### 4\.4. Printing	{#idp12351200}

## A. Contributors	{#app-contributors}

A large number of people contribute to Fedora each release. Among these are a number of writers and translators who have prepared these release notes. The following pages list those contributors.

### A.1. Writers	{#subsect-writers}

_Fedora Documentation Project_

## B. Revision History	{#appe-Release_Notes-Revision_History}

|**Revision History**|
|Revision 21-01|Fri 29 August 2014|Fedora Docs|
||Cleared content for pre-release preparation||

## Index	{#appe-Release_Notes-index}

### B

Bug Reporting, [Welcome to Fedora](#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora)

### F

FAQ
:    Fedora, [Welcome to Fedora](#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora)

Fedora.next, [Fedora Products](#sect-Products)

### H

Help, [Welcome to Fedora](#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora)

### R

Reporting
:    Bug and Feature Request, [Welcome to Fedora](#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora)

### W

Wiki
:    Fedora, [Welcome to Fedora](#sect-Release_Notes-Welcome_to_Fedora)

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