Nobara Linux

212133

June 25, 2023 Changelog:

NOBARA 38 RELEASED! New to Nobara: (also backported to Nobara 37 except AV1 and Davinci Resolve changes) —————————- /etc/profile:

– Davinci Resolve workaround: will detect if davinci resolve installer has been run from terminal, and after installation will prompt for user to run a wizard to perform additional actions. This wizard will perform the workaround required for Davinci Resolve to run (moving DR-shipped glib2 libraries to a backup folder): (https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=180116)

– payday 2 workaround: will detect if the native linux version of payday 2 is run, and if so will use the zink driver to run it, as the opengl implementation is currently broken, and the native version is no longer receiving official support. (https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/overkill-drops-linux-support-for-payday-2/) ()

udev rules:

– rule added so that 045e:028e “xbox 360” controller devices are forced to use the kernel xpad driver. this allows devices such as the gpd win max 2 and gpd win 4 (which report as this device for the controls) to retain controller support while still also allowing the optional xone/xpadneo driver to be installed when users need wireless dongle and/or better bluetooth support for xbox one controllers

– rules added to set specific io schedulers for different devices types:

nvme: “none” ssd: “mq-deadline” hdd/mechanical: “bfq”

– rules added to add rtc0 and hpet to the audio group for mitigating audio stutter/latency

gnome 44:

– variable refresh rate (vrr) patches updated/rebased and applied to mutter 44

obs/gstreamer:

– gstreamer 1.22 has been patched with av1 support (MR found here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gstreamer/-/merge_requests/3015) – obs-vaapi av1 support is now functional – AMF av1 support is now functional (still requires AMD pro encoder: https://nobaraproject.org/docs/obs-studio/enabling-amds-amf-encoder/)

llvm/mesa:

– mesa 23.1.3 built on llvm 15. We shipped using llvm 15 instead of Fedora’s current llvm 16 due to llvm 16 causing breakage in Team Fortress 2 (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/8847) – mesa patched to enable vaapi av1 encode support

Nobara Package Manager/yumex:

– now able to manage flatpaks – cleaned up packages that would previously show upgrades available if overridden (for example we ship llvm 15 and override the default, but the default llvm 16 would show as available to update) – ‘Update System’ button added for easy updating. Launches Nobara’s ‘Update System’ app.

Updates:

– ‘Update System’ app pinned in menu as the official way to update the system. Explanation here: https://nobaraproject.org/docs/upgrade-troubleshooting/how-do-i-update-the-system/

Blender:

– Blender has been patched so that it launches with WAYLAND_DISPLAY=””. This is because under wayland sometimes the menus can render incorrectly to where they are not easily clickable or navigatable. Running it with WAYLAND_DISPLAY=”” resolves the issue.

nautilus:

– Can now execute files and/or open folders as administrator within nautilis via right click menu

flatpak:

– fedora flatpak repos removed as they are largely unused. NOTE: If you are upgrading and you have flatpaks installed from the fedora repo you will need to remove them and reinstall them from the flathub repo. You can do this within Nobara Package Manager, GNOME Software, or KDE Discover.

– flathub flatpak repos are now the default and are also enabled for both system and users – workaround for recent user update crash added (https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree/issues/2900)

welcome:

– davinci resolve wizard added to nobara welcome app under optional steps

All other Fedora 38 package changes are included. —————————-

Why were the AV1 changes not backported?

– FFmpeg 6.0 is required. It has way too many other packages that depend on it that would need to be rebuilt and maintained. Nobara+Fedora 37 are still on FFmpeg 5. – Gstreamer 1.22 is required. Nobara+Fedora 37 ship with Gstreamer 1.20 which is not compatible with the av1 encoder merge request.

Why wasn’t the Davinci Resolve change backported?

– The Davinci Resolve issue was caused by an update in glib2 which removed a function that was called in the previous version by libpango. Since Nobara+Fedora 37 are still on the old version of glib2, the function still exists in that version, therefore they are not affected.

From here:

1. Will there ever be other Desktop Environment versions? – No. The ‘Official’ modified GNOME release layout was designed for myself and my father out of personal preference. GNOME and KDE are additionally shipped to appease most major users, and all 3 are shipped because they support VRR — variable refresh rate (aka freesync) on wayland, which is a long term goal for gaming on linux. Other DEs at this time do not support VRR.

2. Will you create a minimal install disk so we can install our own DE? – No. Our branding changes affect packages that other DEs pull in or require, and we will not be changing those packages to accommodate for DEs we don’t ship as ISOs. Additionally there are too many individual DE quirks/bugs/differences between them and we cannot support debugging all of them.

3. Will you create a network install? – No. There are no plans to create a minimal and/or network install.

4. Is there a torrent available for download? – No. We currently update the ISO way too often (sometimes multiple times in the same week) for a long-term torrent to be available.

5. I heard Nobara breaks SELinux, is this true? – No. We have completely swapped SELinux in favor of AppArmor (this is what Ubuntu and OpenSUSE use). We find AppArmor to be more user friendly, less intrusive, and easier to manage and write policies for. You will still see some SELinux packages installed which are required to keep Fedora compatibility and not break package dependencies, but SELinux is otherwise disabled.

6. Is Nobara compatible with SecureBoot? – No. Nobara ships with a kernel that has been custom patched and is built and hosted on COPR. Packages hosted on COPR repositories have no simple way of signing the kernel after it’s been built. Additionally The boot shim has to be signed by Microsoft, whom have several stipulations that need to be met including the fee: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/hardware-dev-center/updated-uefi-signing-requirements/ba-p/1062916. We are a hobby distribution that uses a custom kernel. We have no plans what so ever to work towards meeting the shim signing requirements, let alone any additional custom kernel requirements.

7. Can I upgrade from Fedora to Nobara using the Nobara repositories? – NO. This is a big large huge NO. The Nobara install ISOs have a ton of packages that get installed which are specific to Nobara, and not installed on Fedora on fresh install. When you try to upgrade from Fedora to Nobara by just using the Nobara repos none of those extra packages get installed. Additionally Nobara changes a lot of Fedora’s base packages and branding. Things WILL break. Fedora installations updated to Nobara using the Nobara repos are -NOT- supported. A clean installation is required.

8. I imagine normal updates are fine, but is there anything special going on with distro upgrades? When fedora 37 comes out will nobara 37 be available as well or is it delayed? – Delayed. In general I personally waited about 2 weeks after Fedora releases for any release bugs to be ironed out. Add that to the time it will take to convert Nobara packages to version 37 and you can expect about a month delay.

9. Is the kernel kept more up to date than fedoras kernel? Linux 5.19 improves performance greatly on my system, so will that be available when it becomes stable? – We use Fedora’s exact kernel version with our patches added to it, and release them usually as they come out or a few days later at the latest

10. Just how modified is Nobara aside from what I can see? A recent glibc update broke eac on many games, does gloriouseggroll have the capacity to delay this should it come to fedora? (Same with other things that may introduce new bugs/breakage). Essentially how close to base fedora is it and how much control does gloriouseggroll have? – Heavily. All of the packages we modify can be see in the fedora.repo package exclude list. We ship our own version of the fedora-repos package with a large exclude list of every package that both we and fedora provide so that they do not conflict. This allows us to keep our own packages version controlled while also letting Fedora’s packages automatically update as needed. If dependency discrepancies come up they are usually resolved within a day or two and/or documented in the Nobara docs section of the website -if- they need user intervention.

11. this project is quite new, is it going anywhere new? Is there anything to say it won’t just up stop development? Is it something that is recommendable to daily drive? (I am quite technical, and can troubleshoot my issues). – As long as I am alive and using linux this project will continue. It started because I needed something both myself and my father could easily use from clean install without time consuming troubleshooting or extra package and repo installation. As stated in the project goal — while some of us -do- have the technical adept to resolve issues, sometimes we just don’t have the time. Part of the goal is to keep those issues to a minimum.