Pidora FAQ

What is Pidora?

Pidora (Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix) is a software distribution based upon the Fedora ARM secondary architecture project, which in turn is a part of the Fedora Project. Pidora no longer contains software that can't be included in Fedora, though there are still reasons why it is unable to be in Fedora. Due to the lack of kernel support in the Fedora kernel and it was built separate from Fedora. See the Fedora wiki Remix page for information about Fedora Remixes.

The Remix was produced by the Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

How big is Pidora?

Pidora is:

• About half a gigabyte compressed with ZIP (as commonly distributed),
• About 310 MB compressed with xz, or
• About 1.75GB uncompressed.

...So it fits comfortably on a 2GB SD card with a few hundred MB available, though you will almost certainly want a larger card to leave more room for extra programs or for data. There is a lot of software available for Pidora that isn't in the initial card image -- you can add and remove software to get exactly the combination you want.

What's in Pidora?

The Pidora package set was selected to provide a good selection of packages for both graphical and non-graphical operation, while providing a manageable download size. Here are some highlights of the applications included in RPFR14:

• Desktop GUI environments
  • XFCE
• GUI applications
  • Abiword
  • Gedit with syntax highlighting and plugins (terminal, python console, file manager, etc)
  • Graphical file manager
  • Tools to add/remove and update software
  • System administration tools
• Command-line applications
  • Text editors: nano, nled, joe, vim
  • Yum to add/remove and update software
  • Midnight Commander for file management
  • System administration tools
• Programming languages
  • python2
  • python3
  • perl
  • bash
  • C
• System services
  • sshd - remote access
  • cron - scheduled tasks

Other software can be easily added or removed using the graphical or command-line (yum) tools.

Where's the app for ...?

There are thousands of software packages in the repositories, so it's probably there -- see the notes on adding and removing software.

If you don't find what you need, it might be hiding under a different name (search diligently, and ask the community!), or it might not work on ARM systems (yet), or it might not be packaged for Fedora. (You could consider packaging it for Fedora, or asking the community to package it for you.)

A compiler / library / tool that I want isn't included in the Pidora image. How do I get it?

This command will install a more complete development environment than we could provide in the Pidora image: yum groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"

Specific compilers, interpreters, tools, and libraries can be installed and removed with the yum command (or the graphical installation/removal tool).

In most cases, you'll want the -devel version of a library when developing software (for example, install ncurses-devel when developing software that uses the ncurses library).

What does the term "Fedora Remix" mean?

The term Fedora Remix has a special meaning within the Fedora Project: it denotes a custom distribution of packages from the Fedora Project, optionally including packages which cannot be included in the main Fedora distribution because of licensing or other issues. In the case of the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, the proprietary software provided by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the SOC vendor Broadcom cannot be included directly in Fedora.

In a practical sense, the Fedora Remix accesses software package repositories from the Fedora ARM project as well as a set of repositories specific to the Raspberry Pi, which are manged by Seneca. The Remix images are built from these repositories, and they are also accessed by yum for package update/installation/removal.

A Fedora Remix may use the Secondary Mark, a trademark for identifying remixes. We have obtained permission to modify the colour of the lozenge in the Secondary Mark to match the maroon colour in the Raspberry Pi logo.

What version of Fedora provided the packages for the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix?

Each Pidora release is numbered to match the corresponding Fedora release. Thus, Pidora 18 contains packages from Fedora 18.

What are the Future Plans for Pidora?

Pidora is maintained by the Open Source Technology for Emerging Platforms (OSTEP) project within the Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology (CDOT). We will produce and maintain releases corresponding to Fedora releases at least through Fedora 20.

Can I Remix Pidora?

Sure! That's part of the beauty of Open Source.

(Just be sure you respect all of the license terms applicable to the various packages, such as making the source code available, as well as the Secondary Mark requirements).

How/where can I get help with the Remix?

See Getting Help.

How can I get involved?

Getting involved in the Fedora ARM project

We'd love to have your help! See http://join.fedoraproject.org and the mailing lists and IRC channels listed under Raspberry_Pi_Fedora_Remix#Getting_Help Getting Help.

Reporting Bugs or Suggesting Enhancements

See Reporting Bugs and Suggesting Enhancements.