Fedora 10 Installation Guide

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Fedora 10 Installation Guide
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Fedora 10, codenamed Cambridge, has been released! Fedora is an RPM based Linux Distribution, an Operating System in other words, developed by the community supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat. Officially it contains only free and Open Source software. Some of the new features it has come with are Gnome 2.24, KDE 4.1, RPM 4.6, a Faster Startup (Plimouth), Kernel Modes Setting for Graphics, First Aid Kit, better Webcam Support and many other.

If you haven't done already download Fedora dvd , install it and let's move on to our system's configuration part. I hope this guide will help you learn the basics of Fedora Linux!

Translated versions of this Guide

The first translation of this Guide is ready! And there are others to come! Thanks to all Fedora users who are willing to help me promote Fedora in other non-english speaking countries!

* Greek

Many thanks to gtroza, soturin, Αδμιν from http://www.insomnia.gr for translating this guide in Greek!
Fedora 10 Installation Guide (in Greek)

* Simplified Chinese

Many thanks to Charles Peng from http://pengjiayou.com/blog for his hard work on translating this guide!
Fedora 10 Installation Guide (in Chinese)

* Danish

Many thanks to xodeus from http://guide.xodeus.dk for translating this guide in Danish!
Fedora 10 Installation Guide (in Danish)

* Arabic

Many thanks to Ahmed Ibrahem Muhammed for translating this guide to Arabic and Muayyad AlSadi for helping with html issues.
Fedora 10 Installation Guide (in Arabic)

* Spanish

Many thanks to Dante Mendoza Ruelas for translating this guide to Spanish!
Fedora 10 Installation Guide (in Spanish)

** Note: I have noticed that my previous Fedora 9 guide has been copied by many other sites without a single reference to the original site, which was the disapointing part. Furthermore it has been translated to other languages again without a reference. So, if someone is interested on translating the following guide to another language I would be glad to host it here. Just contact me through Contact Us .

** Note: If you are unfamiliar with Linux console or if you want to learn more about Linux commands you can take a look at my Basic Linux Commands guide.

** Note: The text editor I've been using in this guide is GNOME's default, gedit. If you are using KDE you may use kate. Of course the terminal based text editor, nano, is always a nice choice for a terminal based editor!

** Note: Because of the many sites that are direct linking to my guide I face heavy traffic. If you wish to help me pay for the hosting and bandwidth you can make a donate. Thank you!

1. Upgrading from Fedora 7/8/9

**Note: It's always a good idea to back up all important data before upgrading.

Fedora is using Preupgrade to easily upgrade your installation to the new release by downloading the new packages through Internet without having to download and burn a cd/dvd. Preupgrade resolves all dependencies, downloads the needed packages, configures grub and finally asks the user just to reboot to complete the upgrade. Make sure that you have a fully updated system and after that install and run Preupgrade by typing:

su -c 'yum update'
yum install preupgrade
preupgrade
Select Fedora 10 and after a while you'll be asked to reboot in your upgraded Fedora 10 system!

If you were using the RPM Fusion Repository it should have been updated to the RPM Fusion repository by now. But if you haven't done so it will also be updated along with the whole system update.

2. Configuring sudo

**Note: In my previous Fedora 6 and 7 guides I've been using sudo for the commands that needed root access. However since many users don't want to add their user to the sudoers I've decided to change all the commands to the su -c 'command' way. If you want to type many commands as root it is better to type only the first time su - and give your root password. After that you become root until you type exit. Of course it's up to you to configure sudo or not.

* Modifying sudoers file

Normally if you want to run a command which requires root privileges you first have to type 'su -', type your root password and then type the command. However you can bypass this by using the 'sudo' command. But first you have to configure it like this:

su --login -c 'visudo'
Now go below the line:

root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
press a, and type the following

username ALL=(ALL)      ALL
where username is the username you use to login. Next press Escape.

Now, if you want to be prompted for your root password each time you use the sudo command go to this line:

# %wheel        ALL=(ALL)       ALL
and with your cursor pointing on # press x

If you don't want to be prompted for your root password each time you use the sudo command go to this line:

# %wheel        ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: ALL
and with your cursor pointing on # press x

Next, press :wq to save and exit. (type the : as well)

* Adding your user to the wheel group

Just type:

su -c 'gpasswd -a username wheel'

* Testing sudo

To test if you have done it correctly as a simple user type:

$ sudo whoami
If everything is working properly the command should return the word 'root'.

3. Configuring yum

* Basic Commands

Below there are the most common commands you will use for yum, Fedora's Package Management System. You can find a more detailed description of those along with some more commands if you type:

yum --help
man yum
    * Install an application

su -c 'yum install application_name'
    * Remove an application

su -c 'yum remove application_name'
    * Install an rpm from your hard disk using yum to resolve dependencies

su -c 'yum localinstall application_name'
    * Search for an application

su -c 'yum search application_name'
    * Find info about an application

su -c 'yum info application_name'
    * Update the whole system

su -c 'yum update'
    * Enable a repository

su -c 'yum --enablerepo=repo_name'
    * Disable a repository

su -c 'yum --disablerepo=repo_name'

* Importing Fedora GPG keys

Fedora has 2 basic repositories named 'fedora' and 'updates'. To use them and not get errors about unsigned packages you must import their GPG keys. Open a terminal and type:

su -c 'rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/*'

* Third party Repositories

* RPM Fusion

Fedora software repositories don't include support for MP3, DVD and Video playback/recording because of patent licenses. For this reason you have to install that software from third party repositories. But don't worry, this is pretty easy! ;)

Now we are going to install the RPM Fusion Repository. RPM Fusion is a merger of the Dribble, Freshrpms and RPM Fusion package repositories for Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A variety of applications is included in that repository such as codecs for mp3 and unencrypted DVDs, multimedia applications such as mplayer, VLX and xine and the closed source Nvidia and ATi video drivers! RPM Fusion has two main repositories:

one named "free" for Open Source Software (as defined by the Fedora Licensing Guidelines) which can't be included in Fedora because it might be patent encumbered in the US
one named "nonfree" for non-free software, that is everything else which can't be in free; this includes software with public available source-code that has "no commercial use"-like restrictions

For the rest of this guide I will assume that you have installed and enabled the RPM Fusion Repository. So, open a terminal and type:

su -
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum update
* Adobe

The Adobe repository provides flash and acrobat reader packages for the x86 Fedora. To install it type:

su -
rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/linux/i386/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
It will be automatically enabled.

* Google

Well, it has only picasa but for those who need it install it by typing:

su -
wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub rm linux_signing_key.pub
gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/google.repo
Depending on your architecture paste the following lines:

[google]
name=Google - i386
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[google64]
name=Google - x86_64
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

* Graphical Interface for yum

If you don't like typing commands in your console you can use Fedora's Graphical interface for yum. You can find it under System -> Administration -> Add/Remove Software.

You can also install yumex for this reason.

su -c 'yum install yumex'

* Configure yum through Proxy

If you are behind an http proxy server and you want yum to connect to the internet through that proxy open a terminal and type:

su -c 'gedit /etc/yum.conf'
Add this line in the yum configuration

proxy=http://ip:port/
where ip is your proxy's ip address and port is the port the proxy listens to. Don't forget the / after the port number. Save and exit.

* Yum plugins

* Fastest Mirror Plugin

Exactly what its name says. This plugin searches for the fastest mirror in your mirrorlist and downloads all packages from it. To install it type:

su -c 'yum install yum-fastestmirror'
Now, just use yum as usual. You can configure various settings of this plugin in the file:

su -c 'gedit /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/fastestmirror.conf'

* Security Plugin

This plugin allows you to search and install only security related updates. Very useful if you have Fedora installed on a Server production mode. To install it type:

su -c 'yum install yum-security'
To apply security plugins type:
su -c 'yum --security update'
For more information and additional options such as bugzilla updates and advisory information read its manual:
man yum-security

* Allowdowngrade Plugin

Yum by default doesn't allow you to downgrade a package. However sometimes a new package may cause you problems. In that case you can downgrade to the previous working version of the package with this plugin. To install it type:

su -c 'yum install yum-allowdowngrade'
To use it type:
su -c 'yum update --allow-downgrade'
You can disable this plugin by changing the option enabled in the file:

su -c 'gedit /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/allowdowngrade.conf'

* Presto Plugin

The presto plugin provides faster, smaller size downloads to Fedora users. It downloads only the part of the rpm that has been updated and not the whole package. Presto is scheduled to be officially included in the Fedora 11 release! To install it type:

su -c 'yum install yum-presto'
Then you must edit some .repo files. If you are using Fedora 10 64 bit sorry, but at this time I don't see any mirror with x86_64 packages.

su -c 'gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo'
comment the mirrorlist line by adding # in front of it and then paste this line:

baseurl=http://lesloueizeh.com/f10/i386/updates/

4. Configuring Services

You can easily select which services should run when you boot your system. To do so you can use Fedora's services configuration utility which can be found under System -> Administration -> Services.

For a detailed description on all services and daemons read my Fedora Services Guide .

5. Installing video drivers

**Note: To install many of the following packages you must have the RPM Fusion Repository enabled as described here .

* Installing nVidia driver

In order to have 3D support in Fedora 10 you must install the binary nvidia drivers. Just type:

For GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9 & 200 series cards

su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs'

For GeForce FX cards

su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs'

For GeForce 4 and below

su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-96xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-96xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-96xx-libs'

Reboot and you should see the Nvidia logo in your screen.

* Installing ATi driver

In order the fglrx driver for the ATi cards you must downgrade a few packages to their Fedora 9 versions. That's what Leigh123 from fedoraforum.org says. I don't have an ATi card so I can't really tell. For anyone interested here are his instructions.

1. Install driver

su -
rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install akmod-fglrx xorg-x11-drv-fglrx xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-libs.i386

Additional install instructions for 64 bit users only !

rm -f /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
ln -s /usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so /usr/lib/dri/fglrx_dri.so
ldconfig

2. Install system-config-display

su -
yum install system-config-display

run system-config-display and change *nothing*, but press "ok" to create an xorg.conf.

3. Edit xorg.conf

su -
aticonfig --initial -f
su -
gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then add these sections.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

also add these options to the device section

Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"

4. Backup old initrd

su -
mv /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img.backup
mkinitrd -v /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r` 5. Edit grub.conf

su
gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf

and add this "nopat" to the kernel arguments.

Optional (in case libdrm change breaks things due to relationship with KMS):
add "nomodeset" to end of kernel arguments

6. Reboot

due to the akmod, it is *absolutely necessary* to reboot after the install, otherwise the kernel module won't be compiled.

Reverse changes

In case you want to reverse the changes you 've made just type:
su -
rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-9.repo
rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora9.repo
sed -i -e 's|^exclude.*||' /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora*
yum clean all
yum update libdrm

6. Installing Microsoft fonts

Fedora uses Liberation and DejaVu fonts which are installed by default and look pretty smooth and nice, plus they are open source.

If you insist on using the Microsoft fonts you can download and install the msttcorefonts rpm like this.

wget http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/fedora10/msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.noarch.rpm
su -c 'rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.noarch.rpm'

I built it myself using the msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.spec from Fedora-devel mailing list which unlike msttcore-fonts-2.0-1.spec doesn't require installing the xfs server. Therefore is ideal for Fedora 8, 9 and 10. It includes Arial, Andale, Comic Sans, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Tahoma, Times, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Webdings fonts.

The procedure just in case you want to build it yourself is the following.

su -c 'yum install rpmdevtools rpm-build cabextract ttmkfdir'
rpmdev-setuptree
cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/
wget http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/fedora10/msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.spec
rpmbuild -bb msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.spec
cd ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/
su -c 'rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.noarch.rpm'
Now you can change your fonts through System -> Preferences Look and Feel -> Appearance -> Fonts

7. Configuring Nautilus

* Open each folder in the same window

Go to System -> Preferences -> Personal -> File Management and in the Behavior tab select the Always open in browser windows option.

Now you will use the File Browser to navigate through your folders.

* Open Terminal here

It's very useful to have an 'Open Terminal here' command to easily open a folder in terminal while you are browsing it in Nautilus. To do so type:

su -c 'yum install nautilus-open-terminal'
log out and then log in, right click in a Nautilus window and you'll see the command 'Open In Terminal'.

* Enable Num Lock on GNOME startup

su -c 'yum install numlockx'
su -c 'cp /etc/gdm/Init/Default /etc/gdm/Init/Default_backup'
su -c 'gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default'
And add the following lines at the end of the file before the exit 0.

if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then
/usr/bin/numlockx on
fi
Save and exit. Now restart X server and check if num lock light is on.

8. Configuring Firefox

* Acrobat Plugin

To be able to view pdf documents through Firefox you must have adobe acrobat reader installed as described here.

* Flash Plugin

Fedora 32bit

First you must install the adobe repository.

su -
rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/linux/i386/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
Now install it like this:

yum install flash-plugin
Finally restart Firefox and go to Tools -> Add-ons -> Plugins. You should Shockwave Flash among the plugins.

Fedora x86_64

Finally Adobe has released a 64bit version of Flash Player. Although this is still an alpha release it seems pretty stable. To give it a try Download 64-bit Plugin for Linux. Untar it and paste the library in the plugins directory of Firefox.

tar -zxf libflashplayer-10.0.d20.7.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
su -c 'mv libflashplayer.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins'
If you were previously using the nspluginwrapper with the 32bit version of Flash you first have to remove them:

su -c 'yum remove flash-plugin nspluginwrapper.{i386,x86_64} pulseaudio-libs.i386'
Restart Firefox and go to Tools -> Add-ons -> Plugins. You should Shockwave Flash among the plugins.

If you are not happy with this alpha version you can still use the 32bit flash like this:

You must install the nspluginwrapper.i386 and nspluginwrapper.x86_64 packages to enable the 32-bit Adobe Flash plugin in x86_64 Firefox and the pulseaudio-libs.i386 package to enable sound from the plugin.

Create the 32bit mozilla plugin directory using this command:

su -c 'mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins'
Install flash-plugin

su -c 'yum install flash-plugin'
Install the nspluginwrapper.i386, nspluginwrapper.x86_64, alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i386 packages:

su -c 'yum -y install nspluginwrapper.{i386,x86_64} alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i386 curl.i386'
Restart Firefox and go to Tools -> Add-ons -> Plugins. You should Shockwave Flash among the plugins.

If you don't see it run mozilla-plugin-config to register the flash plugin:

su -c 'mozilla-plugin-config -i -g -v' If Firefox crashes when you visit a page with flash type the following:

su -c 'gedit /etc/adobe/mms.cfg'and in that file paste the following line:

WindowlessDisable=trueSave and exit. Now try again with Firefox.

In some cases, nspluginwrapper produces SELinux AVC errors, some of which may prevent viewing Flash content. Changing the relevant SELinux boolean may resolve this problem, but eliminates a great deal of additional security when using nspluginwrapper. To make the change, run the following command:

su -c 'setsebool -P allow_unconfined_nsplugin_transition=0'

* Video Playback Plugin

Fedora 10 has totem-mozplugin preinstalled. Try to open a wmp video with Firefox. In case additional plugins are needed you will be just prompted to install them! That's just a great improvement!

However SELinux might cause you problems if you have it enabled. The good news are that it is also telling you exactly what command to type to solve this problem. I had to type the following commands to make a .wmp to be played in Firefox, but finally I made it!

su -
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libx264.so.61'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libavformat.so.52.22.1'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libavutil.so.49.10.0'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libavcodec.so.51.71.0'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libpostproc.so.51.2.0'

So, if SELinux complains click on the yellow star icon and copy the Fix Command it says. Type it in a terminal as root and restart Firefox.

* java Plugin

Fedora 10 comes with java icedtea plugin preinstalled. However you may face some problems when trying to run certain java applets. For more information check here .

You can always install JAVA SUN JRE .

* mms streaming play

In the address bar type:

about:config
Right click somewhere and select NEW and then STRING. Type this in the box:

network.protocol-handler.app.mms
Click ok and in the box type the program you want to open the streaming media with, such as /usr/bin/mplayer.

Next right click again and select NEW and then BOOLEAN. Type this in the box:

network.protocol-handler.external.mms
Click ok and then type:

true

* Set backspace button

By default in Fedora's Firefox when you press the backspace button it does nothing. If you want backspace to take you to the previous page type in the address bar:

about:config
and in Filter box type:

browser.backspace_action
Right click on it, select Modify and change its value from 2 to 0. Restart Firefox and the backspace will be set.

* IPv6

You might notice that your browsing through Firefox is a little slow on Fedora 10. This is because Firefox 3 has enabled by default IPv6 which causes Firefox to first resolve an IPv6 address and after the connection fails it switches to IPv4. To change this setting type:
about:config
and in Filter box type:

network.dns.disableIPv6
Right click on it, select Toggle and change its value to true. Restart Firefox and you are ready!

9. Configuring e-mail client

Fedora 10 has evolution as the default e-mail client. Of course you can install Thunderbird if you prefer it. Just type:

su -c 'yum install thunderbird'

Now you can find Thunderbird under Applications -> Internet -> Thunderbird Mail Client. To make it the default Fedora mail client go to System -> Preferences -> Personal -> Preferred Applications and under Mail Reader select Thunderbird Mail.

10. MP3 and Audio players

**Note: To install many of the following packages you must have the RPM Fusion Repository enabled.

The first time you will try to play an mp3 file Totem Movie Player will come up and it will ask you to search for the mp3 decoder. As long as you have enabled the RPM Fusion repo as mentioned before it will find it and install it automatically. Just like that! If you still want to do it the manuall way...! or install an additional application continue reading below.

* Rhythmbox

I believe that Rhythmbox is a better mp3 player than the default Totem for Gnome users. You can find it under Applications -> Sound & Video -> Rhythmbox Music Player. If you don't have it, to install it type:

su -c 'yum install gstreamer rhythmbox'
To make all mp3 files open by default with Rhytmbox right click on an mp3 file and select 'Open with Other Application...'. Click on Rhytmbox Music Player and you're done.

To add mp3 and other audio support type:

su -c 'yum install gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly'

* Amarok

amaroK is a pretty good audio/mp3 player for KDE. Of course you can install it under Gnome or any other Desktop Environment too. To install it and add mp3 support type:

su -c 'yum install amarok phonon-backend-gstreamer'

* Exaile

Exaile is similar to Amarok but it's based on GTK+ toolkit. Therefore it's a good solution for Gnome users! To install it type:

su -c 'yum install exaile gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly'

* Audacious

Audacious is another audio player similar to old winamp 2.x. To install it type:

su -c 'yum install audacious audacious-plugins audacious-plugins-freeworld audacious-plugins-freeworld-*'
If you want to use your winamp 2.x skin with audacious simply copy winamp's *.wsz skin to /usr/share/audacious/Skins/

If your tags are in a different encoding than utf8 you can force audacious to use it:

Preferences -> Playlist -> Metadata -> Fallback character encoding -> iso8859-7

If you want to add in queue mp3s when double clicked edit this file:

su -c 'gedit /usr/share/applications/fedora-audacious.desktop'
And change Exec=audacious to Exec=audacious -e

* XMMS

This audio player is no longer used, you could try audacious instead, but if you still want it type:

su -c 'yum install xmms xmms-libs xmms-mp3'

11. DVD & Video

**Note: To install many of the following packages you must have the RPM Fusion Repository enabled as described here . If you have most probably you will prompted to search automatically for the needed codecs. They will automatically installed. As simple as that!

* DVD playback

In order to play DVDs you must install the appropriate codecs.

su -c 'yum install libdvdread libdvdnav lsdvd'

Those files are enough for playing your non encrypted DVDs. However if you want to decrypt an encrypted DVD you need libdvdcss which isn't included in RPM Fusion because of legal issues in some countries such as the US. As mentioned in RPM Fusion .

Opinions between the members of RPM Ffusion differ on the legality of libdvdcss, however no one is ready to vouch for it resuming the legal responsibilities.

Therefore libdvdcss is being dropped. See also the comments on legal issues in the link above. So, we have to wait and see what solution they will come up with.

**Note: Livna could be a temporary solution.

su -
rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm
yum install libdvdcss

Most probably SELinux will report an AVC Denial. To fix this type:

su -
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libswscale.so.0.6.1'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/usr/lib/sse2/libpostproc.so.51.2.0'

* Video files playback

When you will try to open a video file with Totem media player it will ask you to search for the necessary codecs. They will be automatically installed! If you have previously set up mp3 playback additional packages would have been installed as dependencies. These packages include video codecs such as xvidcore, ffmpeg and other.

To check some of them type:

su -c 'yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-libs gstreamer-ffmpeg libmatroska xvidcore'

* Totem

Fedora 10 has installed Totem Movie Player. If you want to play DVD files also with totem type:

su -c 'yum install totem-xine totem-gstreamer xine-lib-extras-freeworld'

* Mplayer/SMPlayer

I prefer mplayer and smplayer (mplayer's GUI) for video playback. It supports almost any video type, external subtitles as well as DVD playback as long as you have the needed codecs installed as shown previously.

su -c 'yum install mplayer smplayer'
Open smplayer from Applications -> Sound & Video -> SMPlayer

* VLC

VLC (Video Lan Client) supports almost any video type without the need of installing external codecs.

su -c 'yum install vlc'

* kaffeine

kaffeine is another KDE media player that uses the xine engine.

su -c 'yum install kaffeine xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras-freeworld'

* RealPlayer

You can download RealPlayer rpm from here . Just choose to open it with the Package Installer.

* Avidemux

Avidemux is a very good video editor. Install it like this:

su -c 'yum install avidemux'
It will be listed in Applications -> Sound & Video -> Avidemux Video Editor.

12. IRC Clients

* Konversation

A Qt based IRC client for KDE users

su -c 'yum install konversation'

* xchat

A gtk+ based IRC client for GNOME users

su -c 'yum install xchat'
You will find it under Applications -> Internet -> IRC

13. MSN Messenger Clients

Use an Instant Messenger to communicate with your friends. Ok, you all know what Instant Messengers are. Aparth from those above you can also read my 6 Best Linux Instant Messengers tutorial.

* Empathy

Empathy is the default Instant Messenger of Fedora 10. It supports many different networks such as Jabber, Salut, Google Talk, AIM, Gadu Gadu, GroupWise, ICQ, MSN, QQ and Yahoo. It's in Applications -> Internet -> Empathy Instant Messenger. If it's not there install it by typing:

su -c 'yum install empathy empathy-libs'

* Pidgin

Pidgin was the default IM client of Fedora 9. If you like it better than empathy install it by typing:

su -c 'yum install pidgin'

* Kopete

Kopete is KDE's IM client. If you are a Gnome user it will download a lot of KDE packages and other utilities so be prepared. Install it by typing:

su -c 'yum install kdenetwork'

* aMSN

Another pretty good IM is amsn. It has plugin support also.

su -c 'yum install amsn amsn-plugins'
You will find it under Applications -> Internet -> aMSN

14. Author, Burn and BackUp CD/DVDs

* Sound-Juicer

Sound Juicer is a CD ripping tool. It supports flac, oga, mp3, wav and spx output formats. It is installed by default and you can find it under Applications -> Sound & Video -> Audio CD Extractor. If it's not there install it with:

su -c 'yum install sound-juicer'

* GnomeBaker

A CD/DVD burning utility for GNOME.

su -c 'yum install gnomebaker'
It's under Applications -> Sound & Video -> CD/DVD Writer GnomeBaker.

* k3b

Probably the best Linux CD/DVD burning program. It comes along with a lot of KDE dependencies if you are using GNOME.

su -c 'yum install k3b'
To enable all encoding features and programs for k3b type:

su -c 'yum install k3b-extras-freeworld vcdimager normalize transcode lame lame-libs'

* Brasero

Brasero is a CD/DVD disc authoring tool for the Gnome desktop.

su -c 'yum install brasero'

* k9copy

K9copy is the linux version of DVDshrink.

su -c 'yum install k9copy'
su -c 'yum install libdvdread libdvdnav lsdvd'

* DeVeDe

DeVeDe is a very good dvd authoring tool. It allows you to convert any type of video format to DVD so that you can watch it in any player you like.

su -c 'yum install devede'
For those who would like more info I have written a guide on How to create a custom DVD using DeVeDe .

15. Download managers

If you don't want to use Firefox's default download manager you can try the following download managers. In case you want to easily download rapidshare files with your Premium Account you can check my guide How to easily download RapidShare files in Linux .

* wxDownload Fast

wxDownload Fast (also known as wxDFast) is an open source multi-threaded download manager. This means that it can split a file into several pieces and download the pieces simultaneously

su -c 'yum install wxdfast'

* kget

This is KDE's default download manager. if you are using GNOME you will have to download a lot of dependencies and KDE libraries, so you'd better not use it.

su -c 'yum install kdenetwork'

16. PDF Readers

* evince

The default pdf viewer for Fedora is Evince. If it's not installed type:

su -c 'yum install evince evince-djvu evince-dvi'

* acrobatreader

First you must install the adobe repository.
su -
rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/linux/i386/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
rpm –import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
Now open a terminal and type:
su -c 'yum install AdobeReader_enu' enu stands for the English package. To search for other languages type:
su -c 'yum search AdobeReader'

17. Torrent Clients

* Transmission

Fedora 10 comes with Transmission as a default torrent client. You can find it under Applications -> Internet -> Transmission or in case you don't have it installed type:

su -c 'yum install transmission'

* KTorrent

ktorrent is an alternative torrent client for KDE users.

su -c 'yum install ktorrent'

* qBittorent

qBittorent is a featureful, lightweight torrent client based on QT4 toolkit. You must install an additional repository since it isn't included still in any of the other fedora repositories.

su -c
rpm -ivh http://www.dfm.uninsubria.it/compiz/fusion-testing/qbittorrent/10/i386/qbittorrent-release-1-1.noarch.rpm
yum install qbittorrent It has x86_64 packages also. Just type the same commands as above replacing i386 with x86_64.

* Bittorrent

You could also try bittorrent

su -c 'yum install bittorrent bittorrent-gui'

* Deluge

Deluge is a lightweight, Free Software, cross-platform BitTorrent client.

su -c 'yum install deluge'

* Azureus

Azureus is a powerful torrent meta-search with login support for private trackers. It's now called Vuze and has reached version 4. However in Fedora repositories you will find only Azureus version 3. Install it like this.

su -c 'yum install azureus'

18. Other Useful Applications

* unrar

su -c 'yum install unrar'

* FTP Client

Pretty good FTP client with ssh support.

su -c 'yum install gftp'
Another popular FTP, FTPS and SFTP client is Filezilla. su -c 'yum install filezilla'

* chm Reader

For GNOME users gtk based chm viewer

su -c 'yum install gnochm'

* eMule Client

su -c 'yum install amule'

* linuxdcpp

su -c 'yum install linuxdcpp'

* Partition Editor

For GNOME users gtk based partition manipulation program

su -c 'yum install gparted'
For KDE users Qt based partition manipulation program

su -c 'yum install qtparted'

* Google Earth

Go to this page http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html and download GoogleEarthLinux.bin. Next open a terminal and go to the folder you have saved it, ~/Download is the default. Install it by typing:

su -c 'sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin'

If you have SELinux enabled before you run Google Earth for the first time you should run the following commands or you will get many AVC Denial messages.

su -
restorecon -v '/var/log/gdm/:0-greeter.log'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libminizip.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/librender.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libauth.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libevll.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libflightsim.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libinput_plugin.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libgooglesearch.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libcollada.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libgps.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libmeasure.so'
chcon -t textrel_shlib_t '/opt/google-earth/libbasicingest.so'

Now you can find it under Applications -> Internet -> Google Earth. Notice that in order it to run ok you must have installed drivers for your video card.

If you want to uninstall Google Earth in Fedora Linux don't look among the add/delete programs because it wasn't installed using a .rpm package (the equivalent of .deb in Ubuntu). If you haven't changed the default install path of Google Earth you can find an uninstall script in /opt/google-earth. Just run it and Google Earth will be removed.

* gtkpod

A song management program for Apple's well know iPod.

su -c 'yum install gtkpod'
It'll be installed under Applications -> Sound & Video -> GtkPod

* Skype

You can just visit Skype's site and click on the Fedora 7 package. Select to open it with 'Package Installer (Default) and you are done.

Alternatively you can install the Skype repository. Open a terminal and type:

su -c 'gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo'
In that file copy the following lines:

[skype]
name=Skype Repository
baseurl=http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/fedora/updates/i586/
enabled=1
gpgkey=http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/rpm-public-key.asc
gpgcheck=0
Now you can easily install/update skype by typing:

su -c 'yum install skype'
su -c 'yum update skype'

19. Accessing Windows Partitions

Fedora 10 will auto detect the Windows Partitions (FAT32, NTFS) that you may have in your computer's hard disk and it will place an icon of them on the desktop. Moreover ntfs-3g is installed by default which means that you have read/write access in NTFS partitions also.

If you want to enable/disable write support for external and/or internal devices with only two clicks you can install ntfs-config.

su -c 'yum install ntfs-config'
You can find it in System -> Administration -> NTFS Configuration Tool

20. Accessing Windows Shares

If you want to access the shared files of a Windows box of you LAN through Linux and also to be able to view your videos and listen to your mp3 through your local network install smb4k like this:

su -c 'yum install smb4k'
If you have an iptables firewall running you must set Samba as a trusted service. Go to System -> Administration -> Firewall and in 'Trusted Services' find 'Samba', tick it and press 'Apply'.

**Note: If you get a message like:

mount error 1 = Operation not permitted
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)
open a terminal and type:

su -c 'chmod u+s /sbin/mount.cifs'
su -c 'chmod u+s /sbin/umount.cifs'
Each time you update smb4k or a samba component you have to run this command again.

21. Compiz-Fusion

Compiz Fusion is the 'cool cube' most of you have seen in a screenshot or video all over the Internet. Fedora 10 comes with a version of it that doesn't have all the features. You can take a look at it under System -> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Desktop Effects. But if you want to use all the effects, plugins etc. follow the instructions below.

Compiz requires direct rendering to work. To test if you have it type:

glxinfo | grep direct

If you see the message direct rendering: Yes you are ready to continue with the installation of the packages.

* Official Packages

The compiz-fusion packages found in Fedora repositories are a few versions back but they'll do their work. However, I suggest you to take a look in the unofficial packages below. To install them type:

For a Gnome compiz install

su -c 'yum install ccsm emerald-themes compizconfig-backend-gconf fusion-icon-gtk \
emerald compiz-fusion compiz-fusion-gnome libcompizconfig compiz-gnome \
compiz-bcop compiz compizconfig-python compiz-fusion-extras \
compiz-fusion-extras-gnome'

For a KDE compiz install

su -c 'yum install ccsm emerald-themes compizconfig-backend-kconfig fusion-icon-qt  \
emerald compiz-fusion  libcompizconfig compiz-bcop compiz compizconfig-python \
compiz-fusion-extras  compiz-kde compiz-manager'

For both Gnome and KDE compiz install

su -c 'yum install ccsm emerald-themes compizconfig-backend-kconfig \
compizconfig-backend-gconf fusion-icon* emerald compiz-fusion compiz-fusion-gnome \
libcompizconfig compiz-gnome compiz-bcop compiz compizconfig-python \
compiz-fusion-extras compiz-fusion-extras-gnome compiz-kde compiz-manager'

* Unofficial Packages

If you want the latest compiz-fusion packages you must install an additional repository. It is constantly updated.

su -
wget http://www.linux-ati-drivers.homecall.co.uk/compiz-fusion-release-1-6.noarch.rpm
rpm -Uvh compiz-fusion-release-1-6.noarch.rpm
rm -f compiz-fusion-release-1-6.noarch.rpm

For a Gnome compiz install

su -
yum erase *compiz*
yum install --noplugins install compiz-gnome fusion-icon-gtk \
compiz-bcop ccsm emerald-themes compizconfig-backend-gconf \
compiz-plugins-unsupported compiz-plugins-extra

For a KDE compiz install

su -
yum erase *compiz*
yum install --noplugins install compiz-kde fusion-icon-qt \
compiz-bcop ccsm emerald-themes compizconfig-backend-kconfig \
compiz-plugins-unsupported compiz-plugins-extra

For both KDE and gnome

su -
yum erase *compiz*
yum install --noplugins install compiz-kde compiz-gnome fusion-icon-all \
compiz-bcop ccsm emerald-themes compizconfig-backend-gconf \
compizconfig-backend-kconfig compiz-plugins-unsupported compiz-plugins-extra

If you are using the intel, nv, radeon or radeonhd drivers add the following lines in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the device section. This should help lag and cpu load.

Option          "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option          "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"

* Auto start

GNOME:

Go to System -> Preferences -> Personal -> Sessions and click Add. Then type:

Name: Fusion Icon
Command: fusion-icon
Comment: Compiz Fusion panel applet
KDE:

Open a terminal and type:

ln -s /usr/bin/fusion-icon ~/.kde/Autostart/fusion-icon

Logout and then back in. Now you should see a blue icon in your tray. Right click on it and go to Select Window Manager -> Compiz. You can leave the default Window Decorator or select emerald through Select Window Decorator -> Emerald. If you click on Settings Manager, ccsm will run and you can configure compiz fusion as you like. Enjoy!

22. KDE

* KDE Installation

KDE4 is another Desktop Environment based on plasma. If you haven't installed KDE during the Fedora installation process you can easily install it through yum like this:

su -c 'yum groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"'
When the installation completes log out, click on your username and from the session manager at the bottom choose KDE. Enter your password and Log In.

* KDE style in gtk applications

Some gtk applications don't look good in KDE. To force those applications use the qt style install qtk-qt-engine.

su -c 'yum install gtk-qt-engine'
Log out and then log back in and go to System Settings -> Appearance -> GTK Styles and Fonts and select to use your KDE style in GTK Applications.

* KDE Country Flags

If you have a multilanguage system and you want your country's flag to appear in the tray when you change from one language to the other download kblflags from www.kde-look.org and copy the flag you want as stated below (here I have installed the Greek and U.S.A. flag).

$ tar -xzf kbflags-1.0.tar.gz
$ sudo cp kbflags-1.0/21x14/gr.jpg /usr/share/locale/l10n/gr/flag.jpg
$ sudo cp kbflags-1.0/21x14/us.jpg /usr/share/locale/l10n/us/flag.jpg
Log out and then log back in and you should the flag in the tray. Of course you must have it enabled from System Settings -> Regional & Language -> Keyboard Layout -> Show country flag

23. JAVA

Fedora 10 comes with java from the OpenJDK project. It is very easy to install it through yum (if it hasn't already been installed) and it works just fine. Try it! If you still want to install the Sun Java go a few lines below.

* OpenJDK

su -c 'yum install java-*-openjdk'

* SUN's JAVA

First you must install some libraries needed by Sun' Java. Open a console and type:

su -c 'yum install compat-libstdc++-33 compat-libstdc++-296'
When the libraries are installed create the necessary links by typing:

su -c '/sbin/ldconfig'
Now click here to go to sun's java site. Click on the download button next to 'Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 10'.

**Note: If you also want to compile java programs using Sun's Java Development Kit Installation you must download the 'JDK 6 Update 10' file. Accept the agreement and download the Linux self-extracting file (not the RPM file). The procedure is the same as below. You only have to replace jre1 with jdk1 in the following commands.

Select your Platform (Linux for i386 Fedora or Linux x64 for Fedora x86_64). Notice that there is no 64bit Browser Java plugin at this time. Accept the agreement and press Continue.

**Note: The rest of the guide is based on the i586 package. If you have Fedora x86_64 installed you should download the Linux x64 file and replace the file names as necessary.

You must download the Linux self-extracting file (jre-6u10-linux-i586.bin) not the RPM.

Next open a terminal and go to the folder you have downloaded jre. Here it will be directory Download, Firefox's default download directory.

And type the following to install (when writing this guide 6u10 was the latest version, replace it with the file you have downloaded if it has changed):

su -
cd /home/yourusername/Download/ mv jre-6u10-linux-i586.bin /opt
cd /opt/
chmod a+x jre-6u10-linux-i586.bin
./jre-6u10-linux-i586.bin
Use spacebar to read the agreement. At the end type yes to proceed with the installation.

To make Firefox use the installed plugin type:

su -c 'yum remove java-*-openjdk-plugin'
su -c 'ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_10/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so'
Restart Firefox and type about:plugins in the address bar. If the plugins have successfully installed you should see Java(TM) Plug-in among the plugins.

Now, if you also want to run java programs using Sun's java type in a console:

su -
gedit /etc/profile.d/java.sh
In that file copy the following:

export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jre1.6.0_10
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
Save and exit. Next type:

source /etc/profile.d/java.sh
alternatives --config java
Here you should see something like this:

There are 2 programs which provide 'java'.
Selection     Command
-----------------------------------------------
*+ 1         /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java
     2         /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.5.0-gcj/bin/java

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

Check how many programs provide java and press Ctrl+C. Here I have 2 so in the next command I will use 3 at the end of the command. Increase by one the number of programs that you have.

alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.6.0_10/bin/java 3
alternatives --config java
Now you should get something like this:

There are 3 programs which provide 'java'.
Selection     Command
-----------------------------------------------
*+ 1         /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java
     2         /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.5.0-gcj/bin/java
     3         /opt/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:
Select the option you have entered e.g. 3. To test that you have correctly installed java type:

java -version
You should get something like that:

java version "1.6.0_10"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_10-b33)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 11.0-b15, mixed mode, sharing)
If at some time you update your Java installation simply remove the old one by typing:

su -c 'alternatives --remove java /opt/jre1.6.0_10/bin/java'
At any time you can easily change between OpenJDK, GCJ and Sun's JAVA either by running the command

su -c 'alternatives --config java'
To be able to easily use SUN's java plugin as well type:

# alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so \
libjavaplugin.so /opt/jre1.6.0_10/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so 2
alternatives --config libjavaplugin.so
Now you can choose whatever java version you want by typing the number in front of it.

24. Plymouth Graphical Boot

Plymouth is the new Graphical Boot of Fedora 10 which replaces the old RHGB. It requires kernel modesetting (KMS) support to work properly. KMS is currently supported on most ATI Radeon chips; anything from the Radeon 9500 and newer should work. Intel KMS support is in development, but is not yet supported. For all other graphics hardware, the text plugin is used. If you see only a scrolling bar when booting to Fedora you can try to force your Hardware into graphics mode without using KMS support. To do so reat below at the Graphical Boot Problem. However you could first try and change this theme to another one to see if it works without any changes to your grub.conf.

* Plymouth Themes

By default only the solar and text themes are installed. To add additional plymouth themes type:

su -
yum install plymouth-plugin-{fade-in,pulser,spinfinity} Now you can try any theme you want like this. Just replace pluginname with one of the following: solar, fade-in, pulser, spinfinity, text.

su -
plymouth-set-default-plugin pluginname
/usr/libexec/plymouth/plymouth-update-initrd After that just reboot your computer.

* Graphical Boot Problem

While booting in Fedora 10 you might have seen a blue scrolling bar loading instead of the grub's graphical boot screen. This has happened because of the modesetting option of the kernel that Fedora 10 uses. In order to see the graphical boot you must edit grub.conf and add a vga resolution to it. Here it is how:

su -
gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf Here you must add your framebuffer resolution at the end of the kernel line. Something like this:

title Fedora (2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686)
root (hd0,9)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 ro root=UUID=a61c8338-e373-4389-ae00-32942185f7c2 rhgb quiet vga=792
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686.img vga=792 stands for 1024x768 resolution with 24-bit colours. You can find the resolution you like from the table below.

Colours   640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
--------+---------------------------------------------
256     |   769     771      773      775       796
32,768  |   784     787      790      793       797
65,536  |   785     788      791      794       798
16.8M   |   786     789      792      795       799

If the resolution you want isn't among those open a terminal and type vbetest as root. You will see a list like this:

[352] 1280x800 (256 color palette)
[353] 1280x800 (8:8:8)

Add 512 to the number you see inside brackets. For example if you have a 24bit widescreen with 1280x800 resolution add vga=865 (512+353).

25. xorg.conf is missing

Many Fedora users complain that xorg.conf is missing in Fedora 10 and cannot find it in its usual location /etc/X11/xorg.conf to make some changes on their own. Well this is not bug, this is a feature of Fedora 10. But here is how to create xorg.conf if you really need it. As root open a terminal and type:

Xorg -configure :1
This will create a default xorg.conf in /root/xorg.conf.new which you can copy to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

If you are using Radeon or Nvidia drivers from rpmfusion repository alternatively type:

su -
yum install system-config-display
system-config-display
This script will automatically create an xorg.conf in its correct location.

I hope this guide was useful for all Fedora users, old and new ones! If you think there is something that should be added on this guide just leave me a comment below! Please do not use the comment function to ask for help! If you need help, please use our forum .

26. Enable GUI root login

Fedora 10 by default doesn't allow someone to login as root through GDM. Instead you have to login as a normal user and become root through your terminal. However many users still want to login as root. Although I don't approve this here is how to do it. Don't forget that once you login as root its easier to damage your system so don't do the following unless you are sure what you are doing.

Open a terminal and type:

su -c 'gedit /etc/pam.d/gdm'Here find the following line

auth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quietand comment it like this

#auth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quiet

Save the file and logout. Now you can login as root.

27. Fedora Books

I have received many emails asking me to advise for Fedora and Linux books. Here are some good books you can read and enhance your knownledge on Linux and Fedora. I hope you will find them useful!

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Comments (42)

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Preupgrade cannot work today!

your preupgrade paragraph doesn't mention which version of preupgrade you used.
As of today, Nov 26, the last official version of preupgrade for F9 is 0.9.3-3.fc9. Running preupgrade will not give you the possibility to choose F10.
We have to wait till a new release of preupgrade is available.

betsubetsu , November 27, 2008

...

Yes, you are right betsubetsu. However preupgrade a little time ago was updated to version 1.x and Fedora 10 upgrade is available! So, there is no problem now! smilies/wink.gif

axel , November 27, 2008

offline mode

not sure about other people but firefox in F9 and F10 is defaulted to offline mode for me. solved this by:
about :config in firefox and
toolkit.networkmanager.disable
browser.offline; false

not sure if this problem is common enough to warrant including this in the guide

genex , November 27, 2008

...

I searched google for the offline mode of Firefox and as far as I understood this is either a problem of Network Manager or a problem that occurred when upgrading Firefox from one version to another.

Thanks for the heads up genex. I think I might add this somewhere in the guide.

axel , November 27, 2008

Very Well.

Thanks for this guide.
Gracias!

sn.linux , November 27, 2008

...

Yes. Thank you very much for this nice guide

Tomek , November 28, 2008

bittorent

Azureus is another bittorent client. Tons of features and a bit bulky but I think its worth mentioning.

jjcf89 , November 29, 2008

...

Incredible guide! Thank you very much! I got my fglrx driver working too smilies/cool.gif

Streamreader , December 01, 2008

Non upgrading install CD

This is not really a request for help but an advisory for any one upgrading from F8 to F10.
I downloaded and attempted to use the install DVD to upgrade my F8 install. After a few complaints from the installer about my method of mounting partitions (I haven't been using disk labels just mount device) the updater went into upgrade without complaining. Ten minutes later wow that was fast please reboot. Ok so reboot where the hell did my home folder go. It seems there are still problems with the installed up grader. All the up grader does ruin your fstab file. As I'm waiting for the net install to complete (Yours as described here) I though Id just mention that problem.

Ray Ward , December 01, 2008

...

Hey Ray Ward. Thanks for the post. Well, it's not advised to update directly Fedora 8 to Fedora 10. It's best to go 8 -> 9 -> 10. I should have made this clear in the Upgrade part of the guide.

When you finish with the install tell us how if everything is working fine.

axel , December 01, 2008

Fedora 8 to 10 upgrade

Install completed although it did take rather a long time and so far I can report as successfull. Every thing seems to be working although I have not yet updated the Nvidia driver. I stopped Selinux as I found the constant messages about most things irritating. I havent finished browsing all your neat howto's yet but if the Selinux configuration is not there perhaps you will consider a Selinux repair/ base configure howto. I'm going to fix the "Graphical Boot Problem" now.

Regards
Ray

Ray Ward , December 01, 2008

Fedora 8 to 10

Things to look out for.
1) Nvidia drivers may not move from 8 to 10. It seems that the upgrade looks for packages in the 10 release to upgrade but if in doubt leaves the original or puts both packages in place. You may get OpenGL warnings and things like glxgears won't run, unable to switch on Beryl and games like Urban Terrror will refuse to run. I found quite a simple cure for this after googling around.
Yum list will probably show you still have F8 libs and drivers installed. Remove all the kmod packages for Nvidia and reinstall using yum install package where package is the latest Nvidia kmod package. This will install the correct drivers and libs. Make sure the xorg.conf file has Driver = "nvidia" and reboot.
2) You may find that there are a number of packages still on f8 that prevent updates. Uninstall them and reinstall from the f10 package list. I have to mention that Netpanzer 64bit is still not working correctly any body seen an F10 i386 version around?

I hope you find this of some use .

Regards
Ray

Ray Ward , December 02, 2008

...

I am glad you figured everything out with your update!

For Netpanzer, sorry I can't find any package for Fedora 10.

Regards,
axel

axel , December 02, 2008

...

Thank you very much for the guide! I used to configure my F9 with your previous guide, and I'm glad you're continuing with advising Fedora Users ;-)
Keep it up!
Regards
M

PS. I recommend Deluge as a torrent client, it's great and user friendly and fast.

M , December 02, 2008

...

Thank you jjcf89 and M. I have included Azureus and Deluge torrent clients in the guide.

axel , December 02, 2008

How to upgrade downgraded ATI drivers

Hi Axel! Many thanks for this guide. A lot of problems gone in an hour

Nevertheless, can you add an upgrade guide (after the downgrade guide), because now, it seems that Fedora team fixed problem with ati driver, but I don't know how to update libdrm and xorg packages to their previous state (e.g. state before downgrading).

Thanks.

Please, help!

Alexey , December 04, 2008

...

you missed "exaile" in music players
and brasero in cd/dvd burners

Cheers

asp1rin , December 06, 2008

...

Hey Alexey,

what is the fix that the Fedora team has come up to for the ATi driver? I can't find something. smilies/sad.gif

asp1rin

I will add both programs. Thanks.

axel , December 11, 2008

Excelent work!!!

Thanks for putting together such a nice document together that works.

praveen , December 14, 2008

Suggestions

Axel,

I'm back to Fedora after a long time using Ubuntu. Thank you for the awesome tutorial. I would like to suggest a few of additional topics you might want to cover, in case you find them helpful:

1) For laptops in general, a guide to enable the function keys (Fn) that control brightness, volume, etc. I, for one, have not figured how to get these to work in Fedora 10. Ubuntu 8.10 had them working out of the box.

2) For Thunderbird, integration with PGP using Gnu-PGP and Enigmail

3) Enabling PAE, for those with 4+ GB RAM

4) Setting up a latex environment using the TexLive packages

5) Setting up a development environment for Java: Eclipse and/or Netbeans and/or ...

Thanks for the great work!

Demian

Demian , December 21, 2008

...

Hi Demian,

I really liked your proposals! I will sure publish some guides for them. If you have any notes on those topics could you send me an e-mail with some info?

I don't have 4+ GB RAM and I haven't used latex as well (although I should smilies/tongue.gif

)

Regards,
axel

axel , December 22, 2008

asd

hi!
first of all, thanks for your excelent work! i used both this and fedora 9 guides to set up my system and almost everything went well smilies/cheesy.gif

anyaway, this time i had a problem.
i have an ati mobility x1400 card on a lg laptop wich worked good with f9, but with f10 after installing drivers, when I type glxgears or glxinfo or something similar, i get this error:

X Error of failed request: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation)
Major opcode of failed request: 143 (GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 19 (X_GLXQueryServerString)
Serial number of failed request: 14
Current serial number in output stream: 14

anyone had this problem or anyone knows what my problem is?

flpmorais , December 28, 2008

...

@ flpmorais,

You downgraded libdrm right? Do you have a 32bit or 64bit installation? Take a look again at the ati installation part of the guide. Rebuild initrd as mentioned there and reboot. This might solve your problem.

@ Alexey

I have included instructions on how to undo all changes made while downgrading libdrm.

axel , December 28, 2008

Brilliant!

Great guide Axel...pretty complete and easy to read. I'm a big fan and thanks for helping me get Fedora 10 up and running flawlessly and quickly. Ubuntu has been back-seated smilies/cool.gif

cheers,
Biogrrl

biogrrl , December 31, 2008

...

Heh, welcome to the Fedora community. smilies/cheesy.gif

axel , December 31, 2008

suspend problem with nVidia fixed

Hi,
I fixed the problem with Nvidia suspend
You should check this:
http://www.clasohm.com/blog/one-entry?entry_id=56860

konstantin , February 04, 2009

...

Thanks for the link Konstantin! I don't have a laptop at this time to check, but suspend/resume should work out of the box at some time.

axel , February 05, 2009

Java

This really helped me get Sun Java going, Thanks.......

The only thing I found is that with build 1.6.0_12-b04 the default directory for the firefox plugin is /usr/java not /opt.

I am no expert and It could just be something with my system but if it is the default now I just wanted to let you know.

Mike , March 05, 2009

...

Thanks for the info Mike. I will take a look and update the guide.

axel , March 06, 2009

firefox offline mode

In response to genex:
Firefox (and many other applications) use NetworkManager to get the state of the network connection. If you have a pppoe connection (like me) then NM doesn't know that you're online so it displays an offline message and the programs that rely on NM (including firefox) start in offline mode.
NM is good on laptops that use wireless networks.
My solution to this was to disable NM.

Thanks for the guide, it covers most of the things to be done when upgrading/installing FC10.

mirceamic , March 27, 2009

...

Thanks for your comment mirceamic.

axel , March 28, 2009

RollBack GDM to gain more ability.

I thought you may want to add this, especially for FC9/10 users who want FC8 GDM functionality again (themes, etc).
leigh, Administrator of fedoraforum posted this:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=193067
I'm currently running through what he posted, get back to you in a while when its done for verification.

EntityReborn , May 03, 2009

...

Yeah, one small freeze when selecting System-Tools/New Login, but other than that, all good!

EntityReborn , May 03, 2009

...

Thanks for the info EntityReborn. A lot of people are asking about themes in GDM so I am gonna add it to this guide. smilies/cheesy.gif

axel , May 04, 2009

...

No worries. One thing, there a downloadable version of this?

EntityReborn , May 15, 2009

...

A downloadable version of this guide you mean? Sorry, but no.

axel , May 16, 2009

unable to get graphic driver to work

i am using a laptop with Fedora 10 install.... totally new to linux system, i tried to get my graphic resolution & wireless network to work properly. I am having an ATI mobility Radeon 9700 gfx chip on a Pentium M 725 chipset (802.11 b/g).

Not knowing where to start, i tried to install anything and everything using the guide from the "unofficial fedora FAQ" website -> http://www.fedorafaq.org/#yumconf

Not too concern about the wireless connection at the moment as the gfx resolution is getting me crazy. It keeps giving me the following:

=> No package kmod-fglrx available.
=> No package xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-libs.i386 available.

even though i have followed the instructions to get the latest packages:

=> package livna-release-1:1-1.noarch is already installed
=> package rpmfusion-nonfree-release-11-1.noarch (which is newer than rpmfusion-nonfree-release-10-5.noarch) is already installed

and i got this when i tried to install : su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org...oarch.rpm'

=> rpmfusion-free-release >= 11 is needed by (installed) rpmfusion-nonfree-release-11-1.noarch

Thanks for taking time to help.

Calvin

Calvin , August 01, 2009

...

Hi Calvin. Try to uninstall the rpmfusion-nonfree package and then reinstall first the free and next the nonfree package.

su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org...noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org...oarch.rpm'

axel , August 06, 2009

Change the Background color of plymouth themes

how I can change the background color?

erick , December 03, 2009

...

Thanks for posting the Plymouth info, very useful.

Ben , December 05, 2009

...

erick,
I haven't tried it but here is a link on how to change plymouth boot splash image

Ben, thanks.

axel , December 05, 2009

gpk-application

Long time no Speak.
I have a question regarding the package manager gpk-application.
Some how I managed to spam the authentication dialogue for gpk-application so downloading packages or using the package installer no longer asks for the root password. I know that it is profile specific as I can use another login without any problems. I was wondering if you know where the config is stored.
I think changing the machine name whacked it.

Ray Ward , July 06, 2010

Daniusoft Media Converter Ultimate	286
Audio Terminator	239
Xilisoft DVD Ripper	229
VSO ConvertXtoDVD	214
ImTOO DVD Ripper Platinum	150
Wondershare iPad Video Converter	141

Fedora 10 Installation Guide

Translated versions of this Guide

* Greek

* Simplified Chinese

* Danish

* Arabic

* Spanish

Contents

1. Upgrading from Fedora 7/8/9

2. Configuring sudo

* Modifying sudoers file

* Adding your user to the wheel group

* Testing sudo

3. Configuring yum

* Basic Commands

* Importing Fedora GPG keys

* Third party Repositories

* Graphical Interface for yum

* Configure yum through Proxy

* Yum plugins

* Fastest Mirror Plugin

* Security Plugin

* Allowdowngrade Plugin

* Presto Plugin

4. Configuring Services

5. Installing video drivers

* Installing nVidia driver

* Installing ATi driver

6. Installing Microsoft fonts

7. Configuring Nautilus

* Open each folder in the same window

* Open Terminal here

* Enable Num Lock on GNOME startup

8. Configuring Firefox

* Acrobat Plugin

* Flash Plugin

Fedora 32bit

Fedora x86_64

* Video Playback Plugin

* java Plugin

* mms streaming play

* Set backspace button

* IPv6

9. Configuring e-mail client

10. MP3 and Audio players

* Rhythmbox

* Amarok

* Exaile

* Audacious

* XMMS

11. DVD & Video

* DVD playback

* Video files playback

* Totem

* Mplayer/SMPlayer

* VLC

* kaffeine

* RealPlayer

* Avidemux

12. IRC Clients

* Konversation

* xchat

13. MSN Messenger Clients

* Empathy

* Pidgin

* Kopete

* aMSN

14. Author, Burn and BackUp CD/DVDs

* Sound-Juicer

* GnomeBaker

* k3b

* Brasero

* k9copy

* DeVeDe

15. Download managers

* wxDownload Fast

* kget

16. PDF Readers

* evince

* acrobatreader